KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

by Nikolaus Wachsmann

    23. Quote in Broszat, Kommandant, 204.

    24. For an LK conference, see BArchB, NS 4/Na 103, Bl. 57: Glücks to LK, September 7, 1940. For informal get-togethers, StAAu, StA Augsburg, KS 22/50, Vernehmung I. Koch, April 29, 1949, p. 11.

    25. From 1940, protective custody orders were completed by regional Gestapo offices, rather than centrally in Berlin; Wildt, Generation, 348.

    26. For example, see BArchB, NS 3/425, Bl. 56: Glücks to LK, February 3, 1942; Heiber, Reichsführer!, docs. 109a, 184, 227; Longerich, Himmler, 511.

    27. Moors and Pfeiffer, Taschenkalender, 172–73, 229, 232, 244, 325, 330, 366, 394; Schulte, “Konzentrationslager,” 144.

    28. Kárný, “Waffen-SS,” 248; Kaienburg, Wirtschaftskomplex, 82.

    29. IfZ, Fa 127/3, Bl. 418: SS-Hauptamt to TS et al., September 2, 1939; Kaienburg, Wirtschaftskomplex, 210.

    30. Broszat, Kommandant, 104–105.

    31. Das Schwarze Korps, December 21, 1939, in Overesch et al., Dritte Reich, CD-Rom, doc. 220.

    32. Wegner, Soldaten, 124–29; Buchheim, “SS,” 178; Tuchel, “Wachmannschaften,” 139; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 190. Even the private letters of Camp SS officials were officially classified as field post, as if they were fighting at the front.

    33. Buchheim, “SS,” 178; idem, “Befehl,” 269; Kaienburg, Wirtschaftskomplex, 73, 80–81, 210. See also IfZ, Fa 127/1, Bl. 165–70: T. Eicke, Einberufung der Verstärkung der TS, August 30, 1939; Tuchel, “Wachmannschaften,” 138–40, 144–45.

    34. Poller, Arztschreiber, 208.

    35. Riedle, Angehörigen, 75; IfZ, F 13/6, Bl. 369–82: R. Höss, “Theodor Eicke,” November 1946, Bl. 380; Kaienburg, Wirtschaftskomplex, 178–79.

    36. Poller, Arztschreiber, 210. See also Gostner, 1000 Tage, 137–38.

    37. Quote in Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 175.

    38. Quotes in BArchB, NS 31/372, Bl. 116: Glücks to TS, January 22, 1940. See also BArchB, R 187/598, Erklärung E. Hinz, September 6, 1940.

    39. For example, see BArchB, NS 4/Na 9, Bl. 88–89: KB, September 5, 1941.

    40. Mailänder Koslov, Gewalt, 140; Browning, “One Day,” 179.

    41. K. Heimann to Herr Dostert, November 22, 1939, in Schnabel, Macht, 158, 165.

    42. BArchB, NS 4/Bu 33, Sonderbefehl, August 31, 1939.

    43. Ibid., KB, Nr. 130, November 22, 1939; ibid., KB, Nr. 128, November 9, 1939.

    44. Ibid., KB, Nr. 124, October 20, 1939. See also ibid., Sonderbefehl, August 31, 1939.

    45. Ibid., KB, Nr. 128, November 9, 1939.

    46. Ibid., KB, Nr. 124, October 20, 1939; ibid., KB, Nr. 128, November 9, 1939.

    47. Ibid., KB, Nr. 128, November 9, 1939; ibid., Sonderbefehl, August 31, 1939.

    48. Ibid., KB, Nr. 130, November 22, 1939. For Koch’s use of informants, see BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Morgen, Konrad, 8.6.1909, Bl. 854–64: Ermittlungsergebnis, December 5, 1943.

    49. BArchB, NS 4/Bu 33, KB, Nr. 128, November 9, 1939. See also ibid., KB, Nr. 126, October 31, 1939.

    50. LG Bonn, Urteil, February 6, 1959, JNV, vol. 15, 600–601.

    51. For this and the previous paragraphs, see HLSL, Anklageschrift gegen Koch und andere, 1944, ND: NO-2366; BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Morgen, Konrad, 8.6.1909, Bl. 854–64: Ermittlungsergebnis, December 5, 1943. See also Kogon, SS-Staat (1947), 268–69; Stein and Stein, Buchenwald, 52–55. For Pister, see Orth, SS, 191–97.

    52. Koch became commandant of Majdanek (see below).

    53. Wachsmann, Prisons, 192–94.

    54. Cited in Domarus, Hitler, vol. 3, 1316.

    55. Wildt, Generation, passim.

    56. Tuchel and Schattenfroh, Zentrale, 125–30; Röll, Sozialdemokraten, 124–34.

    57. In Buchenwald, around one in seven political prisoners in the early war years was classified as a “recidivist”; OdT, vol. 3, 313.

    58. Quotes in IfZ, Dc 17.02, Bl. 136: RKPA to Kripoleitstellen, July 7, 1939; ibid., Bl. 147: RdI to Landesregierungen et al., September 12, 1939; ibid., Bl. 157: RSHA to Kripoleitstellen, October 18, 1939. See also Wagner, Volksgemeinschaft, 333–34.

    59. Wagner, Volksgemeinschaft, 333.

    60. IfZ, Dc 17.02, Bl. 143: RKPA to Kripoleitstellen, September 7, 1939.

    61. Zámečník, Dachau, 116; Sládek, “Standrecht,” 327; Jochmann, Monologe, 197.

    62. Van Dam and Giordano, KZ-Verbrechen, quote on 215–16; OdT, vol. 3, 34–35; Pingel, Häftlinge, 100, 267. Despite this brutality, Czech prisoners initially received some privileges, probably on racial grounds; most important, they were not forced to work.

    63. Ruppert, “Spanier”; Landauer, “Spanienkämpfer”; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 111–13.

    64. Borodziej, Geschichte, 191–201; Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, vol. 3, 323–36.

    65. Longerich, Politik, 251–92.

    66. Rossino, Hitler, 21–22. A few months later, Oswald Pohl expected forty thousand Polish prisoners working inside Germany; Niederschrift über die Besprechung beim Reichsstatthalter am 23.1.1940, in Johe, Neuengamme, 52–53.

    67. August, “Sonderaktion,” 7.

    68. Broszat, “Konzentrationslager,” 404; BArchB, R 58/825, Bl. 1–2: Amtschefbesprechung am 7.9.1939; Külow, “Jüdische Häftlinge,” 180.

    69. Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 67–95. See also Wachsmann, Prisons, 205–206.

    70. Quote in AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 75. See also Kosmala, “Häftlinge,” 96; Zámečník, Dachau, 172–73; Escher, “Geistliche,” 302–303; Eisenblätter, “Grundlinien,” 173.

    71. By August 1940, around one-third of all Sachsenhausen prisoners were Polish (AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. [1945–46], 112). In Neuengamme, Poles even outstripped Germans by spring 1941 (Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 155).

    72. Quote in Buber-Neumann, Dictators, 209. See also Strebel, Ravensbrück, 139.

    73. BArchB, NS 19/4004, Bl. 278–351: Rede bei der SS Gruppenführerbesprechung, November 8, 1938, Bl. 293.

    74. IfZ, Heißmeyer, Vorschlag für endgültige Standortfestlegung, n.d. (November 1939), ND: NO-1995.

    75. Quote in BArchB, NS 19/1919, Bl. 4–5: Himmler to Hildebrandt, December 1939. See also ibid., Bl. 1: Glücks to Wolff, December 16, 1939; ibid., Bl. 10: Himmler to Heißmeyer, January 15, 1940; IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 42: Himmler to Heydrich, Glücks, February 26, 1940. See also Orth, System, 68–69.

    76. Quote in BArchB, Film 14429, Glücks to Himmler, January 30, 1940.

    77. Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 26–28, 66–78; Dwork and Van Pelt, Auschwitz, 17–65; BArchB, NS 19/1919, Bl. 25–27: Glücks to Himmler, February 21, 1940; IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 46: Heißmeyer to Himmler, January 25, 1940.

    78. Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 28, 68–69. The area was not entirely unused (as has been suggested). In February 1940, a building company of the German army was still stationed there; BArchB, NS 19/1919, Bl. 25–27: Glücks to Himmler, February 21, 1940.

    79. Steinbacher, Auschwitz, 22–23. See also USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 32, 502-1-192, Neubauleitung Auschwitz to Hauptamt Haushalt u. Bauten, June 7, 1941; ibid., Erläuterungsbericht, November 19, 1940. The decision for Auschwitz was welcome news for the German police in Kattowitz, which had lobbied for a camp to ease the overcrowding in local jails and prisons; Konieczny, “Bemerkungen.”

    80. Strzelecka, “Polen,” 21–24; Wildt, Generation, 483–84.

    81. Quote in Kielar, Anus Mundi, 17. See also Strzelecka, “Polen,” 11, 26–27; Lasik, “Organizational,” 199–200.

    82. Broszat, Kommandant, 135–36, 268–69, quote on 141. See also Orth, SS, 177; Rees, Auschwitz, 48.

    83. For a critical SS assessment, see USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 34, 502-1-218, Erläuterungsbericht, August 11, 1941.

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p;   84. Czech, Kalendarium, 68; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 63–67.

    85. Schulte, “London,” 220–26 (Auschwitz figure for January 6, 1942). The Mauthausen complex (including Gusen) held well over fifteen thousand prisoners; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 126.

    86. Among the Polish prisoners were some Jews arrested for infractions of the myriad Nazi rules; Fulbrook, Small Town, 164–65, 171–72, 217–18.

    87. I am not including the Hinzert camp here. This camp, initially set up to discipline German workers at the Westwall (the line of fortifications on Germany’s western border built from May 1938), had quickly gravitated toward the orbit of the KL system. It was designated an SS Special Camp in October 1939, and Himmler placed it under the control of the IKL in July 1940; the guards became members of the Death’s Head SS and more foreign political prisoners arrived. But while it resembled the other KL in some respects, Hinzert—a small regional camp, holding some eight hundred prisoners on average—never fully became one. As a result of its special status, it was often excluded from the correspondence between IKL and KL. See OdT, vol. 5, 17–42; Orth, System, 94–95.

    88. Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 152–56, quote on 153; Schulte, “Konzentrationslager,” 146.

    89. Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 44–46, 88–89, 100–103; Konieczny, “Groß-Rosen,” 309–12; Moors and Pfeiffer, Taschenkalender, 366.

    90. Steegmann, Struthof, 44–45, 323. See also BArchB, NS 4/Na 9, Bl. 75–76: KB, April 28, 1941. Natzweiler had not operated as a Sachsenhausen satellite camp from August 1940 (cf. Orth, System, 85).

    91. BArchB, NS 3/1346, Bl. 56–76: DESt Geschäftsbericht 1940, Bl. 71; Steegmann, Struthof, 64 (2,428 prisoners on December 31, 1943).

    92. John-Stucke, “Niederhagen.” After the Niederhagen main camp closed, a few dozen prisoners stayed behind as part of a Buchenwald satellite commando. See also Schulte, SS; idem, “London,” 224.

    93. Three main KL (Gross-Rosen, Neuengamme, Niederhagen) had started out as satellite camps of Sachsenhausen, and the other two (Auschwitz and Natzweiler) had close links, too.

    94. Tuchel, Konzentrationslager, 197–99; 389–90. The new commandant in Neuengamme, Eisfeld, was in a similar position to Rödl; Broszat, Kommandant, 132, 261; Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 152–53.

    95. At first, prisoners arrived in the new camps via more established ones. Neuengamme only became an Einweisungslager (receiving prisoners directly from the police) in late 1940, Gross-Rosen in early 1941, Natzweiler in August 1942; Kaienburg, Neuengamme, 155; idem, “Funktionswandel,” 259; Konieczny, “Groß-Rosen,” 312; Orth, System, 85.

    96. Quote in Hitler order, June 25, 1940, in Dülffer et al., Hitlers Städte, 36 (according to Speer, the order was signed on June 28, and backdated). For this and the previous paragraph, Speer to Reichsschatzmeister, February 19, 1941, in ibid., 64–79; ibid., 22–24; Speer, Erinnerungen, 185–88; Kershaw, Nemesis, 299–300; Van der Vat, Nazi, 94–95.

    97. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 763, 768. See also BArchB, NS 3/1346, Bl. 56–76: DESt Geschäftsbericht 1940, Bl. 73.

    98. Ansprache an das Offizierskorps der Leibstandarte-SS, September 7, 1940, IMT, vol. 29, 98–110, quote on 108, ND: 1919–PS.

    99. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 26–27; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 176–78.

  100. Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 159–67.

  101. BArchB, NS 4/Bu 31, Bl. 13: IKL to LK, April 19, 1941; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 27.

  102. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 857–78; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 125–31.

  103. Seidl, “Himmel”; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 771–92.

  104. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 840–55. See also BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Höss, Rudolf, 25.11.1900, Glücks to Wander, January 14, 1941.

  105. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 37–73; Hayes, Industry, xii–xvi, 347–54; Schmaltz, “IG Farbenindustrie.” Wagner and Hayes disagree about the significance of the ready availability of KL labor for the decision by IG Farben to build its nearby factory.

  106. BArchB, NS 3/1346, Bl. 56–76: DESt Geschäftsbericht 1940; Moors and Pfeiffer, Taschenkalender, 173, 229, 232, 325, 366; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 660; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 248; Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 165.

  107. Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 97–112, 149–56, 190–99.

  108. BArchB, NS 3/1346, Bl. 56–76: DESt Geschäftsbericht 1940; Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 41–44, 88–89; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 695–96, 715–18; Jaskot, Architecture, 69–70; Moors and Pfeiffer, Taschenkalender, 330.

  109. BArchB, NS 3/1346, Bl. 56–76: DESt Geschäftsbericht 1940; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 616, 626, 635, 660, 664, 671, 727–45; Maršálek, Gusen, 3–5. The Lungitz brick works were also attached to Gusen.

  110. Quote in BArchB, NS 4/Na 103, Bl. 58: “Ein Weg zur Freiheit,” n.d. (1940). See also ibid., Bl. 57: Glücks to LK, September 7, 1940; ibid., NS 3/1346, Bl. 56–76: DESt Geschäftsbericht 1940, Bl. 60.

  111. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 672, 1060.

  112. The creation of the DAW, for example, promised a financial windfall; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 858, 867–70.

  113. StANü, Chef Amt D II, Häftlingssätze, February 24, 1944, ND: NO-576. See also Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 117–19.

  114. BArchB, NS 3/1346, Bl. 56–76: DESt Geschäftsbericht 1940; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 633, 681; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 440; Allen, Business, 85–86.

  115. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 613, 637; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 119; Fabréguet, Mauthausen, 272–73.

  116. Quotes in Levi, If, 95–96.

  117. Quotes in Marszałek, Majdanek, 105; Caplan, “Gender,” 95. Muselmann was a common German word for Muslim, widely used in the nineteenth century (Herders Conversations-Lexikon [1809–11], in Directmedia, Lexika, 51214; Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon [1857–65], ibid., 212659). There are different theories as to why this term was applied to the living dead in the KL; Wesołowska, Wörter, 115–21. For the term Muselweiber, ibid., 120; Kremer, “Tagebuch,” 219.

  118. Ryn and Kłodziński, “Grenze.”

  119. On postwar representations, see Körte, “Stummer Zeuge.” For a prominent example, see Agamben, Remnants, 82.

  120. Quote in Szalet, Barracke, 97. See also Naujoks, Leben, 262; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 67.

  121. For smells, see also Gigliotti, Train Journey, 156–57.

  122. BArchB, NS 4/Bu 18, Bl. 21, 34, 37. The figure for October includes some 2,200 inmates from the temporarily closed KL Dachau. The Buchenwald figures do not include prisoners in work details absent during the roll call.

  123. 6,563 prisoners (late August 1939) became 12,168 (end of 1939); AS, R 214, M 58.

  124. NMGB, Buchenwald, 698–99.

  125. BArchB, R 3001/alt R 22/1442, Bl. 125: RM Ernährung u. Landwirtschaft to Landesregierungen et al., January 16, 1940; Naujoks, Leben, 139; Kaienburg, “Systematisierung,” 63 (n. 19).

  126. Quote in IfZ, statement P. Wauer, May 21, 1945, ND: NO-1504. See also Maršálek, Mauthausen, 57–58.

  127. DaA, 9438, A. Hübsch, “Insel des Standrechts” (1961), 222. See also August, “Sonderaktion,” 244.

  128. LG Cologne, Urteil, April 20, 1970, JNV, vol. 33, p. 701. For similar cases, see LG Bonn, Urteil, February 6, 1959, JNV, vol. 15, 586, 596.

  129. Zámečník, Dachau, 147; Naujoks, Leben, 161–62; DaA, 9438, A. Hübsch, “Insel des Standrechts” (1961), 228.

  130. DaA, 9438, A. Hübsch, “Insel des Standrechts” (1961), 185.

  131. AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 77.

  132. For a general overview, see Helweg-Larsen et al., Famine.

  133. Naujoks, Leben, 159–67; Schlaak, “Wetter,” 180. The IKL eventually allowed prisoners some additional clothes from home, but this came too late for many; BArchB, NS 3/425, Bl. 34: IKL to LK, September 24, 1941.

  134. AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 112, 138.

  135. Ziółkowski, Anfang, 27. See also Szalet, Baracke, 322; Helweg-Larsen et al., Famine, 124–60; DaA, 9438, A. Hübsch, “Ins
el des Standrechts” (1961), 220–21.

  136. For example, see AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 138. More generally, see Süβ, “Volkskörper,” 223–24, 233. The largest KL, Mauthausen, was hit at least twice by typhus epidemics in the early war years; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 47.

  137. In December 1940, less than four percent of Buchenwald inmates were inside the infirmary; BArchB, NS 4/Bu 143, Schutzhaftlager-Rapport, December 2, 1940. Apparently, the Camp SS operated quotas determining how many inmates were allowed inside infirmaries. An SS doctor in Sachsenhausen who tried to change this practice in summer 1940 was thwarted and soon left the camp; Naujoks, Leben, 162, 209–10.

  138. Quotes in DaA, 9438, A. Hübsch, “Insel des Standrechts” (1961), 259, 282.

  139. Urbańczyk, “Sachsenhausen,” 221–22.

  140. Hohmann and Wieland, Konzentrationslager, 45–46; Naujoks, Leben, 162–64; Zámečník, Dachau, 162–66.

  141. Dante, Divine Comedy, 241–42.

  142. Quote in “The Stone Quarry,” 1945, in Hackett, Buchenwald, 184. See also ibid., 51. For prisoner and SS references to Dante, see Levi, If, 115–21; SMAB, Inmitten, 263; Świebocki, Resistance, 260; Kremer, “Tagebuch,” 211.

  143. For one revealing case study of the SS quarry in Gross-Rosen, see Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 708–15.

  144. Ibid., 713.

  145. Quotes in USHMM, RG-11.001M.01, reel 17, 500–5–1, Bl. 98: Chef Sipo und SD to RSHA et al., January 2, 1941; YUL, MG 1832, Series II—Trials, 1945–2001, box 10, folder 50, Bl. 1320–23: statement J. Niedermayer, February 6, 1946. More generally, see Pingel, Häftlinge, 81, 260 (n. 74); Dillon, Dachau, chapter 4; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 35; Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 41–42. For the Mordhausen reference, see Gross, Zweitausend, 298. Female prisoners were not affected by the classification, as there was still only one KL for women in the early war years; BArchB, NS 4/Bu 31, Bl. 3: RSHA to Sipo, July 30, 1942.

  146. Prisoner files were supposed to include the classifications (BArchB, NS 4/Na 6, Bl. 12–13: Glücks to LK, July 7, 1942; ibid., Bl. 14: Liebehenschel to LK, September 4, 1942). Over time, further camps were added and the status of some camps changed. Gross-Rosen, for example, another KL with a notorious quarry, was later moved from stage two to three (BArchB, NS 4/Bu 31, Bl. 1: IKL to LK, n.d. (autumn 1942).