kapo (Nazi concentration camps)

A kapo or prisoner functionary (german: Funktionshäftling) was a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks.

Also called "prisoner self-administration", the prisoner functionary system minimized costs by allowing camps to function with fewer SS personnel. The system was designed to turn victim against victim, as the prisoner functionaries were pitted against their fellow prisoners in order to maintain the favor of their SS overseers. If they neglected their duties, they would be demoted to ordinary prisoners and be subject to other kapos. Many prisoner functionaries were recruited from the ranks of violent criminal gangs rather than from the more numerous political, religious, and racial prisoners; such criminal convicts were known for their brutality toward other prisoners. This brutality was tolerated by the SS and was an integral part of the camp system.

Prisoner functionaries were spared physical abuse and hard labor, provided they performed their duties to the satisfaction of the SS functionaries. They also had access to certain privileges, such as civilian clothes and a private room. While the Germans commonly called them ''kapos'', the official government term for prisoner functionaries was ''Funktionshäftling''.

After World War II, the term was reused as an insult; according to ''The Jewish Chronicle'', it is "the worst insult a Jew can give another Jew".; ; ;

Etymology

The word "kapo" could have come from the Italian word for "head" and "boss", . According to the Duden, it is derived from the French word for "Corporal" (). (Translated from: ) Journalist Robert D. McFadden believes that the word "kapo" is derived from the German word , meaning camp captain.

System of thrift and manipulation

Camps were controlled by the SS, but day-to-day organization was supplemented by the system of functionary prisoners, a second hierarchy that made it easier for the Nazis to control the camps. These prisoners made it possible for the camps to function with fewer SS personnel. The prisoner functionaries sometimes numbered as high as 10% of the inmates.Yizhak Ahren
"Überlebt weil schuldig – schuldig weil überlebt"
Review of book about Jewish kapos. Leo Baeck Bookshop, official website. Retrieved 8 May 2010 Marc Schemmel, ''Funktionshäftlinge im KZ Neuengamme. Zwischen Kooperation und Widerstand''. Saarbrücken (2007) p. 4. The Nazis were able to keep the number of paid staff who had direct contact with the prisoners very low in comparison to normal prisons today. Without the functionary prisoners, the SS camp administrations would not have been able to keep the day-to-day operations of the camps running smoothly.Jerzy Pindera, edited by Lynn Taylor
''Liebe Mutti: one man's struggle to survive in KZ Sachsenhausen, 1939–1945''
University Press of America (2004) pp. 113 Retrieved 5 May 2010 The kapos often did this work for extra food, cigarettes, alcohol or other privileges.

At Buchenwald, these tasks were originally assigned to criminal prisoners, but after 1939, political prisoners began to displace the criminal prisoners,Bill Niven
''The Buchenwald child: truth, fiction, and propaganda''
Camden House (2007) . Retrieved 15 April 2010 though criminals were preferred by the SS. At Mauthausen, on the other hand, functionary positions remained dominated by criminal prisoners until just before liberation."Audio guide 05: Prisoner functionaries"
Mauthausen Memorial official website. 6 May 2010 The system and hierarchy also inhibited solidarity among the prisoners. There were tensions between the various nationalities and prisoner groups, who were distinguished by different Nazi concentration camp badges. Jews wore yellow stars; other prisoners wore colored triangles pointed downward.

Prisoner functionaries were often hated by other prisoners and spat upon as Nazi henchmen.Jens-Christian Wagner, ''Häftlingseinsatz im KZ Dora-Mittelbau…'' article from ''Ausbeutung, Vernichtung, Öffentlichkeit.'' Norbert Frei (Ed.), pp. 26–27. Munich (2000) While some barrack leaders (''Blockälteste'') tried to assist the prisoners under their command by secretly helping them get extra food or easier jobs, others were more concerned with their own survival and, to that end, did more to assist the SS.Shirli Gilbert
''Music in the Holocaust: confronting life in the Nazi ghettos and camps''
Oxford University Press (2005) page 101. Retrieved 5 May 2010

Identified by green triangles, the ''Berufsverbrecher'' or "BV" ("career criminals") kapos,"Neuengamme / Bremen-Farge"
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, official website. Retrieved 6 May 2010 were called "professional criminals" by other prisoners and were known for their brutality and lack of scruples. Indeed, they were selected by the SS because of those qualities."Organized Resistance"
''Against the odds'', official website. Documentary about prisoner resistance in Nazi concentration camps. Retrieved 6 May 2010 According to former prisoners, criminal functionaries were more apt to be helpful to the SS than political functionaries, who were more apt to be helpful to other prisoners.

From Oliver Lustig's ''Dictionary of the Camp'':

Domination and terror

The SS used domination and terror to control the camps' large populations with just a few SS functionaries. The system of prisoner guards was a "key instrument of domination", and was commonly called "prisoner self-government" (''Häftlings-Selbstverwaltung'') in SS parlance.

The camp's draconian rules, constant threat of beatings, humiliation, punishment, and the practice of punishing entire groups for the actions of one prisoner were psychological and physical torments added to the starvation and physical exhaustion from back-breaking labor. Prisoner guards were used to push other inmates to work harder, saving the need for paid SS supervision. Many ''kapos'' felt caught in the middle, being both victims and perpetrators. Though ''kapos'' generally had a bad reputation, many suffered guilt about their actions, both at the time and after the war, as revealed in a book about Jewish kapos.

Many prisoner functionaries, primarily from the ranks of the "greens" or criminal prisoners, could be quite ruthless in order to justify their privileges, especially when an SS man was around."Prisoner administration"
Wollheim Memorial, official website. Retrieved 7 May 2010 They also played an active role in the beatings, even killing fellow prisoners. One non-criminal functionary was , a notorious Austrian political prisoner. Feared and hated, he was known as a sadist and was responsible for several deaths. He was released from Dachau in 1942 and became a member of the ''Waffen-SS''. Some guards were personally involved in the mass murder of other prisoners. Beginning in October 1944, criminal functionaries from among the German ''Reichsdeutsche'' were sought out for transfer to the Dirlewanger Brigade.

Ranks of functionary

The important functionary positions inside the camp were ''Lagerältester'' (camp leader or camp senior), ''Blockältester'' (block or barracks leader or senior), and ''Stubenältester'' (room leader).''Ältester'' is variously translated as "leader", "elder", "supervisor", "commander" or "senior". The highest position that a prisoner could reach was ''Lagerältester'', who was placed directly under the camp commandant and expected to implement his orders to ensure that the camp's daily routines ran smoothly and that regulations were followed. The ''Lagerälteste'' had a key role in the selection of other prisoners as functionaries, making recommendations to the SS. Though dependent on the goodwill of the SS, through them, he had access to special privileges, such as access to civilian clothes or a private room.

The ''Blockältester'' (block or barracks leader) had to ensure that rules were followed in the individual barracks. He or she was also responsible for the prisoners in the barracks. The ''Stubenälteste'' (room leader) was responsible for the hygiene, such as delousing, and order of each room in a barracks. The ''Blockschreiber'' (registrar or barrack clerk) was a record-keeping job that included tasks such as keeping track at roll calls.

Work crews outside the camp were supervised by a ''Vorarbeiter'' (foreman), a ''Kapo'', or ''Oberkapo'' (chief kapo). These functionaries pushed their fellow prisoners to work harder, hitting, beating, and even killing them.

Prisoner functionaries could often help other prisoners by getting them into better barracks or assigned to lighter work. On occasion, the functionaries could effect other prisoners' removal from transport lists or even secure new identities in order to protect them from persecution. This assistance was generally limited to the prisoners in the functionary's own group (fellow citizens or political comrades). The prisoner functionaries were in a precarious hierarchy between their fellow inmates and the SS. This situation was intentionally created, as revealed in a speech by Heinrich Himmler.

In National Socialism's racial ideology, some races were "superior" and others "inferior". Similarly, the SS sometimes had racial criteria for the prisoner functionaries; one sometimes had to be racially "superior" to be a functionary. The group category was also sometimes a factor. A knowledge of foreign languages was also advantageous, particularly as the international population of the camps increased, and because the SS preferred a certain level of education.

An eager prisoner functionary could have a camp "career" as an SS favorite and be promoted from ''Kapo'' to ''Oberkapo'' and eventually to ''Lagerältester'', but could also just as easily run afoul of the SS and be sent to the gas chambers.

Prosecution of kapos

During the 1946-47 Stutthof trials in Gdańsk, Poland, in which Stutthof concentration camp personnel were prosecuted, five kapos were found to have used extreme brutality and were sentenced to death. Four of them were executed on 4 July 1946, and one on 10 October 1947. Another was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and one acquitted and released on 29 November 1947.Bogdan Chrzanowski, Andrzej Gąsiorowski (Zeszyty Muzeum, 5)
Załoga obozu Stutthof (Staff of Stutthof concentration camp)
(PDF file, direct download 9.14 MB) p. 189 (13/40 in PDF). Muzeum Stutthof w Sztutowie. Zaklad Narodowy Imienia Ossolinskich, Wrocław, Warszawa, Krakow 1984. PL ISSN 0137-5377.

The Israeli Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law of 1950, most famously used to prosecute Adolf Eichmann

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