The Dachau murder camp

The first murders were committed the very day after the camp had been taken over by the SS. Four members of the Communist Youth Association - Dr. Rudolf Benario, Ernst Goldmann, Arthur Kahn and Erwin Kahn - become victims of Himmlers henchmen. With fatal injuries, Erwin Kahn is admitted to the Surgery Clinic of Munich. There he is able to give details of the insidious murder of his companions before he also dies. The Bavarian member of Parliament for the KPD, Hans Beimler, knows very well that when staying in the camp he will end up like his friends. He therefore tries to flee from the camp prison of Dachau in the night of May 8th 1933 and succeeds to escape into liberty. His documentary report titled "At the murder camp of Dachau" published in the Soviet Union and reprinted by the press abroad breaks the wall of silence.

Justice rebels for the last time

During the following months of the year 1933 other prisoners of Dachau are murdered. "Shot on the run" or "suicide" is the stereotype answer of the SS about their death. However, the judiciary institutions of Bavaria are not yet in line with the Nazi system. In May 1933 the public prosecutor of the district court of Munich II starts to investigate concerning the SS guards being suspected of murder. In the camp the chief prosecutor Carl Wintersberger and his close assistant Josef Hartinger as well as the district court medical officer Dr. Flamm investigate the cases and question suspected SS men.

Most of all it's Hartinger who makes life difficult to the SS. On June 1, 1933 he files a suit against the camp commander Hilmar Wäckerle "because of the crime of physical injury resulting in death". His courageous actions cause the Bavarian Cabinet und its president Siebert to look closer into the murder cases of Dachau and to force Himmler to drop Wäckerle. Yet the commitment of the prosecutors could not really improve the situation of the prisoners in the camp. Wintersberger applies for a warrant against Wäckerle and his successor Theodor Eicke, but then he is transferred to Bamberg. When Josef Hartinger also get a different position, the successor of Wintersberger ends the public inquiery.

After the replacement of Hilmar Wäckerle, Theodor Eicke takes over the supervision of the camp. Originating from Alsace-Lorraine and occupied the rank of a leader of the SS (corresponding the rank of colonel in the army), he converts the arbitrary terror into a terror system. He creates in Dachau a model for all other concentration camps to follow. In October 1933, he introduces two new regulations: "The disciplinary and penal decree of the prison camp" and the "Service regulations for protective escorts and prison guards".

"School of terror"

Similar to the previous "special regulations", Eicke's new rules feature the death penalty. The paragraphs 11 and 12 state that "the prisoner who agitates through political slogans or who seditiously meets with others or forwards hostile propaganda or similar... will be hung for agitator and that he who physically attacks a guard, who refuses to obey and who persues mutiny... will be shot in place as mutineer or will be hung later". Intentional sabotage is also penalized with death, according to the "camp court" appointed by the camp commander.

The so-called milder penalties quoted by Eicke are "heavy physical or extremely dirty labor (...) under special supervision", as well as other penalties such as "punitive drill, corporal punishment, no mail or food, extremely hard beds, binding onto a post, reprimands and warnings". "Two weeks of severe arrest and 50 blows with a stick" are the penalty for instance for the prisoner who "expresses disparaging remarks about national socialist leaders, about the state and the government, offices and institutions."

The protective prisoner in Dachau loses all rights for dignity. The human being becomes a number. He no longer has a name and in the eyes of his supervisors he no longer is entitled to good reputation and honor. In order to wear the prisoners down mentally and physically, the SS applies the old prussian drill. The lockers need to be tidied meticulously. Every complaint triggers severe penalties. The prisoners are forced to work. Duty in the kitchen or in a gravel pit - this may become a question of life or death. Another torture is the roll call, standing up for hours and hours after work, withstanding wind and wheather. Starvation also becomes a welcome tool for the SS to oppress their prisoners.

Eicke's service regulations for the camp guards however are aimed to persue a fatal perfection of the terror machinery. Total obedience and unquestioning subordination are intended to make the individual SS guard become a cog in the death factories of the "Reich". The regulations read like this: "It is ridiculous and non soldier like behaviour if a guard hides away from rain (...) The SS man is requested to show pride and dignity (...) It is degrading for the bearer of the death's head badge if he runs errands for bolshevists and their big shots". On the other hand Eicke is able to infiltrate his SS men with the idea of superiority which is why even the most stupid young men overestimate their importance and adopt the arrogant behaviour of a Master Race towards the inmates of Dachau. Resistance of any type needs to be abolished also "by using a gun" and when a prisoner tries to escape, he may be shot without warning.

To express his thanks for the murder of the SA chief of staff Ernst Röhm, Eicke is appointed chief of staff for all concentration camps in the Reich by Himmler on July 4, 1934. His camp regulations then become valid in all concentration camps, even those that are still to be etablished. As of fall 1934, Eicke is also permitted to set up and train troops that are under his personal supervision. Following the badge they wear on the lapels of their uniforms, in 1936 they will be called the "SS death's head units".

continue or back to Z.B.Dachau