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THE STRUCTURE OF THE AUSCHWITZ GARRISON

THE SS GARRISON OF THE AUSCHWITZ

THE STRUCTURE OF THE AUSCHWITZ GARRISON

The SS essentially consisted of two organizational units: administrative offices in the form of seven departments (see chart below) and sentry units belonging to the Death’s Head Battalion (SS-Totenkopfsturmbann) of Auschwitz.

This battalion had its own commander, Friedrich Hartjenstein, the supervisor for a small number of organizational staff, divided into units: provisions, command, and training. All the units were subordinate directly to the camp commandant until November 1943. Later, following the division of Auschwitz into three separate entities—Auschwitz I-Stammlager, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and Auschwitz III-Aussenlager with its headquarters in Monowitz—each received a separate commander and several guard companies. The commandant had complete authority over the camp and the SS garrison. In turn, he reported to the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps. After the inspectorate became part of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamat, SS-WVHA) on March 3, 1942, the concentration camp commandants came under the authority of Office Group D (Amtsgruppe D) in the SS-WVHA. The Commandant of Auschwitz I was responsible for the functioning of the entire camp and at the same time, was the commander of the whole garrison. Dedicated guard battalions, as a separate structure still existed until May 1944, when three sentry battalions were established at each of the Auschwitz concentration camps. This also changed the numbering of the companies in Birkenau and Monowitz.

In November 1944 another reorganization took place: the battalion of Birkenau disbanded and it became subordinate to the companies of the sentry units in the main camp.

SS men in uniforms, carrying rifles, marching along the wooden fence. There are tall trees growing behind the fence and buildings in the distance. A dog in the foreground.

Source: USHMM, no. 34770

SS men from the guard battalion on their way to practice at the shooting range in Rajsko.

SS men in uniforms with rifles at a field shooting range. They are gathering in groups around tables with packages of rifle ammunition and documents. Two of them are writing something down.

Source: USHMM, no. 34773

The SS men during their shooting practice at the range.

The first page of the Auschwitz garrison order from November 22, 1943 related to the division of the camp into three separate entities.

Source: A-BSMA

Departments of camp administration:

Department I – Abteilung I

Department II – Abteilung II

Department III – Abteilung III

Department IIIa – Abteilung IIIa

Department IV – Abteilung IV

Department V – Abteilung V

Department VI – Abteilung VI

Commandant’s Office (Kommandantur)

Matters regarding the SS employed in the camp administration, to a certain extent the sentry units, the provision of communications, transport and weapons.

Political Department (Politische Abteilung)

Police custody over prisoners; conduct and preservation of prisoner records; implementation of police methods to control the flow of information in and out of the camp; infiltratation of the prisoner community; combating the camp resistance; and management over the crematoria.��

Camp Supervision (Schutzhaftlagerführung)

All prisoner affairs, including living quarters, camp discipline and order, and to a certain point, also prisoner labor.

Labor Department (Arbeitseinsatz)

Created in 1942 to manage prisoner labor.

Administration (Verwaltung)

Provisions for the SS and prisoners; supplying clothing; finances; holding prisoner property; appropriation, securing and shipment of the property of the victims; and maintenance of camp equipment.

Medical Service (Standortartz)

Management of all medical matters in the camp, provision of medical and therapeutic care for the SS staff; supervision over the use of prisoners in experiments and extermination of deportees.��

SS Staff Welfare and Training (Fürsorge, Schulung und Truppenbetreuung)

Provision of ideological and political training for the SStogether with organization of cultural and educational events for the garrison.

A graph showing the age structure of SS men from KL Auschwitz from 16 to 64 years.

Developed by: Dr Piotr Setkiewicz

Age structure of the Auschwitz concentration camp staff in 1944.

Developed by: Dr Piotr Setkiewicz

Education.

A graph showing the religious beliefs of SS men from KL Auschwitz: Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Gottgläubig, Greek Catholic and others.

Developed by: Dr Piotr Setkiewicz

Religious denomination.

A graph showing the pre-1939 citizenship of SS men from Auschwitz: German and Austrian, Yugoslav, Romanian, Polish, Czechoslovak, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Estonian.

Developed by: Dr Piotr Setkiewicz

Citizenship before 1939

Members of the SS directed to serve at Auschwitz during the initial period of its existence came mostly from the staff of other concentration camps, mainly Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and Mauthausen. There were also those from training centers and the Waffen-SS frontline units, including those who were disabled and convalescents. The frequent personnel turnover was indeed a rule during the entire operation period of Auschwitz. SS were also transferred to other camps and to frontline SS divisions. However, in trying to address the lack of available staff, an increasing number of older SS men were sent to Auschwitz among them were ones unable to fulfill their military service for various reasons and so-called ‘ethnic Germans’ (Volksdeutsche) from Yugoslavia, Romania, and Hungary.

Rudolf Höss
A middle-aged man in a German SS uniform, remains serious. Glancing at the side of the camera. Dark hair, combed back smoothly.

SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss was born in 1900. From May 1940 to November 1943, he was the commandant of Auschwitz, and later became the head of the SS-WVHA Office Group D I. From that position, he was reassigned to the camp to be the commander of the SS garrison, and from May 11 to July 26, 1944 Höss supervised the mass extermination of Hungarian Jews. After the war, he was sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw on April 2, 1947 and was executed on April 16, 1947 in Oświęcim.

Source: A-BSMA

Arthur Liebenhenschel
A middle-aged man in a German SS uniform, remains serious. Glancing at the side of the camera. Dark hair, combed back smoothly.

SS-Obersturmbannführer Arthur Liebehenschel was born in 1901. In 1943, he became the head of D I Zentralamt in the WVHA and the Deputy to Concentration Camps Inspector Richard Glücks. From November 1943 to May 1944, he served as the commandant of Auschwitz, to be transferred afterwards to the same position at the Majdanek camp, from where he was later reassigned to the Supreme SS and Police Command Office in Trieste, Italy. After the war, the Supreme National Tribunal in Krakow sentenced Liebehenschel to death on December 22, 1947. He was executed on January 24, 1948, in a Cracow prison.

Source: A-BSMA

Richard Baer
A middle-aged man in a German SS uniform, remains serious. Glancing at the side of the camera.

SS-Sturmbannführer Richard Baer, born in 1911, served as the third commandant of Auschwitz from May 1944 to January 1945. Following the liquidation of the camp, he was moved to the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp where he was the commandant until the camp liquidation. In the postwar period, he hid near Hamburg until December 1960, under the false name Karl Neumann until he wasarrested and imprisoned in Frankfurt am Main. Baer was the main defendant in the second Auschwitz trial; however, he died in custody on June 17, 1963.

Source: A-BSMA

Gerhard Palitzsch
A middle-aged man in a German SS uniform, remains serious. Glancing at the side of the camera. Hair combed back smoothly.

SS-Hauptscharführer Gerhard Palitzsch, born in the town of Grossopitz-Tharandt near Dresden in 1913, was one of the first SS to be dispatched to Auschwitz, already in May 1940.He served there as a non-commissioned SS Report Officer (Rapportführer) in the main camp, then in Birkenau in the men’s camp BIb and BIId, in the Roma camp BIIe and in the sub-camp called Brün in Brno, Czech Republic. Being responsible for carrying out executions by shooting in the courtyard of Block 11 at the Death Wall Palitzsch was sentenced to prison by the SS court but soon afterwards was sent to the frontline Waffen-SS Company where he died in combat in 1944.

Source: A-BSMA

Testimony of Franciszek Gulba, born on October 10, 1899 in Żyglin. He was deported to Auschwitz in February 1941 and received prisoner number 10245.

… One evening over a dozen individuals were brought to Block 11. They were probably families consisting ofwomen, men, and children andspeaking to each other in German. They were taken to the basement of Block 11, and locked in a cell, which was under our room. ... Around noon the next day, the men of the group were brought out first and escorted in twos into the courtyard of Block 11 withtheir hands tied behind them with wire. The block elder pushed the condemned against the Wall of Death. Rapportführer Palitzsch carried out the executions. During breaks, before the next two were brought to him, he would throw his rifle over his shoulder and with complete calmness he strolled around the courtyard, smoking a cigarette. At the end it was the turn of awoman with child—we assumed that they were mother and daughter. The obese mother was holding her girl by the hand. Both were stripped down to their shirts. Palitzsch executed the mother first. When she slipped to the ground, the child threw up crying at the body lying down and desperately cried out, ‘Mom! Mom!’ Palitzsch shot the girl, but apparently missed, because the child still covered her mother’s body and was shaking it. The block elder ran to Palitzsch and held the girl, giving him the opportunity to take aim properly. After a while, the child was dead.��

Source: Franciszek Gulba, A-BSMA, Testimonies Fond, vol. 70, p. 46.

Testimony of Helena Kłys, born February 22, 1922 in Oświęcim. She worked as domestic help in the residence of SS-Hauptscharführer Gerhard Palitzsch.

When I started working in Palitzsch’s home, he was living with his wife and three-year-old daughter, Helga. Camp prisoners were brought to perform the more arduous work in the house and in the garden. Of course, they were always guarded by a Post. When Palitzsch was at home, I did not talk to the prisoners as they warned me against doing so beingafraid that he would note their number and later finish them off in the camp. When Mrs. Palitzsch was present, I risked talking to the prisonerswith caution. Only later, I discovered that Palitzsch was such a dreaded man in the camp. I could not believe it. At home he was the most wonderful human being.

Source: Helena Kłys, A-BSMA, Testimonies Fond, vol. 82, pp. 159‒162.

Camp construction office. A man is sitting at a table, another is standing above him. They are leaning over sheets of paper. There is a glass partition in the middle of the room. Under it, there is a table covered with papers, plans and documents.

Source: A-BSMA

The camp Construction Office. The picture was taken during the war.

Three SS men in uniforms standing in front of the SS-Unterkunftsgebäude building. Railway tracks on the right. Winter, snow.

Source: A-BSMA, from M. Ganobis

SS men in front of the SS-Unterkunftsgebäude.

SS men from KL Auschwitz crew. Five middle-aged men in SS uniforms, with insignia. Among them, Richard Baer, Rudolf Höss and Josef Mengele. They talking, laughing, smoking cigarettes. A hill and a forest behind them.

Souce: USHMM

A photograph from Karl Hoecker's album. In the foreground on the left are Richard Baer, the last commandant of Auschwitz, and Rudolf Höss. In the background on the left Josef Mengele.

SS men in uniforms, with helmets on their heads, standing in a row and presenting weapons. One is saluting. Four men are hanging two SS flags on both sides of the wooden gate. On the right, an inscription above the gate: Lazaret Auschwitz.

Source: USHMM

A photograph from Karl Hoecker's album. Opening of the new hospital for SS men in Birkenau.

Women from the SS women's auxiliary formations in uniforms and three SS men in uniforms during their stay at the recreation center for SS men in Międzybrodzie (SS-Sola Hütte). They are standing on a wooden bridge, laughing, and one of the SS men is playing the accordion.

Source: USHMM

A photograph from Karl Hoecker's album of women from the female SS auxiliary formations during their stay at the SS rest centre in Międzybrodzie (SS-Sola Hütte).

Eduard Wirths
A middle-aged man in a German SS uniform and a cap with a skull, remains serious. A photo taken with a building in the background. Another man standing in the distance, leaning on crutches.

Source: A-BSMA

SS-Sturmbannführer Eduard Wirths was born in 1909 and from September 1942 to January 1945 he served as the Auschwitz garrison physician. In the camp, he conducted experiments on inmates with cancer and pharmaceutical trials on other prisoners. After the liquidation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, he was stationed at the camps of Mittlebau, Bergen-Belsen, and, finally, Neuengamme. In September 1945 he committed suicide.

Source: A-BSMA

SS-Obersturmführer Johann Paul Kremer was born in 1883. He was a Doctor of Medicine as well as Philosophy. From August 1942 to November 1942, he served as the camp physician at Birkenau. In Auschwitz, conducted experiments in determining changes that occur within the human body as a result of starvation. He also conducted selections. After the war, the Supreme National Tribunal in Cracow sentenced him to death on November 22, 1947. This penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. However, in 1958 Kremer regained his freedom. Two years later, during a court trial in Münster, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was stripped of the ‘professor’ and ‘doctor of philosophy’ titles. The court, however, took into account his imprisonment in Poland and he was released from custody. He died in 1965.

Otto Moll
A middle-aged man in a German SS uniform, remains serious. Eyes directed towards the camera. Light hair, combed back smoothly.

Source: A-BSMA

SS-Hauptschartführer Otto Moll was born in 1915 and he was a gardener by profession. He served at Auschwitz from May 1941 to January 1945, where he held various positions such as a Kommandoführer of a unit of gardeners, director of the men’s camp labor service, head of the sub-camp Gleiwitz I, and the director and chief of the crematoria at Birkenau. He was one of most sadistic murderers in the camp. Arrested in May 1945. On December 13, 1945, he was found guilty and sentenced to death by the American Military Tribunal in Dachau in the first trial of the camp staff. His execution took place at the end of May 1946 in a prison in Landsberg.

Maximilian Grabner
A middle-aged man in a German SS uniform, remains serious. Glancing at the side of the camera.

Source: A-BSMA

SS-Untersturmführer and Kriminal-Assistent Maximilian Grabner was born in 1905 in Vienna. At Auschwitz, he was the Director of the Political Department from June 1940 to December 1943. He was later arrested for committing fraud and sentenced by an SS court to 12 years in prison. After the war, he was tried in Poland in Cracow before the Supreme National Tribunal, in the so-called trial of forty, sentenced to death and executed.

A note accusing SS-Sturmann Effinger of having been too friendly toward prisoners.

Source: A-BSMA

Testimony of Tadeusz Paczuła, born in Gliwice on November 26, 1920. From December 1940 he was imprisoned in Auschwitz and received camp number 7725.

TRANSCRIPTION:

If an SS man wanted a day off, he drove the prisoner beyond the place of supervision, the so-called postenketta. He shot him and got three days' leave for each prisoner he shot. This was called being shot during escape when the prisoner was not escaping at all. Often, they didn't even make an effort for him to have the appearance of escaping. Sometimes if someone had to be ‘cleaned up’, he was ‘cleaned up’ on the way. He was simply shot and was “auf der Flucht erschoss”.

There were those who committed suicide. These were few, but there were people who could not stand in relation to the general mortality rate. These were people who simply could not stand the camp regime. They either hanged themselves, or cut their arteries, or simply went to the wires. ‘To go to the wires’ was a camp jargon expression. To the wires surrounding the camp. These wires were charged with electricity, but you didn't die from this, because before you reached the charged wires, there was a low fence with halt signs and a corpse skull, and the sentry, who stood in the tower, you know, had the opportunity to earn some three days leave, shot at this alleged escapee. It was not an escape; it was simply suicide.

Source: A-BSMA

Audio alternate text

In the summer of 1942, a company of guard-dog keepers, the Hundestaffel, was formed in Birkenau because it was expected that the dogs would be able to partially take the place of the SS, especially in guarding the women’s work Kommandos. With the creation of a women’s division in the main camp, female SS guards appeared. They were known as SS-Aufseherinnen. A separate hierarchy was created, with the SS-Oberaufseherin at the helm of this command structure. In addition, the commander of the garrison oversaw the female auxiliary staff, SS-Helferinnen: typists, telephone operators, communications technicians, and nurses or sisters—the Schwestern des Deutsches Rotes Kreuzes.

Four women - German Red Cross nurses in white aprons and three SS men in uniforms. They are standing in the square, a wooden fence and buildings behind them. They are laughing.

Nurses of the German Red Cross at the opening ceremony of the SS hospital in Birkenau.

Source: USHMM, no. 34816

Marie Mandel
A middle-aged woman in a trial photo. Dressed in a white blouse with a collar. Dark hair, pinned up. Eyes directed towards the camera. She has a piece of paper with her name on her chest. Remains serious.

SS-Oberaufseherin Marie Mandel was born in 1912. She served as supervisor at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. From October 1942 to November 1944, she was the chief supervisor in the women’s camp at Birkenau, though at the end of 1944, she was redeployed to Dachau. After the war, a Polish court sentenced her to death. She was executed in January 1948.

Source: A-BSMA

Testimony of Stanisława Rachwałowa, born on June 29, 1906. On December 1, 1942, she was deported to Auschwitz and received the camp number 26281.

[…] among prisoners, she was known as Mańcia Migdał [Molly Almond – trans.]—Oberaufseherin Maria Mandel, age about 30, 1.60 meters tall, a strong build, curved legs in the shape of the letter O, and with a heavy walk. She was a light blonde with a very pretty face, regular features. She had an oblong face, blue eyes with well outlined eyebrows, light complexion, with very nice, strong blushes, her red lips were full, teeth nice and healthy and bright white. Her high-pitched voice was sharp, energetic, and clear. She only knew German, spoke with a Viennese dialect because she was from Vienna, and she was a professional boxer […]. With one punch she could dislocate someone’s jaw, but her specialty was her kick to the underbelly, which she did on both women and men.

Source: Stanisława Rachwałowa, Archives of the Institute of National Remembrance, Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, NTN 84.

… Mandel remembered the children’s block, she often handed out packages sent to those who died before they got them. I saw her several times in this kind of situation, with the happy smiling faces of young children sitting on her lap. The children ran to her trustingly and stretched out her hands for the gifts, shouting joyfully. The next day, Mandel took part in selections on the ramp. There were also children there, who were sent straight to their deaths, as she looked on calmly …

Source: Stanisława Rachwałowa, Przegląd Lekarski 1, 1990, p. 187.��

Irma Grese
A middle-aged woman wearing a blouse with a collar and a dark vest. Light hair, partially tied back. Glancing at the side of the camera. Remains serious.

Source: Public Domain

SS-Oberaufseherin Irma Grese was born in 1923. In July 1942, she became a SS female supervisor in Ravensbrück, where in March 1943 she was transferred to Birkenau from. Initially, Grese supervised the Kommandos employed in the construction of roads, but later she became the head of various blocks in sectors BIa, BIb, BIIb and BIIc. In December 1944 she was appointed as the supervisor for the reporting. In January 1945, transferred to Ravensbrück, then in Bergen-Belsen she was assigned as a director of the Employment Department, Arbeitsdienstführerin. She was arrested on April 17, 1945 and tried along with the staff of the Bergen-Belsen camp from 17 September to 17 November 1945 in Lüneburg. She was sentenced to death and executed on December 13, 1945, in a prison in Hameln. ��

Therese Brandl
A middle-aged woman with headphones on. Dark hair, pinned up. Glancing at the side of the camera. Photo taken in the courtroom.

Source: A-BSMA

SS-Aufseherin Therese Brandl was born in 1901. From April 1942 to November 1944, she worked as a supervisor at Auschwitz. Initially, she served in prisoner clothing storehouse, and later moved to the sub-camp in Rajsko, and then worked as a Rapportführerin in the women’s camp. At the end of 1944, she was transferred to one of the sub-camps of Dachau—Mühldorf. A few weeks before the arrival of the Americans Brandl abandoned her post in the camp. Her capture came about in August 1945 in Bergen, and then she was extradited to the Polish authorities and Brandl was sentenced to death during the first trial of Auschwitz staff on December 22, 1947, and executed on January 24, 1948. ��

An order for 10 manicure towels for female SS guards.

Source: A-BSMA

The attempt to use Ukrainian guardsfrom the SS training camp in Trawniki to watch over the prisoners in Auschwitz, ended in disaster. After three months, some of them, probably fearing for their lives, deserted their post with their weapons in hand. Some of the escapees were captured, others were shot, and the rest were then sent to Germany.

One of the offices at the SS Institute of Hygiene. Tables, chairs, ashtrays on the tables, and a vase with flowers on one of them. A portrait of Hitler hanging on the wall.

One of the offices in the SS Hygiene Institute.

Source: A-BSMA

It should be noted that the commandant of Auschwitz, also commanded the SS men who were employed in a variety of SS units with their headquarters near the camp: the Waffen-SS Hygiene Institute in Rajsko, the Central Construction Administration of the Waffen-SS and Police (branch office in Auschwitz), and the sentries in Auschwitz and in companies belonging to the SS, such as: DEST, Deutsche Lebensmittel, DAW.

Military support was immediately available in case of an emergency, such as: a mass escape, prisoner rebellion inside the camp, or a possible attack by the Polish resistance. In such an instance, the commandant could count on the support of local police and the Wehrmacht units, and the many Luftwaffe air defense troops—a total of nearly 900 soldiers stationed in the local area. There were also paramilitary formations ready to assist: Bahnschutz, Werkschutz, Selbzschutz and, from 1944, the Volkssturm. In total, there were more than 5,000 security personnel under arms stationed around Auschwitz.