A ''Kommando'' (, "unit" or "command") is a general term for special police and military forces in German, Dutch, and Afrikaans speaking nations. It was also the term in the World War II era ''Luftwaffe'' for special units used to test new aircraft for combat readiness (as ''

Erprobungskommando An ''Erprobungskommando'' (EKdo) ("Testing-command") was a variety of Luftwaffe special-purpose unit tasked with the testing of new aircraft and weaponry under operational conditions. Similarly-named ''Erprobungs-''prefixed squadron ''(staffel)'' ...

'' units) and examples existed that only used the "Kommando" name, such as the Luftwaffe ''Gruppe''-sized ''

Kommando Nowotny ''Kommando'' Nowotny was a Luftwaffe fighter ''Gruppe'' formed during the last months of World War II for testing and establishing tactics for the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter, and was created and first commanded by Walter Nowotny, from who ...

''. In the winter/spring 1945 period, single-plane ''Kommando''-designated units that used the Arado Ar 234 ''Blitz'' jet powered reconnaissance-bomber operated from hidden, forest-lined runways in eastern Germany. Before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the basic unit of organization of forced labourers in

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

, equivalent to a detail or detachment were referred to as ''Kommandos''. Among the most notable of such units were the

Sonderkommando ''Sonderkommandos'' (, ''special unit'') were work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber vict ...

s (), carrying out the Final Solution by guarding the newly arrived inmates, escorting them to gas chambers, searching the bodies and burning them. ''

Außenkommando Subcamps (german: KZ-Außenlager), also translated as satellite camps, were outlying detention centres (''Haftstätten'') that came under the command of a main concentration camp run by the SS in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Nazi ...

s'' were external work details that were set up, either leaving from the concentration camp or from outside the camp boundary. In ''

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account'', concentration camp survivor Dr.

Miklós Nyiszli Miklós Nyiszli (17 June 1901 – 5 May 1956) was a Hungarian prisoner of History of the Jews in Hungary, Jewish heritage at Auschwitz concentration camp. Nyiszli, his wife, and young daughter, were transported to Auschwitz in June 194 ...

(who served on Dr. Josef Mengele's medical kommando) describes the "tooth-pulling kommando". These teams of eight, all "fine stomatologists and dental surgeons" equipped "in one hand with a lever, and in the other a pair of pliers for extracting teeth", worked in the

crematoria Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

. Stationed in front of the ovens, their job was to pry open the mouths of prisoners who had been gassed and extract, or break off, "all

gold teeth A gold crown Gold teeth are a form of dental prosthesis where the visible part of a tooth is replaced or capped with a prosthetic molded from gold. History The academic paper titled "Gold Work, Filing and Blackened Teeth: Dental Modifications i ...

, as well as any gold

bridgework A bridge is a fixed dental restoration (a fixed dental prosthesis) used to replace one or more missing teeth by joining an artificial tooth definitively to adjacent teeth or dental implants. Definitions Fixed bridge: A dental prosthesis th ...

and fillings". Other kommandos depended on the job they were assigned to, such as woodcutting kommandos, factory kommandos or kitchen kommandos.

See also

References

See also