Question regarding the SS-Totenkopfverbände & camp guard

[SS-Researcher]

I am currently reading the book "Mein Wehr- und Kriegsdienst 1938 - 1955" by Rudolf Messering, who joined the 1. SS-Totenkopfstandarte "Oberbayern" in 1938 and became a soldier of the SS-Totenkopfdivision afterwards.
In his book, he claims that the Totenkopfstandarten were not responsible for the guarding of the camps although stationed close to them. He argues that the units responsible for the camps were small units of the Lagerkommandantur (camp headquarters).
He himself was a motorist and really didn't have anything to do with guard duties, but what about the other men of the Totenkopfstandarte?

I am a bit suspicious about this as this is the first time I hear about it and also d'Alquen writes in his book about the SS in 1939 that "Their task (SS-TV) besides the education of the political soldier is the guarding of the enemies of the state placed in the concentration camps"

Best wishes
Florian

[PF]

See Charles W. Sydnor "Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death Head's Divsion"-several units of this division were were K-Z Camp Guard Units

[SS-Researcher]

I have read Syndor's book about one year ago.

My question is if there was a difference between the men of the SS-Totenkopfstandarten / SS-Totenkopfverbände and Kommandantur units.

Best wishes and thanks
Florian

[TH Albright]

Messering is either wrong or has selective amnesia, porbably the latter. The regular platoon/company sized units of the SS-Totenkopfstandarten did provide "guards" in the sense that these units secured the camp outer perimeter 24/7, provided personnel for the protective custody camp watchtowers, and also provided a security cordon for outside labor details. The units rotated monthly (one week guard duty, three weeks military/political training). The guard units, however, did not supervise the prisoners either inside the camp compound or on the labor details; the day-to-day operation of the camp and inmate life was controlled by the commandant's/command staff, which constituted about 8-9% of the personnel associated with a camp. The organization of the guard units (i.e., the SS-TK platoons/companies) and the camp staff represented a fairly sharp line of demarcation along functional lines, although the SS-TK units often transferred men to the camp staff and visa versa. Where Messering is correct, is that support units for the SS-Totenkopfstandarten, such as signals, HQ staff, administrative billets, trainers, did not guard the camps; only what we would call the "combat" elements of the SS-TK were rotated for this duty. Also, by 1938, the SS-TK regiments did detach two battalions for operations like the Anchschuss and Sudetenland. So it was possible for a late comer to the SS-TK in 1938-39 to have served in a "combat" element of the SS-TK and not to have done guard duty for reasons of deployment, etc. In the days when the camps were garrisoned by a battalion, not a regiment (prior to July 1937), one's chances of being rotated through guard duty were 100% Eicke wanted all SS-TV rank-and-file to experience duty guarding the "enemies behind the wire".

[SS-Researcher]

Thank for your response. He joined the Standarte after the Sudetenlandanschluß (he originated from there). So his description may be a bit blury but not untrue from his point of view.

Best wishes and thanks again
Florian

[UPENDRA GADKARY]

Dear TH Albright

Though we have discussed this point earlier I just wanted to ask one doubt.

Why were these SS Totenkopf guard units given extensive military training and kept combat ready when they had to guard only harmless concentration camp inmates?

Can you give your views.

[Zitadelle]

I believe that Eicke was the one responsible for pushing along the idea that they would be made into a combat force. From the stuff i have read on the division, he was basically hording tons of stuff and getting his way with preferential treatment of his men, probably due to the duty they had in the camps but who knows really, and he had the foresight to figure out, or was told that war was imminent. I've only read about 6 books on the 3rd SS, but i seem to remember Eicke was pretty much the driving force of the militarization of the camp guards into a fighting unit which later became the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf.

[TH Albright]

Hi UPENDRA..I think Zitadelle hit the nail on the head about Eicke and the militarization of the SS-TV. In my study of SS-TV officer personnel, a large influx of SS-Juncherschulen graduates, most of whom had been enlisted personnel in the SS-VT prior to cadet school, came to the SS-TV in 1936-37. This coincided with the reorg of the SS-TV and later expansion of the battalion-sized guard units to regimental size Standarten. Many SS-TV officers in 1938 also did training with the Heer. KL guard duty was more an ideological exercise to harden toward and expose the men to the internal "enemies of the state". While the SS-TV became more SS-VT "like" in the late 30's, Eicke always kept fanatical Nazi ideology on the front burner. Though sharing the same personnel pool, he perhaps saw the SS-TV as a "purer" force for Nazism than the Hausser-Steiner dominated SS-VT.

[TH Albright]

Below is a list of SS cadet school graduates (perhaps not complete, but a good data "slice") who were transferred as officers to the pre-war SS-TV..71 names, 9 of whom were awarded the RitterKreuz. 12 others were awarded the German Cross in Gold as their highest combat decoration; 2 the German Cross in Silver. 26 were awarded the EKI as their highest combat award. 14 officers went on the regimental command level; 22 to battalion command level. 2 became KL Kommandants during the war. 3 were administrative officers in a KL. From this data, you can see the level of talent which Eicke utilized from the system which Hausser had set up to train the future combat officer corps of the SS.


ARNOLD, ALFRED
BAUER, RUDOLPH
BAUMANN, RICHARD
BESCH, ULRICH
BIERMEIR, FRITZ
BLUMHARDT, HERBERT
BRINKMANN, HEINZ
BUCHER, JOSEF
BUCHNER, HERMANN
BUECKER, THEO
BURBOECK, WILHELM
BURK, EWALD
CESINGER, JOHANN
CONRAD, SIEGFRIED
DALLINGER, MAX
ENDRES, HANS
FAULHABER, HELMUT
FASCHING, ALFRED
FREDRICH, HELMUT
FRIEDRICHS, HERMANN
GARBE, WALTER
GNABS, GERHARD
GORONCY, HEINZ
GRAMS, RUPRECHT
GROTH, KONRAD
HAARBERG, HANS-JOACHIM
HAAS, FRITZ
HAEUSSLER, ERNST
HARDIECK, WILLI
HASSEBROEK, JOHANNES
HEINKE, HEINRICH
HERMANN, ALEXANDER
HOPPE, PAUL-WERNER
HOYM, GNEOMAR Von
HUETTIG, HELMUT
JAKOB, FRANZ
KAUSCH, PAUL-ALBERT
KELLER, EMIL
KORFF, WERNER
KRAUTH, HEINRICH
KUECHLE, HEINZ
KUEHN, MAX
MASSARIE, ARZELINO
MECKELBERG, OTTO
MUETZELFELDT, HANS
OTTO, HERMANN
PAULY, RICHARD
PEIPER, HORST
PITTSCHELLIS, ADOLF
RAHN, HELMUTH
REDER, WALTER
ROSENBUSCH, ERICH
SAALBACH, RUDOLF
SCHASSBERGER, FRIEDRICH
SCHNETTLER, WITTEKIND
SCHRADER, HANS
SCHROEDEL, WILFRIED
SCHUETZE, BRUNO
SCHULTZ, SIEGFRIED MAX
SCHULZE-KOSSENS, RICHARD
SCHUMACHER, ERWIN
SCHUMACHER, WERNER
SPERLING, HERBERT
STIEGLITZ, KARL
ULRICH, HANS-GUENTHER
URBANIETZ, ERICH
WEDELL, FRITZ
WEIDINGER, OTTO
WOITH, HANS-JOACHIM
WOLF, KARL-WILHELM
ZOLLHOFER, EMIL

[SS-Researcher]

Thank you for this comprehensive list!

[mty]

Did the Lagerkommandatur personnel (camp commander, his deputies, block leaders and report officers) belong to SS-TV or were they already in the 30's under WVHA?

If they did belong to SS-TV, how much rotation there was approximately between guards outside and inside the camp perimeter?

[TH Albright]

The camp staff personnel did belong to the SS-TV, but were not assigned organizationally to the SS-Totenkopfstandarten attached to the camp. In personnel records I have seen, if a man was assigned to the camp staff in any capacity, his record indicated "Kommandaturstab KL Dachau" or just" KL Dachau", for example. Personnel assigned to the camp's garrisoning SS-Totenkopfstandarten would have " 1.SS-Totenkopfstandarten Oberbayern" (as an example) on their personnel record, usually with the company or other regimental billet associated with his capacity. Since the camps and guard units were organized along strictly functional lines, members of the guard unit and camp staff would not interchange duties as part of the camp routine. You wouldn't see a member of an SS-TV guard company rotate into a Blockfuhrer capacity as part of his normal duties. However, personnel transfers between the guard battalion/regiment and the camp staff were common. In 1935, as part of Eicke's first reorganization of the camp system, many older and less capable SS-TV men were transferred into the camp staff to make way for younger, fitter recruits in the guard battalions. This is how men such as Höss began their camp careers in earnest. Throughout 1935-38, Eicke continued winnowing out individuals from the various SS-Totenkopfstandarten and transferring them to less "glamorous" positions in camp administration, often replacing them with SS cadet school graduates and other SS-VT men whose military skills were needed by the growing SS-TV. By doing this, Eicke was providing the camps with a growing personnel pool of embittered, mediocre, and often corrupt men who saw camp work as a demotion in their military careers. Of course they vented their sundry insecurities and frustrations on the helpless inmates in their charge. Many of these guys were the ones involved in the great KL scandals of 1942-43 involving Konrad Morgen and other SS judiciary. Notable names amongst this group of ex-SS-TV men...Egon Zill, Karl Koch, Karl Kunstler, Hans Huttig, Karl Fritzch, Hans Aumeir and Arthur Rodl.

[TH Albright]

Other good examples in the pre-war KL system of the interchange between KL staff and SS-TV units not based on age or "incompetence"..

Hans Zeysing was adjutant at Columbia Haus from 1935-36, then transferred to SS-TV Oberbayern later in 1936. He was then transferred back to KL Sachsenhausen as adjutant in 1936-37, then transferred to SS-TV Thuringen until 1939. Zeysing later became artillery regimental commander in the 23.Waffen-Geb.Div. der SS "Kama" (kroatische Nr. 2) and was awarded the EKI. He is an example of a competent officer who just happened to transfer back and forth between the SS-TV units and camp administration.

Another similar example...
Fritz Wedell
SS-VT Germania Signals Btl 1934-35
Graduate JS Braunschweig 1936
SS-VT Deutschland 1936-37 Platoon Kd
SS-TV Sachsen 1937
SS-VT Inspectorate 1937-38 Admin Officer
Admin leader KL Buchenwald 1938-39 (In this capacity Wedell would most likely have been involved in the fleecing of the Vom Rath Jews and their property during their brief but unhappy tenure in Buchenwald in the fall of 1938.

During the war, Wedell was a IVa in the SS-Totenkopfdivision, 9.SS-Pz.Div. "Hohenstaufen" and 6.SS-Geb.Div. "Nord"; awarded the EKII and Close Combat Bar..pretty good for an administrative officer!

[Max Williams]

Here is a 1938 document which illustrates the relationship between the TK units and camp personnel. It records transfers within the sphere of Eicke's authority and includes such people as Otto Reich, Paul Werner Hoppe and Paul Nostiz.
Max.

[Max Williams]

...