Rudolf Hoess - Commandant of Auschwitz

Eicke knew his men and he knew how to go to work on them, and the training he gave them was farsighted.

In 1934 he became the first Inspector of Concentration Camps. To begin with he directed affairs from Dachau, but later he went to Berlin in order to be near the Reichsführer SS.

He now started with great enthusiasm to remold the existing camps Esterwegen, Sachsenburg, Lichtenburg, and Columbia on the Dachau model. Officers and men from Dachau were constantly transferred to the other camps in order to inject them with the “Dachau spirit” and with a dose of Prussian militarism.

The Reichsführer SS gave him a completely free hand, knowing that there was no more suitable person to whom he could entrust the camps. Himmler had often emphasized his complete agreement with Eicke’s views concerning the concentration camps and the “enemies of the state.”

In Berlin, Eicke became convinced that the jolly, comradely, Bavarian type of military “instruction,” with plenty of sociable evenings and a lot of Bavarian beer, was quite insufficient for the training of a really efficient soldier, capable of being employed in any capacity.

He therefore looked for a Prussian “instructor” and found one in Schulze, a police captain, whom he then charged with the task of instilling some Prussian spirit into the easygoing Bavarian methods, and of giving the officers and men some of the old Prussian type of military training. It caused a lot of ill-feeling in Dachau, when the “Prussian pig” initiated his more rigorous system of training. The older members of the Dachau guard were never able to get over it, and they obstructed Schulze to such a degree that after a year they succeeded in getting rid of him.

He was told that the reason for his sudden dismissal was that although he was an excellent officer and had achieved exceptional results by his methods of training, yet he was not a National Socialist or SS man and therefore did not understand how to handle the men properly!

Eicke retained his habit, both when he was Inspector and afterward, of talking with the guards and the lower ranks without their superior officers being present. In this way, he enjoyed a popularity and devotion in the eyes of his men which was exceptional even in the SS (where a special value was placed on comradeship), and which was keenly observed by the Reichsführer SS. The superior officers greatly disapproved of this habit of Eicke’s. For one thing, Eicke got to know all that went on in the camp and nothing of any importance was hidden from him. For another, he was kept constantly informed about the behavior of the SS officers, both on and off duty, and the SS men naturally made use of this opportunity to tell some malicious tales. Many SS officers had to answer to Eicke for matters which existed only in the imagination of the SS men who had recounted them.

Eicke, however, attained his object and got all the camps completely under his control.

Later on he had letter boxes put up- in every camp, which could only be opened by him and which gave every SS man a means of communicating reports, complaints, and denunciations direct to him. He also had his confidants among the prisoners in every camp, who, unknown to the others, informed him of anything that was worth knowing.

From the start of his activities as Inspector of Concentration Camps Eicke placed a special importance on increasing the strength of the guards in the camps.

Up to the end of 1935, the financing of the concentration camps was a matter for the districts concerned, but this did not apply to the financing of the guards. Up till then Eicke had paid his men out of contributions from the treasury, subsidies from the Party, and SS bank credits and canteen profits.

Finally he got the Reichsführer SS to agree that he should ask the Führer to make a decision in the matter. The Führer authorized an establishment of twenty-five companies of 100 men each who were to be financed out of state funds. The financing of the concentration camps remained the responsibility of the various districts until further notice.

Eicke had now taken the first decisive step toward building up the strength of the guards, which were later called the Death’s Head formations.

In the meantime plans and preparations were made for the construction of further concentration camps. The acquisition of suitable sites and the arrangements for the necessary finance gave rise to great difficulties which were nevertheless overcome by Eicke’s perseverance.

Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald were created. They were erected from the start by prisoners under Eicke’s administration, who were alone responsible for deciding on the way they were to be built. As a result he came into sharp conflict with Pohl, who had meanwhile been put in charge of all SS building operations and was responsible for financing them.

The Esterwegen camp was closed down and transferred to Sachsenhausen, similarly Berlin-Columbia. Sachsenburg, Lich-tenburg, and Bad Suiza were transferred to Buchenwald. Lichtenburg then became a women’s camp. In addition, Flossenburg, Mauthausen, and Gross-Rosen were also under Eicke’s administration before the war. At first these were entirely labor camps, which Eicke had planned for use in the quarries acquired by the SS, but they very soon became independent concentration camps.

Eicke built all these camps autocratically, using the experiences he had gained to assist him in his perpetual battle of opinions with Pohl.

Pohl already wanted more space to accommodate the prisoners and he also foresaw the future development of the camps more clearly than Eicke, who adopted a narrow-minded attitude in this matter. Eicke was in favor of keeping the camps compact, so that they could be more easily guarded, and he was against any substantial enlargement. The following is an example of this, which Ï experienced for myself when I was adjutant at Sachsenhausen.

It is 1938. Plans have been made for the construction of a new women’s camp. Lichtenburg is not suitable for a concentration camp and is far too small. After much search, Pohl and Eicke have picked on an area by the lake near Ravens-brück. The Reichsführer SS has expressed his approval. A conference is arranged to take place between Pohl and Eicke on the site to discuss details of construction. The commandant of Sachsenhausen who is to provide the prisoners for the building work and who has to arrange for their accommodation is summoned to attend, and also myself. The question of the size of the women’s concentration camp is still undecided. Eicke estimates that at the very most there will be not more than 2,000 female prisoners. Pohl wants to build for 10,000. Eicke says that he is crazy and that number will never be reached.

Pohl wants the camp to be built in such a way that it can be extended in the future to hold the number of prisoners that he envisaged. Eicke sticks stubbornly to his figure of 2,000 and considers that even this figure is unreasonably high. Eicke wins with his 2,000!

The Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp is built and later on has to be perpetually enlarged under the most difficult conditions and in a completely unmethodical manner. Ravensbrück ultimately had to accommodate up to 25,000 women. They were crowded together under the most cramped conditions with the inevitable results. Pohl’s judgment was correct and farseeing. Eicke was always narrow-minded and petty in matters relating to concentration camps.

His inability to see sufficiently far ahead was to blame for the fact that the old camp could not be extended to accommodate the enormous increase in numbers that came to be imprisoned during the war.

The extension of the camp was nevertheless continued, to the detriment of the prisoners, who were packed together even more tightly. I have already sufficiently described the consequences of this overcrowding. Not only was it practically impossible to increase the living accommodation, but the water supply and drainage installations, which were barely adequate under normal conditions, could not be improved in any important respect. Thus the way was laid for future defects, which were to prove impossible to remedy.