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| Chapter 7 |
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The Auschwitz
Institution |
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Sure, there are peoples who have hated each other for centuries. But
that one kills people so systematically, with the help of physicians, only
because they belong to another race, that is new in the
world. |
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— Brother of chief SS Auschwitz doctor |
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| Auschwitz can be understood only in relation to its three
historical identities as a Nazi concentration camp or Konzentrationslager as a
work camp or Arbeitslager, with a special connection to I. G. Farben Industries
and as an annihilation camp or Vernichtungslager. |
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| Auschwitz as Concentration
Camp |
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Concentration camps were instituted almost from the moment
the Nazis seized power. Dachau the first was created by Himmler on 20, March
1933, as a place where Communists, Social Democrats and other alleged political
enemies were to be “concentrated” and held. These political prisoners
had been arrested in considerable numbers following the emergency
“protective custody” decree of 28 February, which was implemented
immediately after the Reichstag fire.* Dachau, after a brief phase of quixotic
brutality by the SS administration became the model for the concentration camp.
Now Himmler established the camps as “legally independent administrative
units outside the penal code and the ordinary processes of law.”²
Under Theodor Eicke — first as commandant of Dachau after
mid-1934, and as inspector of concentration camps and SS brigadier general in
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* This fire occurred on 27
February. Although there is some historical debate whether the Nazis arranged
it as a provocation, they clearly used it as an occasion to round up political
opponents and to begin consolidation of their
dictatorship.¹ |
