Schmauser,
Thank you for the compliment.
Now to answer some of your questions.
There was no construction department within the camp administration. It was a serparate entity in its own right within Auschwitz concentration camp.
When Himmler set up Auschwitz concentration camp, that led to the establishment of an organizational unit within Abteilung II C – Concentration Camps and Police (Hauptabteilung II C – Konzentrationslager und Polizei) of the SS-Haushalt und Bau Hauptamt to deal with the construction of Auschwitz concentration camp. This was the New SS Construction Authority in Auschwitz. It merged with the Sonderbauleitung für die Errichtung des Kriegsgefangenenlagers der Waffen-SS Auschwitz (Waffen-SS Special Constuction Authority for the Erection of a POW Camp Auschwitz), in November 1941, when soviet POWs were sent to Auschwitz. This new enity became the Auschwitz Waffen-SS and Police Central Construction Authority (SS-Zentralbauleitung der Waffen-SS und Polizei Auschwitz. Up until December 1943, the newly created unit was directly subordinate to the SS Construction Inspectorate East (SS-Bauinspektion Ost), which had its headquarters in Posen.
The basic tasks of the SS Central Construction Authority in Auschwitz was to co-ordinater all construction work on the camp grounds. The authority funded, designed and carried out this work. Since its structure did not include certain specialist services or sufficient resources, the authority engaged private sub-contractors on some projects.
The Construction Authority included the Construction Office (Baubüro) and Construction (Hochbau), Water Supply (Wasserversorgung), Surveying (Vermesserabteilung) and General Department (Allgemeine Abteilung).
Like the name says, Lagerkommandant is the camp commandant and the Lagerführer or Schutzhäftlagerführer was head of Department III. He was officially deputy commandant and assumed the duties of the commandant when he was absent. In the larger camps, the Lagerführer had deputies known as 2. Schutzhäftlagerführer and 3. Schutzhäftlagerführer. The right-hand man of the Lagerführer was the SS NCO responsible for the general discipline and accounting for numbers of prisoners, known as the Rapportführer. His responsibilities included leading roll-call assemblies where prisoner population was checked. The Rapportführer also drew up a monthly SS report on the staffing of the prisoner blocks, and reports on accidents or the violent death of prisoners. On basis of information from the Blockführer, the 1. Rapportführer also compiled daily (from one evening roll-call to another), weekly and bi-weekly reports on changes in the prisoner population. He submitted these reports to the Lagerführer. The Rapportführer was also the first recipient of punishment reports against prisoners , reports on the number of prisoners receiving food rations etc. He also participated with members of the Politiche Abteilung in executing prisoners. In larger camps, he too had his deputies ( 2. Rapportführer and 3. Rapportführer ). The report officers were the direct superiors of the leaders of the prisoner blocks (Blockführer) and their auxilaries (Hilfblockfüher).
Each Blockführer (the lowest position in the SS administrative hierarchy) supervised one block in the main camp or, several blocks in Birkenau and Monowitz, including sub-camps. During the early times in the history of Auschwitz, each Blockführer probably had a deputy known as a Hilfsblockführer (Assistant Block leader).
The basic duties of the Blockführers included ensuring the cleanliness, order and discipline of their prisoners. They counted their prisoner roll-call and gave the figures to the Rapportführer. Once the prisoners had left for their work assignments, the Blockführer were on duty in the SS guard rooms at the camp entrance gates, where they counted and noted the serial numbers of the prisoners leaving camp. They also carried out joint searches of prisoners as they left or returned to the camp.
Regards,
Peter Hertel
Regards,
