KPD, communists, socialists, trade unionists, leftists released from death camps ?

[DavidFrankenberg]

Hi,

I know Jews were condemned to death. They were not freed from the concentration camps.

But what about German leftists jailed by Hitler ?

They were supposed to be aryans, germans... good blood, so following the hitlerian ideology, if they stopped being communists, they should be able to reintegrate the national community ?

Do we know if and how many leftists were freed from the camps ?

[David Thompson]

An off-topic post from CogCalgary was removed.

[wm]

Concentration and death camps were two entirely different things. They shouldn't be confused with each other.

Till 1939 the German concentration camps were quite benign; Dachau recorded 11 deaths in 1936 - during the war, more died per day there.
They were basically large and brutal prisons where criminals and political prisoners spent some time and were released (although not all, of course).
There were no Jews among them, with the exception of political prisoners and Jewish criminals.
Thousands of Jews were imprisoned there post-Kristallnacht, but they were released weeks later.

Since the start of the war release of political prisoners was suspended till the end of the war. But still, some were released, including Poles and even Jews.