My grandmother is German and grew up during WWII, they were aware of camps but only knew them as internment camps. They saw the prisoners out in the fields working in the next town over from her and she said they never looked mistreated. When the Americans invaded her town they put up signs explaining what had “happened” at the camps and nobody believed it. It took a good amount of time for the people to bend the knee and go along with it.
I've been trying to tell people: "Internment Camp" "Worker Camp" even "Concentration Camp" were at the time politically correct, "nice" sounding terms.
They did not have the connotation of "Prison Camp" that they have now, and there was a common acceptance that they were necessary. It wasn't until after the fact that people realized that allowing the government to round people up for any reason is a bad idea.
My grandmother is German and grew up during WWII, they were aware of camps but only knew them as internment camps. They saw the prisoners out in the fields working in the next town over from her and she said they never looked mistreated. When the Americans invaded her town they put up signs explaining what had “happened” at the camps and nobody believed it. It took a good amount of time for the people to bend the knee and go along with it.
I've been trying to tell people: "Internment Camp" "Worker Camp" even "Concentration Camp" were at the time politically correct, "nice" sounding terms.
They did not have the connotation of "Prison Camp" that they have now, and there was a common acceptance that they were necessary. It wasn't until after the fact that people realized that allowing the government to round people up for any reason is a bad idea.