Abstract

This article provides an overview of the forms of communication used by the German press after the Nazi seizure of power to describe the newly introduced concentration camps. It analyses a varied sample of «independent» German newspapers which were not part of the National Socialist press, highlighting the linguistic and narrative patterns used in different types of publications at different key moments in 1933. The author, differing from the traditional view on Gleichschaltung, argues that the extensively developed web of newspapers in the Weimar Republic helped the National Socialists adapt their messages to various social groups, making it possible to use the camps as a threat for the working class and, simultaneously, as a tool to achieve consensus among the middle class.