A battlefield of ideas: Nazi concentration camps and their Polish prisoners

This study analyzes and comments upon several scholarly views on Nazi concentration camps. Some of these views are based on comparatively limited data. They cannot encompass, of course, the full reality of the camps. One of them, disputed here, states that all prisoners were passive victims, human clay in the hands of their jailers. I propose to look at the camps as a battlefield of ideas, a place where the traditional culture of the prisoners and the new ideology of the Nazis fought each other.;I attempt to describe the prisoners, and the complex battlefield of the camps. The portrayal of marry sides of camp life follows. The study examines two leading opinions about the prisoners, contrary to each other: first that the prisoners were egoists, and second that they were altruists.;The study pays special attention to Polish prisoners and their behavior. I refer to their historical and cultural background to explain many of their attitudes and draw on their testimonies to describe the struggle. Another important source for this thesis is the extensive work of Polish scholars (marry of them survivors of the camps), almost unknown in the West.;The main conclusion: marry survivors struggled to resist Nazis and considered themselves victorious in this fight of ideas. The second conclusion: it is necessary to translate numerous important books and articles from the languages of Eastern Europe into English, enabling the western scholars to study them.