Personnel in the Majdanek concentration camp
The staff in the Majdanek concentration camp worked in the Majdanek concentration or extermination / death camp at the time of National Socialism . The division of personnel for all concentration camps was given by the SS inspection of the concentration camps (IKL). In Majdanek there were five departments that performed different warehouse-related tasks. However, the structure of the concentration camp in terms of its departments was based on the size of the concentration camp. Thus, not all concentration camps had this compilation of departments listed for the Majdanek concentration camp.
Scope and composition of the warehouse staff
At the end of 1943, the camp staff comprised 1,258 people, including 261 members of the camp commandant's office, 881 of the guards, 19 female guards and 97 guards from Lithuania. In the so-called guards were mostly ethnic German from Romania and Yugoslavia used, known only to a fifth of German nationals . Most of these men were younger than 40 years of age, from the traditional occupations of agricultural workers or laborers, and were assigned to the Waffen SS in Majdanek immediately after their draft .
Department I: Headquarters
The commandant's office was the highest authority, the camp commandant was in command of all SS personnel. The post censorship office was also here. The adjutants acted to support the camp commanders .
Camp commanders
| Camp commandant | time |
|---|---|
| Karl Otto Koch | September 1941 to August 1942 |
| Max Koegel | August 1942 to November 1942 |
| Hermann Florstedt | November 1942 to October 1943 |
| Martin Gottfried Weiss | November 1943 to May 1944 |
| Arthur Liebehenschel | May 1944 to July 1944 |
Adjutants
| Adjutants | time |
|---|---|
| Herbert Hänel | September 1941 to July 1942 |
| Werner Karl Kurt Berlingshof | July 1942 to December 1942 |
| Alfred Hermann Heinrich | January 1943 to May 1943 |
| Karl Friedrich Höcker | May 1943 to May 1944 |
| Rudolf Walter | May 1944 to July 1944 |
Department II: Political Department (Camp Gestapo)
The tasks of the Political Department essentially comprised the fight against the camp resistance movement, the prevention of escapes and contact with the outside world, the preparation and administration of prisoner files as well as the correspondence with the Gestapo, the criminal police and the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).
Head of the Political Department
| Surname | time |
|---|---|
| Georg Lühr | until December 1941 |
| Otto Willi Kloppmann | January 1943 to July 1944 |
Department III: Management of protective custody camps
The head of the protective custody camp management was also the commandant's deputy. As a rule, he conducted official correspondence with superordinate and subordinate departments. Report leaders, block leaders and command leaders were subordinate to him. They guarded the forced labor inside the camp and in the external detachments and sub-camps. They had authority over functionaries and inmates.
| Surname | function | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Hermann Hackmann | Protective custody camp leader | August 1941 to September 1942 |
| Sebastian Wimmer | Protective custody camp leader | October 1942 to February 1943 |
| Anton Thumann | Protective custody camp leader | February 1943 to March 1944 |
| Ernst Kostial | Protective custody camp leader | April 1944 to July 1944 |
| Arnold Strippel | Deputy Protective Custody Camp Leader | October 1941 to June 1943 |
| Else Ehrich | Superintendent | October 1942 to mid-1944 |
| Hermione Braunsteiner-Ryan | Report leader and deputy supervisor | October 1942 to January 1944 |
Other personnel in the protective custody camp management department in the Majdanek concentration camp: Hertha Ehlert , Hildegard Brille , Emil Laurich , Luise Danz , Alice Orlowski .
Department IV: Administration (SS site administration)
At the head was the SS administrator . Department IV regulated the supply of clothing and food. The confiscated property of the inmates was administered here. The crematorium command, which was also responsible for removing the gold teeth from dead inmates, was also under this department.
Head of site administration
| Surname | Period |
|---|---|
| Heinrich Worster | September 1941 to June 1944 |
| Hermann Michl | June 1944 to July 1944 |
Management of the crematoria
| Surname | Period |
|---|---|
| Erich Mußfeldt | June 1942 to June 1944 |
Other staff in the site administration department in the Majdanek concentration camp: Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert
Department V: Medical Services (on-site doctor)
Department V ( medical services ) included the concentration camp doctors and SS medical ranks from the infirmary. After the murder of prisoners, the camp and SS on-site doctor issued death certificates with a natural cause of death. He arranged for the dead to be cremated in the camp's own crematorium. For SS personnel, the troop doctor was often also the local site doctor. In Majdanek, SS ranks were also involved in the gassing of prisoners.
Camp doctors
| Surname | function | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Franz von Bodmann | Camp doctor | August 1942 to April 1943 |
| Dr. Max Blancke | 1. Camp doctor | April 1943 to July 1944 |
| Dr. Waldemar Hoven | Camp doctor | 1942 to early 1943 |
| Dr. Max Popiersch | 1. Camp doctor | October 1941 to April 1942 |
| Dr. Heinrich beef | Site doctor | From March 1943 |
| Dr. Alfred Trzebinski | Camp doctor | September 1941 to February 1943 |
Other staff in the medical services department in Majdanek concentration camp:
- Troop doctor: Heinrich Schmidt
- SS medical ranks: Anton Endres , Hans Perschon
- Kapos: Ludwig Benden, August jewelry
Department VI: Culture Department
The cultural department was responsible for looking after the troops. Training evenings and film screenings should shape the worldview of the warehouse staff.
| Surname | Period |
|---|---|
| August Langerbein | March 1942 to 1943 |
| Erich Bruno Willi Müller | 1943 to March 1944 |
Guard company at Majdanek concentration camp
The troops formed the actual guards of the concentration camp. The guard company was responsible for the external security of the concentration camp, and was partly also deployed inside the concentration camp.
Commander of the guards
| Surname | function | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Walter Adolf Langleist | Commander of the guards | April 1942 to August 1943 |
| Martin Melzer | Commander of the guards | August 1943 to July 1944 |
literature
- Elissa Mailänder Koslov: Violence in everyday work: The SS guards of the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp 1942–1944 , ISBN 3-86854-212-4 , dissertation, 520 pages with 20 illustrations, Hamburg edition, 2009. Interview (approx. 6 minutes ) with the author on Deutschlandfunk, studio time, from cultural and social sciences , broadcast on October 8, 2009 [1] .
- Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 7: Niederhagen / Wewelsburg, Lublin-Majdanek, Arbeitsdorf, Herzogenbusch (Vught), Bergen-Belsen, Mittelbau-Dora. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-52967-2 .
- Karin Orth : The concentration camp SS. dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-34085-1 .
- Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. Pendo Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-85842-450-1
- Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .
- Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider, Irmgard Nöbauer, Winfried R. Garscha, Siegfried Sanwald, Adrzej Selerowicz (eds.): The Lublin-Majdanek concentration camp and the justice system. Law enforcement and denial of justice: Poland, Germany and Austria in comparison . Graz 2011, ISBN 978-3-902542-26-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Tomasz Kranz: Lublin-Majdanek - main camp. In: Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel (eds.): The Place of Terror - History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps , Volume 7, p. 43 ff.