62. Nansen, Day, 545. See also Mess, “Sonnenschein,” 56.
63. BoA, testimony H. Frydman, August 7, 1946; Wagner, Produktion, 453; Nyiszli, Auschwitz, 66; Segev, Million, 158.
64. Transcript in Chamberlin and Feldman, Liberation, 42–45, p. 44. See also Frei and Kantsteiner, Holocaust, 201.
65. Some survivors expressed skepticism about the ability of historians to illuminate the camps, related (in part) to their belief that only survivors understand what the camps were really like; Waxman, Writing, 176–79; Cargas, “Interview,” 5; Debski, Battlefield, 62.
66. Friedländer, “Eine integrierte Geschichte”; idem, Nazi Germany, 1–2, quote on 1; Frei and Kantsteiner, Holocaust, 82.
67. This book includes a large number of direct quotations from prisoners and perpetrators. Many of these quotes come from contemporary documents. Others are taken from later sources, however, which poses methodological problems. On the one hand, few eyewitnesses were able to recall expressions they had heard months or years earlier with absolute precision. On the other hand, paraphrasing all such quotes would sacrifice immediacy; the tone and wording of orders, after all, was a crucial part of the SS strategy of domination. In the end, I have decided to use some “retrospective quotes,” but only if source criticism—analyzing the internal consistency of the document and comparing it against others—led me to conclude that the words quoted were likely to be a close approximation of what had been said.
68. For the estimate, see Kárný, “Waffen-SS,” 248 (referring to men only).
69. Quotes in Warmbold, Lagersprache, 302–303.
70. For a survey of recent research, see Roseman, “Beyond Conviction?”
71. Cited in Todorov, Facing, 123. See also Levi, “Preface to H. Langbein’s People in Auschwitz,” 1984, in Belpoliti, Levi, 78–81. For early scholarly criticism of the view of SS perpetrators as pathological aberrations, see Steiner, “SS”; Dicks, Licensed, especially page 237.
72. See also Langbein, Widerstand, 8.
73. Kautsky, Teufel, 226.
74. The term “Kapo” was widely used in the KL. It was already employed before World War II (Neurath, Gesellschaft, 210) and became even more popular during the war years. In the historical literature, the term is often applied in a narrow sense, to designate prisoners in charge of labor details. Drawing on the work of some survivors (Kupfer-Koberwitz, Tagebücher, 467; Kautsky, Teufel, 160) and historians (Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 15), I propose a wider definition here, applying the term to all prisoners who gained direct or indirect power over fellow inmates by taking over an official function inside the camp.
75. Quotes in Arendt, Origins, 455; Siedlecki et al., Auschwitz, 4 (first published in 1946). See also Armanski, Maschinen, 188; Langer, Holocaust Testimonies, ix, 162–63; Browning, Remembering, 297; Löw et al., Alltag.
76. Researchers working on the ongoing USHMM encyclopedia of camps and ghettos project have identified more than forty-two thousand separate sites; “The Holocaust just got more shocking,” New York Times, March 1, 2013. Occasionally, these other sites were mistaken for concentration camps. The Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto, for example, is frequently described as a concentration camp (for background, see Hájková, “Prisoner Society,” 14).
77. BArchK, All. Proz. 6/103, Bl. 16. For background, see Stangneth, Eichmann.
78. For the dispersal of documents, see Perz, KZ-Gedenkstätte, 39–42.
79. There are still no academic monographs on key programs of mass murder, such as Action 14f13 and Action 14f14 (see chapter 5). The same is true for some stages in the camps’ history, most notably the early war years (see chapter 4). In addition, we are lacking monographs on several main camps established for Jewish prisoners in occupied eastern Europe (see chapters 6 and 7). There is also little systematic work on the headquarters of the Camp SS during the war (see chapter 8) and its interaction with local camps. Similarly, the fate of some prisoner groups, such as criminals and asocials, continues to be widely ignored (see chapter 3).
80. Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 27. The three men who knew the most—Theodor Eicke, Richard Glücks, and Heinrich Himmler—were all dead by May 1945.
81. Winter, Winter, 53. See also Levi, Drowned, 6–7.
82. Levi, Drowned; Maršálek, Gusen, 33.
83. For the latter point, see Greiser, Todesmärsche, 141; Raim, Dachauer, 286; Erpel, “Trauma,” 127.
84. Schrade, Elf Jahre, especially pages 9–14, 32–33. Strikingly, Schrade ignores the treatment of criminals and asocials throughout his memoir.
85. This accounts for the relatively small number of memoirs by Soviet prisoners; Zarusky, “‘Russen,’” especially pages 105–107, 111. For one recent collection of memories, see Timofeeva, Nepobedimaja.
86. For data and documents produced by the Camp SS, see Kranebitter, “Zahlen,” 98–117; Grotum, Archiv, 236–44.
87. The material I consulted includes documents from the Special Archive in Moscow (via digital copies held at the USHMM), opened to Western scholars in the early 1990s. I have also used records from the Tracing Service of the Red Cross in Bad Arolsen, which had been inaccessible to historians between the 1970s and 2006–07. Finally, I draw on British decryptions of secret German radio messages, held at the National Archives in Kew and declassified from the late 1990s. Data-protection rules require some prisoner and perpetrator names to be anonymized.
88. OdT, vol. 1, 279–83; Blatter, Milton, Art, 136–225.
89. Didi-Huberman, Bilder; “Francesc Boix.”
90. Büge, KZ-Geheimnisse.
91. For diaries, see especially Laqueur, Schreiben. Thirty diaries survived in Bergen-Belsen alone, more than in any other KL; Rahe, “Einleitung,” 18–19. For notes written in camps, see Świebocki, Resistance.
92. For some examples, see Świebocki, London.
93. Friedländer, Jahre, 23–24. See also his comments in Frei and Kantsteiner, Holocaust, 85–86, 252.
94. Many KL historians give preference to early testimony; Shik, “Erfahrung,” 104–105; Buggeln, Arbeit, 536; Hayes, “Auschwitz,” 347. On later oral histories, see Jureit and Orth, Überlebensgeschichten, especially pages 185–86.
95. Langbein, Menschen, 334–35; Browning, Remembering, 233–36. For other examples, see ibid., 237; Mailänder Koslov, Gewalt, 361–70; Fulbrook, Small Town, 306. More generally on the unreliability of some memoirs, see Cziborra, KZ-Autobiografien, especially pages 70–75.
96. For example, see Semprun and Wiesel, Schweigen, 15, 19.
97. For the last point, see the testimonies of Soviet prisoners and German criminals at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials of the 1960s.
98. For methodological problems, see Orth, “Lagergesellschaft,” 117–18.
99. For exceptions, see Segev, Soldiers.
100. Orth, SS, 15. Particular care should be taken with testimonies before Soviet and East German courts; Eschebach, “‘Ich bin unschuldig’”; Pohl, “Sowjetische,” 138.
101. Karin Orth’s organizational history of the KL, for example, devotes only one-eighth of its text to the prewar period; Orth, System.
102. Caplan, “Detention,” 26.
103. See also Wachsmann and Goeschel, “Before Auschwitz,” 518.
104. Mommsen, “Cumulative Radicalization.”
1. Early Camps
1. Beimler, Mörderlager (first published in 1933), quotes on pages 56–57. For other detail, Zámečník, Dachau, 30 (n. 44); DaA, A-1281, “Aus dem Dachauer Konzentrationslager,” Amperbote, May 11, 1933; StAMü, StA 34453/1, Bl. 44–46: Zeugenvernehmung J. Hirsch, December 27, 1949 (my thanks to Chris Dillon for this and other references about Beimler); Dillon, “Dachau,” 234–35.
2. Quote in Beimler, Mörderlager, 10. See also Seubert, “‘Vierteljahr,’” 80.<
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3. Mühldorfer, Beimler, 78–114; Richardi, Schule, 7–8; Büro, Reichstagshandbuch 1932, 37; Herker-Beimler, Erinnerungen, 14, 26–27.
4. Quote in DaA, A-1281, “Aus dem Dachauer Konzentrationslager,” Amperbote, May 11, 1933. More generally, see Dillon, “Dachau,” 35–36, 51–53.
5. Quotes in StAMü, StA Nr. 34479/1, Bl. 93–97: Lebenslauf H. Steinbrenner, n.d. (c. late 1940s), Bl. 95; Beimler, Mörderlager, 28–29. See also ibid., 25–26, 31; DaA, 550, M. Grünwiedl, “Dachauer Gefangene erzählen,” summer 1934, 6. Around May 1, 1933, Beimler was transported from Dachau to a Munich hospital; regarded by doctors as a “malingerer,” he returned to Dachau on a police transport on May 4, 1933; DaA, 17.269, BPP, Betreff: Beimler Johann, May 1, 1933; ibid., 17.270, BPP, Vermerk, May 3, 1933.
6. StAMü, StA Nr. 34479/1, Bl. 93–97: Lebenslauf H. Steinbrenner, n.d. (c. late 1940s). More generally, see Evans, Coming, 159–60; Dillon, “Dachau,” 36–37, 55.
7. The exact circumstances of Beimler’s escape remain unclear (for an attempted reconstruction, Richardi, Schule, 14). The involvement of two SS men is mentioned by former guards and prisoners; StAMü, StA Nr. 34453/1, Bl. 44–46: Zeugenvernehmung J. Hirsch, December 27, 1949; ibid., Nr. 34465, Bl. 48–49: Zeugenvernehmung J. Nicolai, January 21, 1953; DaA, 550, M. Grünwiedl, “Dachauer Gefangene erzählen,” summer 1934, 6–7.
8. Quote in StAMü, StA Nr. 34453/1, Bl. 44–46: Zeugenvernehmung J. Hirsch, December 27, 1949. See also DaA, 550, M. Grünwiedl, “Dachauer Gefangene erzählen,” 6.
9. Quote in DaA, A-1281, “Aus dem Dachauer Konzentrationslager,” Amperbote, May 11, 1933. See also DaA, 550, M. Grünwiedl, “Dachauer Gefangene erzählen,” 6; Polizeifunknachrichten, May 10, 1933, in Michaelis and Schraepler, Ursachen, vol. 9, 364; Mühldorfer, Beimler, 123; Internationales Zentrum, Nazi-Bastille, 79.
10. For the quote by Nazi officials and further details, see PAdAA, Inland II A/B, R 99641, Bay. MdI to RdI, January 26, 1934. See also Mühldorfer, Beimler, 14–15, 125–29; DaA, A-1281, “28 Volksschädlinge verlieren deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit,” November 4, 1933; Richardi, Schule, 15–17; Drobisch and Wieland, System, 170–71; Beimler, Four Weeks. For Beimler’s postcard and quote, see interrogation Michael S., June 14, 1939, NCC, doc. 300.
11. Rubner, “Dachau,” 56–57; Dillon, “Dachau,” 154.
12. Verhandlungen des Reichstags (1938), quotes on 3. See also Domarus, Hitler, vol. 2, 664.
13. For example, see address by Himmler to the Staatsräte, March 5, 1936, NCC, doc. 78.
14. I am drawing here (and below) on Wachsmann and Goeschel, “Introduction.”
15. For the term, see Aly, “Wohlfühl-Diktatur.” More generally, see Gellately, “Social Outsiders,” 57–58. For a judicious rejoinder, see Eley, “Silent Majority?,” 553–61.
16. The dual thrust of the “national community” concept was emphasized early in Peukert, Inside, 209. More recently, see Wachsmann, “Policy,” 122–23.
17. More generally on 1918, see Mason, “Legacy.”
18. Quote in Broszat, “Konzentrationslager,” 328.
19. Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 87–88, 99, 616, 698–99. For political violence in Berlin, see also Swett, Neighbors.
20. On the appeal of the NSDAP, see the classic study by Allen, Seizure. See also Weisbrod, “Violence.”
21. For the Reichstag fire, see Hett, Burning, quote on 16 (my thanks to Ben Hett for sharing his manuscript). For older accounts, Kershaw, Hubris, 456–60, 731–32; Evans, Coming, 328–31.
22. For the lists, see Hett, Crossing, 178–79; idem, Burning, 35–36; Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 96–97. The Prussian police leadership had issued orders for immediate measures against Communists—including protective custody—on the afternoon of February 27, 1933, a few hours before the burning of the Reichstag (Hett, Burning, 36–37). This rather strengthens the likelihood that some Nazi officials were involved in the fire.
23. Hett, Crossing, 158–59, quote on 159. See also Mühsam, Leidensweg (first published in 1935), 24; Mühldorfer, Beimler, 86; Suhr, Ossietzky, 201. On Litten, see also Bergbauer et al., Denkmalsfigur.
24. VöB, March 2, 1933. See also Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 100.
25. For this and the previous paragraph, see Longerich, Bataillone, 165–79; Schneider, “Verfolgt”; Mayer-von Götz, Terror, 51–56, 62, 80–81, 118; Hett, Burning, 16, 155; Browder, Enforcers, 39, 77; Roth, “Folterstätten,” 9–10; Helbing, “Amtsgerichtsgefängnis,” 250–52. On Köpenick, see also Hördler, SA-Terror.
26. Quotes in Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 52; Bracher, Diktatur, 229.
27. For this process, see Kershaw, “Working.” More generally on Nazi governance, see idem, Dictatorship.
28. Quote in GStA PK, I. HA Rep. 84a, Nr. 3736, Göring to Oberpräsidenten et al., February 22, 1933. See also Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 45–53; Gruchmann, Justiz, 320–21; Allen, Seizure, 157.
29. Graf, “Genesis”; Browder, Enforcers, 30–31, 78; Gellately, Backing, 17–18.
30. Quote in “Der neue Geist im Münchner Polizeipräsidium,” VöB, March 15, 1933. For other senior Nazis holding police powers, see Wilhelm, Polizei, 39.
31. Wachsmann, “Dynamics,” 18.
32. Lüerßen, “‘Wir,’” 161, 467–71; Knop et al., “Häftlinge,” 55; Baganz, Erziehung, 119–21; Krause-Vilmar, Breitenau, 49, 55, 65; Kienle, “Heuberg,” 48–50; Mayer-von Götz, Terror, 92–95; Roth, “Folterstätten,” 5; Evans, Coming, 334. Compared to the blanket arrests of Communists, the Nazi authorities were more selective when it came to the detention of Social Democrats and union officials, often concentrating on more senior figures.
33. Caplan, “Gender,” 88; Kienle, “Gotteszell”; Mayer-von Götz, Terror, 102–103.
34. Herker-Beimler, Erinnerungen, 17, 21. See also Distel, “Schatten.”
35. Average daily inmate numbers in German penal institutions increased from c. sixty-three thousand (1932) to c. ninety-five thousand (1933), though not all the new prisoners were political opponents; Wachsmann, Prisons, 69, 392–93.
36. BArchB, NS 19/4014, Bl. 158–204: Rede des Reichsführers SS vor Generälen der Wehrmacht, June 21, 1944, Bl. 170.
37. Quote in Fraenkel, Dual State, 3. The so-called Reichstag Fire Decree is reprinted in Hirsch et al., Recht, 89–90. For the decree, Raithel and Strenge, “Reichstagsbrandverordnung.” For extralegal detention before 1933, Caplan, “Political Detention,” 26–28.
38. Drobisch and Wieland, System, 37–38, 104–105, 136; BArchB, R 43 II/398, Bl. 92: Übersicht Schutzhaft, n.d.; Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 103, 107.
39. For some detail, see Drobisch and Wieland, System, 29, 31–36.
40. SA Gruppenführer Schmid to MPr Siebert, July 1, 1933, NCC, doc. 11. For confusing detention practices, see also Baganz, Erziehung, 69–73.
41. I use the term “early camp”—introduced by Karin Orth (System, 23–26)—in the most comprehensive way, to cover all places of extralegal detention, from SA torture chambers to protective custody wings in prisons. For an attempt to construct a typology of early Nazi camps, see Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 42–45. For a critical assessment, see Wachsmann and Goeschel, “Introduction,” xv.
42. For these terms, see Baganz, Erziehung, 58–61.
43. Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 107; Gruchmann, Justiz, 573.
44. For this point, see also Caplan, “Political Detention,” 30.
45. Ayaß, Breitenau, 14, 244, 250–51; Caplan, “Political Detention,” 22, 29–30; OdT, vol. 2, 160–68.
46. Wachsmann, “Dynamics,” 19; Baganz, Erziehung, 81–82; Drobisch and Wieland, System, 31, 45. In 1932, the average monthly number of adult inmates in Bavarian prisons and penitentiaries (excluding county jails) stood at
4,493; BayHStA, MJu 22663.
47. Herker-Beimler, Erinnerungen, 17–21; OdT, vol. 2, 169–70; Moore, “Popular Opinion,” 68. For other institutions holding female protective custody prisoners in 1933, see Riebe, “Frauen,” 125–27.
48. For cells in the Aichach prison, see StAMü, Strafanstalt Aichach Nr. 27, Letter, Margarete J., September 3, 1933.
49. LBIJMB, MF 425, L. Bendix, “Konzentrationslager Deutschland,” 1937–38, vol. 1, 5–18. See also Bendix, Berlin. For other examples, see Kienle, “Gotteszell,” 69–70; Krause-Vilmar, Breitenau, 118–19.
50. LBIJMB, MF 425, Bendix, “Konzentrationslager Deutschland,” 1937–38, vol. 1, quotes on p. 8. See also Wachsmann, Prisons, 187; Mayer-von Götz, Terror, 60.
51. OdT, vol. 2, 212–13; Wisskirchen, “Schutzhaft,” 139–41, 145–47; Rudorff, “Schutzhaft.”
52. Wachsmann, Prisons, 172–73.
53. L. Pappenheim to District President Kassel, March 31, 1933, in Krause-Vilmar, Breitenau, 73. At the time, the German-Jewish SPD politician Ludwig Pappenheim was held in “protective custody” in Schmalkalden jail. He was murdered on January 4, 1934, by SA guards in Neusustrum early camp; ibid., 191–203.
54. Compare, for example, the violence Hans Litten suffered in the early camp Sonnenburg in April 1933 to his much milder treatment in Spandau prison a few weeks later; Hett, Crossing, 171–73.
55. For one example, see Roth, “Folterstätten,” 14. More generally, see Wachsmann, Prisons, 59–61; Schilde, “Tempelhofer,” 66.
56. Address by M. Lahts, September 4, 1933, NCC, doc. 13; Diercks, “Fuhlsbüttel.” On paper, the Fuhlsbüttel camp came under the legal authorities until December 1933, when it was subordinated to the local police in all but economic matters (ibid., 273–74, 307). See also Guckenheimer, “Gefängnisarbeit,” 112; Klee, Personenlexikon, 301.
57. Quotes in excerpts from secret notes by F. Solmitz, September 13–18, 1933, NCC, doc. 29. See also USHMM, RG-11.001M.20, reel 91, 1367–2–33, Bl. 2–3: Berichte aus Hamburg, n.d.; Jürgens, Solmitz; Diercks, “Fuhlsbüttel,” 290; Drobisch and Wieland, System, 128.
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