Command

(Kommando) - a basic unit in the organization of work in German concentration camps, consisting of several, several dozen or even several hundred prisoners, headed by a kapo functionary prisoner.

Komanda originated from the organization of the first transports that built the camp from scratch (they built barracks, dug diggers, etc.).

In the system of deadly exhaustion, getting to a particular commando was a matter of life or death. The most difficult teams were employed in physical work outside. In the winter they collected the largest number of victims. In some perspective life was not greater than 2-3 weeks. For the lightest, long-term experience, such as work in the kitchen, in the camp orchestra, in the administration or work in sorting various types of property after gassed in Canada.

The outlaws working outside the camp gave the prisoners the opportunity to "organize" additional food rations, illegal tools, medicines (often with the help of the surrounding population). They were easier for those seeking escape from the camp.

The most laborious thing to do was to work on the evacuation of the gas chambers and the service of the crematoria (the commandos were almost always made entirely of Jews), called Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkomand.

With the development of the economic and economic role of the camps, there were committees that served not only the camp itself and its criminal machine but the entire network of German companies. The camp administration hired prisoners as an extremely cheap labor force. Some of the factories were too far away from the parent camp, so that prisoners' committees could be approached daily. At that time, the sub-camps were established.

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