''Lagerführer'' (Camp Leader) was a paramilitary title of the
SS, specific to the ''
Totenkopfverbände'' (Concentration Camp Service). A ''Lagerführer'' was the head SS officer assigned to a particular
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
, serving as the commander of the said camp.
The term ''Lagerführer'' was distinct and separate from the position of ''Kommandant''. ''Lagerführers'' were typically employed in camp complexes, where a main camp would be divided into one or more smaller camps. The most recognizable example of this was the
Auschwitz command and control system, in which a single ''Kommandant'' oversaw the activities of three subordinate ''Lagerführers'', each in charge of one of three main
Auschwitz concentration camps.
The title of ''Lagerführer'' was typically ''not'' used to denote commanders of "sub-camps". Sub-camps were considered satellite work areas of a single Concentration Camp, often overseen by a senior SS-NCO or a junior SS officer who in turn either answered to their own ''Lagerführer'' or the ''Kommandant'' of the main camp.
Sources
* Zentner, Christian & Bedürftig, Friedemann, ''The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'', (Macmillan), New York (1991)
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Nazi paramilitary ranks
Nazi concentration camp occupations