They would not have been killed in the streets by the Germans. They sent them to the camps so they wouldn't have to personally deal with the nasty business of ending another's life. It is an absolute fact that in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia post WWII the Soviet forces first had the locals register their weapons, then confiscated them and then announced that these fine republics were now part of the Soviet Empire. An unarmed populace has no defense against the tyranny of the state. Geo. Washington said it himself that if you are unprepared to fight a war you cannot have real peace. I say the same applies to the rights of the individual. Were it not for the second amendment I am quite sure we would have gone down the same path as the Europeans and the Australians. "Where the people fear the government there is tyranny and where the government fears the people there is liberty" - Thomas Jefferson
Here's some further food for thought...
http://www.gunowners.org/fs9402.htm