Strafkompanie ("Punitive Unit") is the German word for the penal work division in the

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

. ''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 Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, Russian soldiers, political prisoners,

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

s, Jehovah's Witnesses,

homosexuals Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

Roma Gypsies The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with si ...

. The criteria for the selection to the penal division were arbitrary.

References

*Eugen Kogon:''The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them''. Berkley Trade (July 1, 1998). . Chapter 8.
Wolfgang Sofsky & William Templer: ''The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp'', Princeton University Press,1999
{{ISBN, 0-691-00685-7 page 218 Nazi concentration camps

See also

References