Prisoner functionaries

In Nazi concentration and labor camps the system of Funktionshäftlinge (singular: Funktionshäftling), or prisoner functionaries was developed.

Also, they were split between good and evil: some of them were true agents of the SS or enjoyed the vested power, while others used their position to help the survival of (at least some) other prisoners.

The Lagerälteste had a key role in the selection of other prisoners as functionaries, making recommendations to the SS.

The Blockschreiber (registrar or barrack clerk) was a record-keeping job that included tasks such as keeping track at roll calls.

These functionaries pushed their fellow prisoners to work harder, hitting, beating, and even killing them.

At Mauthausen, on the other hand, functionary positions remained dominated by criminal prisoners until just before liberation.

Vincenzo and Luigi Pappalettera wrote in their book The Brutes Have the Floor[21] that, every time a new transport of detainees arrived at Mauthausen, Kapo August Adam picked out the professors, lawyers, priests and magistrates and cynically asked them: "Are you a lawyer?

[19][23] The camp's draconian rules, constant threat of beatings, humiliation, punishment, and the practice of punishing entire groups for the actions of one prisoner were psychological and physical torments added to the starvation and physical exhaustion from back-breaking labor.

Prisoner guards were used to push other inmates to work harder, saving the need for paid SS supervision.

[25] Rudolf Höss also testified that some "greens" killed French Jewish women by axing, throttling and tearing them to pieces.

[26] Beginning in October 1944, criminal functionaries from among the German Reichsdeutsche were sought out for transfer to the Dirlewanger Brigade.

[4] On occasion, the functionaries could effect other prisoners' removal from transport lists or even secure new identities in order to protect them from persecution.

[14] This assistance was generally limited to the prisoners in the functionary's own group (fellow citizens or political comrades).

— Heinrich Himmler, 21 June 1944[19]In National Socialism's racial ideology, some races were "superior" and others "inferior".

A knowledge of foreign languages was also advantageous, particularly as the international population of the camps increased, and because the SS preferred a certain level of education.