Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

proven unsuccessful, and that, as a consequence, a new and more radical (and more permanent)
“solution” to the problem had to be found.
Funktionshäftlinge (German, Prisoner-Functionaries). Concentration camp prisoners
incarcerated within the German National Socialist (Nazi) state between 1933 and
1945, who were elevated to positions of authority by the Inspectorate of Concentration
Camps to counter the lack of personnel available for administrative purposes. This system
was devised in the prewar period. In return for serving as administrative agents for the
Nazi police authorities in the camps, the “prisoner-functionaries” (Funktionshäftlinge)
received more food, had better living conditions, and performed less work than other prisoners,
this being mainly restricted to a supervisory role. These “administrative prisoners”
were called Ältester (elders, or seniors), of which the main figure was the Lagerältester—
the most senior prisoner in the camp. In each barrack there was a Blockältester; in each
room, a Stubenältester. These latter were, in turn, assisted by a number of Stubendienst
workers, who acted as room orderlies. In each block was a Blockschreiber, a prisoner who
acted as a kind of registrar for the barracks and reported to an SS officer in the SS Administrative
Department. There were, in addition, other administrative positions, such as the prisoner-doctors
(Haftlingärzt), camp barbers (Lagerfriseur), gatekeepers who operated the gates
between compounds (Torwächter), and interpreters (Dolmetscher). Prisoner-functionaries were
utterly dependent on the SS for everything. They, like any other prisoner, could be punished
for the slightest infraction of the rules. They had to do exactly as they were told,
nothing more and nothing less. They were sandwiched in the middle of camp society;
while enforcing SS structures and discipline on those below them, they were never to forget
that they were still prisoners of the SS. They could be (and often were) killed by
common prisoners as traitors; they could also be killed by the SS on a whim. By creating
a prisoner elite, the SS established a system that divided the prisoners in order to rule
them. In doing so, they reaped enormous benefits, as they were able to control the inmates
with the minimum number of guards required by the Nazi authorities.
FUNKTIONSHÄFTLINGE
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