Protective custody camp management

The protective custody camp leader headed the - euphemistically named - protective custody camp department (also called prisoner camp ) in the National Socialist concentration camps . The members of the guards and their leaders were part of the SS-Totenkopfverband , also known as the Totenkopf SS .

The “Protective Custody Camp” department was one of the five departments (Department I: Kommandantur-Staff , Department II: Political Department , Department III: Protective Custody Camp , Department IV: Site Administration , Department V: Sanitary ) that performed various camp-related tasks in the concentration camps. As "Division III" it was a compulsory part of the command staff in the concentration camps. The head of the actual prisoner camp in the concentration camp was subordinate to the head of the protective custody camp. His immediate superior was the camp commandant , from whom he received orders and other instructions to which he was bound. In practice, however, the head of the protective custody camp had extensive powers in managing the prisoner camp. In addition to the organizational and practical management of the guards within the protective custody camp, he was responsible for monitoring and observing the camp regulations by the prisoners. He was responsible for applying for official camp penalties to the superordinate inspection of the concentration camps . On the part of the prisoner functionaries , the camp elder was directly subordinate to him.

Depending on the size of the concentration camp, there were up to four protective custody camp leaders who ran various camp sections next to each other. The First Protective Custody Camp Leader also acted as the camp commandant's deputy.

Organization in the main camp

Report leader

The report leader was directly subordinate to the protective custody camp leader. The official duties of the report leader were daily reporting of the prisoner numbers, management of the prisoner's office, division of duties of the block leaders, enforcement of the fixed camp penalties.

Block leader

The block leaders were present every day in the camp and held roll calls and assigned the prisoners in their barracks (block) to work details or individual tasks. They were responsible for the inmate blocks assigned to them and were supposed to keep them clean and tidy. In camp practice, they had extensive competencies. In some camps, they also assumed the position of command leader who monitored the work details assigned to them. On the part of the prisoner functionaries, the block elder was responsible to the block leader.

Labor Service Leader

The Labor Service Leader , later subordinated to a Labor Service Leader, was responsible for the organization and supervision of all inmates' work assignments. It was his responsibility to decide how many and which prisoners were assigned to the individual work details. From the beginning of the 1940s, the Labor Deployment Department was an independent department within the concentration camps, provided that considerable amounts of forced labor were performed there , especially for third-party companies.

Command leader

The command leaders were subordinate to the work leader. This was responsible for the work detachment assigned to him. On the part of the prisoner functionaries, the command leader was directly subordinate to the Kapo or foreman.

Organization in the sub-camp

The lead concentration camp was responsible for the bearing guide , which is also called Kommandofuhrer , warehouse manager or commander was designated.

In larger satellite camps, the first camp leader was the superior of the guards and was responsible for the administration of the camp.

His deputy - the second camp leader - was in more direct contact with the inmates and is often described as particularly cruel in the inmates' reports.

See also

• Post obligation
• SS entourage - term used by the SS, among other things, for the female guards and auxiliary personnel in the concentration camps (female guards)
• Concentration camp commander

literature

• Karin Orth : The concentration camp SS . dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-34085-1 .
• Wolfgang Kirstein: The concentration camp as an institution of total terror . The example of KL Natzweiler. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1992, ISBN 3-89085-649-7 .
• Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Vienna, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980, ISBN 3-54833014-2 .
• Eugen Kogon : The SS state . The system of the German concentration camps , Alber, Munich 1946, most recently: Heyne, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-02978-X .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Camp leader and deputy in the satellite camps. (PDF) Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, accessed on October 31, 2016 .