Subcamp (SS)

The term subcamp in the context of Nazi Germany (German: KZ-Außenlager) refers to those outlying detention centres (Haftstätten) that came under the command of a main concentration camp run by the SS within the Third Reich. It enables a distinction to be made between the main camps (or Stammlager) and the subcamps (Außenlager or Außenkommandos) subordinated to them. Survival conditions in the subcamps were, in many cases, poorer for the prisoners than those in the main camps.

Within a concentration camp prisoners had to carry out various tasks. They were not supposed to be idle whilst interned. The work could even be pointless and vexatious, without any useful output. Based on military language the SS designated such prisoner task forces as "details" or Kommandos; the generic term being the "works details" (Arbeitskommandos) of a camp. For example, in Dachau concentration camp there was a "Crematorium Works Detail" (Arbeitskommando Krematorium) which was put together from a group of concentration camp prisoners; they were separately accommodated and were to have no contact with the other prisoners. Kommandos that were charged with construction tasks were overseen by prisoner functionaries known as Kapos.

Whether a prisoner was assigned to a physically easy or difficult Kommando affected his chances of survival. A Kommando within a building, for example carrying out technical work, was more bearable for prisoners than Kommandos who found themselves working in the open in winter during freezing temperatures.

Dachau was the first concentration camp (known as a "KZ") that Reichsführer-SS Himmler had built. It was already in existence in 1933 and developed into a prototype for subsequent concentration camps such as Buchenwald, which appeared in 1937. But even Dachau concentration camp was not geographically restricted to Dachau itself. In addition to the Kommandos that had to be formed within the camp itself, were soon added Kommandos that worked outside the camp, for example the herb plantation detail (Kommando der Kräuterplantage) or the works details assigned to peat cutting. The SS increasingly deployed prisoners outside their concentration camp and made them build installations such as roads, ditches, barracks or SS recreation homes. Concentration camp prisoners were even used for the private purposes of senior Nazi officers: for Oswald Pohl's country house of Brüningsau, for Himmler's Hunting Lodge and also for the country house of Hans Loritz, the commandant of Dachau. Even Eleonore Baur, a personal friend of Hitler's, was given her own Kommando.

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