Politische Abteilung

The Political Department, also called camp Gestapo, was one of the five divisions ( Division I: Command - Staff, Division II: Political Department, Division III: protective custody camp, Division IV: Site Management, Division V: Medical Services ), which in the Nazi concentration camps different storage -related carried out tasks. As a Division II since the summer of 1936 she was a mandatory part of the command staff in the concentration camps.

Unlike the other departments of the Political Department at was not the inspection of the concentration camps, but the competent Gestapo headquarters and the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA ), Office IV ( there usually the Unit C 2 - protective custody matters ). Director and Deputy Director of the warehouse department were generally Gestapo officials or judicial police ( or members of the SS Security Service ). Other members of the political department were as members of the Waffen- SS, although technically also the Gestapo officials, but included as a member of the SS to the headquarters company of bearings and thus the disciplinary authority of the camp adjutant and the camp commander.

The remit of the political department included the registration of prisoners in concentration camps each with their training, dismissal, transfer, escape, or death. For inmate files were created, the portraits, people descriptions, resumes and fingerprints contained. In addition to the registration and management of the " prisoner inventory " this department was also responsible for the interrogation of prisoners, combating camp resistance movement, prevention of escapes and contacts with the outside world, and all correspondence with the Gestapo, the Criminal Police and the RSHA. When the prisoners members of the Political Department for their interrogation methods, beatings and executions were also feared.

The political department consisted usually of five to six subsections. In Auschwitz, for example, the political department was divided as follows:

  • Recognition service
  • Investigations
  • Interrogations
  • News agency
  • Monitoring
  • Line of bearing Registry Office (temporarily in connection with the supervision of the crematoria )
Schutzhaftlagerführer Concentration Camps Inspectorate SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt Kriminalpolizei Eugen Kogon
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