What+types+of+security+did+both+camps+hold+individually?

The security of the concentration camps were at first very heavy and structured, but towards the end of the German regime began to falter and lessen in strictness of order among guards but not among the prisoners. The German guards or SS were the back bone for the main force of the guards in ghettos in concentration camps. However within the ghettos there were also local agencies such as Polish militia’s, or city guards, and even common police who joined in the persecution of Jews. The first prominent showing of actual security within the plan to exterminate the Jewish people was the Death Squads.

The Death squads were basically everyday police men and local military forces who through volunteering joined these squads. Their basic premise was to go from house to house asking if there were any Jews inside, and searching the apartment buildings for these afore mentioned Jews. If found they would be loaded onto the back of a truck were after the guards had finished their rounds they would be transported to a nearby camp. Now while this may have been the basic duties of these squads, it was not all they did. These squads also took part in beating, and killing Jews, and then afterwards ransacking their house or apartment for anything valuable.

By way of the camps there were five main sections of Security within each individual concentration camp. The idea of having these five groups was first conceived in the camp at Dachau where the guards were split into one of two sections, which later became the base structure for all concentration camp security. These five units were those of the commandant with his personal staff, a security Officer to keep track of records, a "//Schutzhaftlagerführer",// which was also known as the commandant of an individual detention camp that held the prisoners, a staff for the administration of the overall security force in the camp, and the infirmary personal consisting of doctors. The commandants were the main force of the camp and were the main ones who carried out the punishment, along with other guards that too took part in the beating of prisoners.

The other staff did not take as much of a part in the overall abuse of the prisoners, but rather dealt with the camp itself, and the people who ran it. Lastly it is important to mention that there were the SS Guard Units who served as a basic guard in the camp, by following orders, keeping the prisoners in check, and basically oppressing the captives in anyway possible. These units later turned into Death Head Units assigned to a single camp each, as expressed here “Special “political units on alert” (//Politische Bereitschaften//), originally guarded the SS concentration camps. They were renamed “SS Guard Units” (//SS-Wachverbände//) in 1935 and “SS Death's-Head Units” (//SS-Totenkopfverbände//) in April 1936. One SS Death's-Head Unit was assigned to each concentration camp.” (USHMM “Concentration Camps”.)

By Justin Safarik

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