One early method was to round up large numbers of Jews and line them up before a ditch, then machine-gun them. But this approach cost valuable ammunition. To avoid the inconvenience of these chaotic massacres, the Nazis formulated the so-called "Final Solution" in 1942. All of Europe's Jews were to be sent by train to camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. There they would be killed by gas inhalation. To avoid disorder, no murders were to be committed in or near the cities where the victims had lived. Deportation to these camps was referred to as "resettlement," a deceptive term, and the trains were called "Special Resettlement Trains." The Jews would perish either in specially designed gas vans, where they asphyxiated from exhaust inhalation, or in gas chambers at the camps.
Concentration and extermination camps. Altogether about seven thousand camps of various kinds imprisoned people against their will during World War II. The concentration camps, erected as early as 1933, were originally labor camps for political opponents of the Nazi regime. The camps imprisoned communists, Gypsies, and Jews, who toiled under abominable conditions under the watchful eye of camp authorities. Select prisoners, called Kapos (presumably from caput, Latin for "head"-capo in Italian), some of whom were sadistic criminals, helped maintain order.
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