Kapo

A kapo was a type of prisoner functionary ( ) at Nazi concentration and extermination camps. They were, whether voluntary or coerced, collaborators who worked under the Schutzstaffel (SS) to carry out administrative tasks or supervise the forced labour of inmates. Given authority over their fellow prisoners, they would often enjoy comparatively better conditions at the camps, such as increased food rations and less physical brutality from SS guards. Due to their privileged status and actions, kapos were highly resented and were frequently lynched by other prisoners when the camps were liberated by Allied forces during the final stages of World War II. In the aftermath of World War II, there were many instances of kapos being prosecuted alongside Nazis for their role at the camps. Most notably, the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, which was passed by the government of Israel in 1950, was primarily aimed at providing a framework for prosecution of Jews who had served as kapos during the Holocaust. These efforts were spurred by the collective anger of Holocaust survivors towards Jewish collaborators, whose elimination was regarded as necessary to "purify" the global Jewish community. Since the Holocaust, the term "kapo" has come to be used as a pejorative in Jewish circles, characterized as "the worst insult a Jew can give another Jew" by The Jewish Chronicle.…

A kapo was a type of prisoner functionary ( ) at Nazi concentration and extermination camps. They were, whether voluntary or coerced, collaborators who worked under the Schutzstaffel (SS) to carry out administrative tasks or supervise the forced labour of inmates. Given authority over their fellow prisoners, they would often enjoy comparatively better conditions at the camps, such as increased food rations and less physical brutality from SS guards. Due to their privileged status and actions, kapos were highly resented and were frequently lynched by other prisoners when the camps were liberated by Allied forces during the final stages of World War II. In the aftermath of World War II, there were many instances of kapos being prosecuted alongside Nazis for their role at the camps. Most notably, the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, which was passed by the government of Israel in 1950, was primarily aimed at providing a framework for prosecution of Jews who had served as kapos during the Holocaust. These efforts were spurred by the collective anger of Holocaust survivors towards Jewish collaborators, whose elimination was regarded as necessary to "purify" the global Jewish community. Since the Holocaust, the term "kapo" has come to be used as a pejorative in Jewish circles, characterized as "the worst insult a Jew can give another Jew" by The Jewish Chronicle. However, kapos were not exclusively Jewish; Nazi authorities selected them from among any persecuted community in the camps.

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" ( ). Journalist Robert D. McFadden believes that the word "kapo" is derived from the German word , meaning camp captain. Another interpretation is that it is an abbreviation of "Kameradschaftspolizei".

Reprisals and prosecution

Significance and legacy

German historian Karin Orth wrote that there was hardly a measure so perfidious as the SS attempt to delegate the implementation of terror and violence to the victims themselves. Eugen Kogon, an avowed opponent of Nazism from prewar Germany and a Buchenwald concentration camp survivor, wrote after the war that the concentration camp system owed its stability in no small way to the cadre of kapos, who took over the daily operations of the camp and relieved SS personnel. The absolute power was ubiquitous. The system of discipline and supervision would have promptly disintegrated, according to Kogon, without the delegation of power. The rivalry over supervisory and warehouse functionary jobs was, for the SS, an opportunity to pit prisoners against each other. Regular prisoners were at the mercy of a dual authority: the SS, who often hardly seemed to be at the camp, and the prisoner kapos, who were always there.

See also

Belsen Trial, the Trial of Joseph Kramer and 44 others (former kapos, convicted in late 1945 for war crimes). Bitch Wars in the Soviet Gulag system. Divide and rule Eliezer Gruenbaum, notable kapo Jewish Ghetto Police Judenrat - Jewish councils under Nazi administration for self-government in Ghettos and other Jewish communities in occupied territories. Line management Sonderkommando Triangulation (psychology) Trusty system (prison)

References

Further reading

Revital Ludewig-Kedmi, Opfer und Täter zugleich? Moraldilemmata jüdischer Funktionshäftlinge in der Shoah. Psyche und Gesellschaft. Book expanded from a doctoral dissertation about the moral dilemma faced by Jewish kapos in the Holocaust. Psychosozial Verlag, Gießen (2001)

External links

Sebastian Dregger: Die Rolle der Funktionshäftlinge im Vernichtungslager Auschwitz – und das Beispiel Otto Küsels. Abschnitt aus dem Bericht der Auschwitzflüchtlinge Alfred Wetzler und Rudolf Vrba über F. (Late April 1944)

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