Disciplinary and Penal Code
The Disciplinary and Penal Code (German: Lagerordnung), also known as the Punishment Catalogue (Strafkatalog), was a set of regulations for prisoners at Nazi concentration camps.
[* 1] Differences were minor: some banned smoking, others allowed prisoners to receive food parcels or visits from family members.
The executive, judicial and legislative were unified, with the separation of powers and system of opposing checks and balances abolished.
To impose capital punishment at Dachau, it would be sufficient to have a judgment from two SS men — appointed by the commandant — and a defense of the accused would no longer be recorded.
[1] These murders led to an investigation when Sophie Handschuh, the mother of one of the dead prisoners, filed a formal complaint to find out what had really happened to her son.
[2][3] SS chief Heinrich Himmler installed Theodor Eicke, a fanatical SS-Oberführer, as the new commandant of Dachau.
Eicke's extreme violence had, only shortly before in March 1933, caused him to be committed for evaluation at a psychiatric clinic at the University of Würzburg.
[4] On 1 October 1933, six months later, Eicke wrote a second edition of the Lagerordnung, adding the Postenpflicht and introducing corporal punishment (flogging).
The second edition established an orderly system, whereby "legally" arrested political opponents could be subjected to torture and execution by the SS.
But to the politicizing rabble-rouser and intellectual agitator — regardless of which direction — let it be said, beware, that you're not nabbed, otherwise you'll be grabbed by the neck and after your own recipe [1], [sic] made to hold your peace.
§6 To be punished with 8 days of hard time and be flogged 25 times with a stick at the beginning and end of the punishment: 1. whoever makes derogatory or sarcastic remarks to an SS member, deliberately neglects the mandatory salute, or by his manner otherwise indicates that he will not submit to the compulsory discipline and order, 2. whoever as prisoner-sergeant, as prisoner-corporal or as foreman exceeds the powers as "Ordnungsmann",[* 6] assumes the rights of a superior with respect to other prisoners, maneuvers preferred work or any other advantage for politically like-minded prisoners, bullies politically otherwise-minded fellow prisoners, makes false reports about them or in some way discriminates.
Whoever exchanges his assigned housing with another, unauthorized without the order of the commander of the company, or incites or misleads fellow prisoners to do so, 2. whoever attaches forbidden or camp-made items in outgoing laundry packages, hides or sews in clothing items etc., 3. whoever enters or leaves barracks, housing, or other buildings outside the stipulated entry ways, crawls through windows or existing openings, 4. whoever smokes in the barracks, toilets and in flammable atmospheres, or stores or sets flammable items down in such areas.
Whoever leaves or enters the prison camp without escort, whoever follows a work column marching out of the camp, unauthorized, 2. whoever in letters or other communication makes derogatory remarks about National Socialist leaders, the state and government, authorities and establishments, exalts Marxist or liberal leaders or "November parties",[* 8] communicates goings-on in the concentration camp, 3. whoever keeps prohibited items, tools, batons and knives in his room or in straw sacks[* 9] §9 Will be punished with 21 days of severe time Whoever carts off government-owned items, of whatever sort, from said location to another, deliberately damages, destroys, squanders, alters or uses for any other than purpose than prescribed; apart from the penalty, according to circumstances, is liable to some or all of the prisoners for any losses incurred.
Whoever accumulates sums of money in the camp, finances prohibited efforts in or outside of the camp, or brings fellow prisoners to heel or binds them to secrecy through money, 2. whoever has sent to himself sums of money which come from prohibited Rote Hilfe collections, or distributes to fellow prisoners, 3. clergy who make announcements that lie outside the framework of pastoral care, slip letters or messages to be passed on, [whoever] seeks the clergy to achieve forbidden objectives, 4. the symbols of the National Socialist state or the pillars of same, makes contemptible, curses, or in other ways disregards, §11 Whoever in the camp, at work, in the barracks, in kitchens and workshops, lavatories and rest areas, for the purpose of agitating, politicizes, gives provocative speeches, meets with others for this purpose, forms cliques, or gads about, gathers true or untrue news to further the goals of the opposition's atrocity-propaganda [sic] about the concentration camp or its institutions, receives, buries, passes along to foreign visitors or others, smuggles outside the camp using a secret message or other means, in writing or verbally gives released or transferred [prisoners], hides in articles of clothing or other items, using rocks, etc.
throws over the camp wall, or draws up ciphers; moreover, whoever for the purpose of inciting, climbs up on barracks roofs or trees, gives or seeks connection outside [the camp] through light signals or other means, or whoever induces others to escape or commit a crime, and to this end, gives advice or supports through other means, by dint of revolutionary justice, will be hanged as an agitator!
a fire, an explosion, water or some other damage to property, moreover whoever carries out actions on the wire hindrance, on a power line in a switching station, on telephone or water lines, on the camp wall or other security installation, on heating or boiler plants, on machines or vehicles, which do not meet the order given, will be punished with death for sabotage.
§14 Whoever offers gifts to an SS man or guard, seeks to win him over with gifts, money or other means, carries out actions for the purpose of subverting the SS troops, enters into a political discussion in the presence of a guard or SS man, about Marxism or other November Party[* 10] or glorifies their leaders, makes derogatory remarks about the SS, SA, the National Socialist state, its leader and its institutions, or appears otherwise insubordinate, moreover whoever at the camp produces or passes along to others forbidden items for the purpose of smuggling secret messages or for purposes of attack, will be held for community perilousness in perpetual solitary confinement.
§15 Whoever repeatedly avoids work, despite previous warning stays away from roll calls for work assignments or head counts, constantly reports to the doctor or dentist without reason, feigns physical suffering or disability doesn't march [out to work], constantly acts lazy and sluggish, was unclean, writes obnoxious letters, steals from fellow prisoners, hits, bullies [others] for their attitude, derides or ridicules, will be punished for incorrigibility with continuous punitive labor, detention, with punitive exercise or be flogged.
§16 Whoever after the onset of curfew moves outside his quarters, forms a crowd with others, on the order of an SS man does not disperse at once, after the onset of the alarm does not immediately seek out his own quarters or during an extended alarm leave the station or the windows open [sic], will be shot at by the nearest SS man or guard.
