Strafkompanie
German word for the penal work division in Nazi concentration camps
Strafkompanie ("Punitive Unit") is the German word for the penal labor division in the Nazi concentration camps.
SK was the abbreviation used in the concentration camps for the notorious Strafkompanies. These penal divisions were yet another hardship that could be forced on the already exhausted inmates of the camps. The prisoners of the Strafkompanie were given hard work, e.g., in the quarries, where most "workers" died. In the SK they worked longer hours than other inmates, had shorter breaks, less food, more brutal treatment, and they lived isolated in separate barracks.
The Strafkompanie consisted of all kinds of prisoners: criminals, Jews, Soviet POWs, political prisoners, priests, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti. The criteria for the selection to the penal division were arbitrary.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Strafkompanie”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Kokardezwartwitzwart.png by Domie at Dutch Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
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