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Kapo
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Kapo
A kapo was a type of prisoner functionary (German: Funktionshäftling) at a Nazi concentration or extermination camp. 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 or 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 the Allies over the course 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 State 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.
The word "kapo" could have come from the Italian word for "head" and "boss", capo. According to the Duden, it is derived from the French word for "Corporal" (caporal). Journalist Robert D. McFadden believes that the word "kapo" is derived from the German word Lagercapo, meaning camp captain. Another interpretation is that it is an abbreviation of "Kameradschaftspolizei".
Many kapos were subject to reprisals, including mass lynchings, immediately upon the liberation of concentration camps. For example, thousands of prisoners had been transferred from the Mittelbau-Dora camp to the Bergen-Belsen camp in April 1945. While not in good health, these prisoners were in far better condition than those in Bergen-Belsen. Upon the camp's liberation on 15 April 1945, these prisoners attacked their former overseers, lynching roughly 170 Kapos.
During the 1946–47 Stutthof trials in Gdańsk, Poland, in which Stutthof concentration camp personnel were prosecuted, five kapos were found to have used extreme brutality and were sentenced to death. Four of them were executed on 4 July 1946, and one on 10 October 1947. Another was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and one acquitted and released on 29 November 1947.
A small number of kapos were prosecuted in East and West Germany. In a well-publicised 1968 case, two Auschwitz kapos were put on trial in Frankfurt. They were indicted for 189 murders and multiple assaults, found guilty of several murders, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law of the State of Israel, passed in 1950, most famously used to prosecute Adolf Eichmann in 1961 and Ivan Demjanjuk in 1986, was originally introduced with the principal aim of prosecuting Jewish people who collaborated with the Nazis. Between 1951 and 1964, approximately 40 trials were held, mostly of people alleged to have been kapos.
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Kapo
A kapo was a type of prisoner functionary (German: Funktionshäftling) at a Nazi concentration or extermination camp. 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 or 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 the Allies over the course 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 State 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.
The word "kapo" could have come from the Italian word for "head" and "boss", capo. According to the Duden, it is derived from the French word for "Corporal" (caporal). Journalist Robert D. McFadden believes that the word "kapo" is derived from the German word Lagercapo, meaning camp captain. Another interpretation is that it is an abbreviation of "Kameradschaftspolizei".
Many kapos were subject to reprisals, including mass lynchings, immediately upon the liberation of concentration camps. For example, thousands of prisoners had been transferred from the Mittelbau-Dora camp to the Bergen-Belsen camp in April 1945. While not in good health, these prisoners were in far better condition than those in Bergen-Belsen. Upon the camp's liberation on 15 April 1945, these prisoners attacked their former overseers, lynching roughly 170 Kapos.
During the 1946–47 Stutthof trials in Gdańsk, Poland, in which Stutthof concentration camp personnel were prosecuted, five kapos were found to have used extreme brutality and were sentenced to death. Four of them were executed on 4 July 1946, and one on 10 October 1947. Another was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and one acquitted and released on 29 November 1947.
A small number of kapos were prosecuted in East and West Germany. In a well-publicised 1968 case, two Auschwitz kapos were put on trial in Frankfurt. They were indicted for 189 murders and multiple assaults, found guilty of several murders, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law of the State of Israel, passed in 1950, most famously used to prosecute Adolf Eichmann in 1961 and Ivan Demjanjuk in 1986, was originally introduced with the principal aim of prosecuting Jewish people who collaborated with the Nazis. Between 1951 and 1964, approximately 40 trials were held, mostly of people alleged to have been kapos.