Roll call area (concentration camp)
The parade ground was in the concentration camps of the central square in the inmate area where morning and evening the count (appeal) held the prisoners.
Roll call
In the morning the roll call ran first, then the Kapos gave the order to form the work details, and the groups left the square.
The inmates returned to the camp for lunch. If guards had discovered in the meantime that a sleeping place or a locker in the barracks was untidy - or was deliberately messed up - then the prisoner concerned was not given any food and had to restore order instead. The prisoners had to clean the barracks after every meal. Then there was a short roll call in some camps.
The evening roll call usually lasted longer until all prisoners were back from work. Depending on the number of prisoners and the size of the camp, it lasted about an hour. In the event of complications (attempted escape, etc.), the evening roll call could last several hours. After the evening roll call, food was distributed.
The undivided
In the camps there were the so-called undivided . These were prisoners who were temporarily not assigned to a permanent work detachment. The SS they pulled up when needed to accumulating opportunity tasks. They were assigned to deliver meals to the barracks around noon and in the evening. The filled kettles weighed around 65 to 70 kilograms.
If the food was spilled, for example by stumbling, the inmate was accused of robbing his fellow inmates of their food. Otherwise they had to stand at attention on the roll call square and wait, or march under the command of a prison functionary and drill in step. The drill exercises included running in the inmates' wooden shoes, lying down and rolling, squats and other physical exercises.
In winter, with frosty temperatures, the drill exercises were more bearable than standing motionless on the roll call square.
In 1940 the SS laid out a shoe test track on the Sachsenhausen concentration camp roll call area . Inmates had to march up to 40 km a day to test shoe sole material.
Penalty
If a prisoner was missing from the roll call or if he had even managed to escape, the remaining prisoners had to be punished . In 1939, inmate Louis Nochig managed to escape from the Dachau camp, and all inmates were punished in the icy night, resulting in deaths.
The punishment of whole groups for the "wrongdoing" of a single prisoner led to increased mutual controls. This and the use of prison functionaries enabled the SS to use relatively little SS guards.
Very weak prisoners, such as " Muselmen ", found it extremely difficult to face the penalty. The SS also used the penalties to select so-called unfit for work .
Selections
The selection of prisoners who were labeled as incapable of work was mostly done on the roll call square, the goal was to be transported to killing sites. In Dachau, for example, this was done by camp doctors and Kapo Heiden .
literature
- Stanislav Zámečník : (Ed. Comité International de Dachau ): That was Dachau . Luxembourg 2002, ISBN 2-87996-948-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Propagandist report on the early roll call
- ↑ Zámečník: That was Dachau , 2002. pp. 142–143.
- ↑ Kuper-Koberwitz: Die Mächtigen , Volume 1. S. 100.
- ↑ The prisoner barracks had to be kept extremely clean. For this reason, they were not allowed to be entered during the day, and when it was raining heavily, the room elder sometimes allowed them to stay in the anteroom of the barrack.