[Stamp] Personal Staff Reichsfuehrer SS Document Administration ' File No. AR 1/24
The Chief of the SS-Main-Office Economics and Administration
Berlin, 30 April 1942
Ch.Po/Ha 2192/42 g.
Re: Attachment of the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps to the SS-Main-Office Economics and Administration.
The Reichsfuehrer-SS Berlin, W 11.
Prinz Albrechtstr 8
Reichsfuehrer !
[pencilled note] education and supervision remain the same [initials] HH [?]
[Stamp] : Secret
Today I report on the present situation of the concentration camp and on measures I have taken in order to carry out your order o'f the 3rd March 1942.
198
R-129
I
1. At the outbreak of war there existed the following concentration camps:
a. Dachau 1939 4,000 prisoners, today 8,000
b. Sachsenhausen 1939 6,500 prisoners, today 10,000
c. Buchenwald 1939 5,300 prisoners, today 9,000
d. Mauthausen 1939 1,500 prisoners, today 5,500
e. Flossenburg ' 1939 1,600 prisoners, today 4,700
/. Ravensbrueck 1939 2,500 prisoners, today 7,500
2. In the years 1940 to 1942 nine further camps were erected,
viz:
a. Auschwitz
b. Neuengamme
c. Gusen
d. Natzweiler '
e. Gross-Rosen
f. Lublin
g. Niederhagen .
hi Stutthof
i. Arbeitsdorf
3. These 15 camps conformed to -the organization of the old concentration camps in regard to duties, work, composition of the commanding staffs, and discipline of camps for protective custody. Besides these 15 camps the following special duties have been assigned:
a. to SS-Special Camp Hinzert: Commanding staff and guards
are under my orders. The camp for protective custody is attached to the Reich-Main-Office-Security. No work-shops, no opportunity. ,
b. Camp for the protection of youth—Moringen: No workshops.
c. Camp for the protection of youth—Uckermark: Is being erected.
d. Camp for the protection of youth Litzmannstadt: is planned.
4. In the last weeks the Reich-Main-Office-Security and the Command-Authority of the Waffen-SS have applied for SS-Com-manders for the Camps planned by these authorities in Riga, Kiew, and Bobruisk.
I think it right to submit such plans to the SS-Main-Office-Economics and Administration, so that they may be planned and carried out uniformly by one authority for SS and Police, so as it is now. There may easily be lack of collaboration and consequently ensuing muddle.
199
R-129
II
1. The war has brought about a marked change in the structure of the concentration camps and has changed their duties with regard to the employment of the prisoners. The custody of prisoners for the sole reasons of security, education, or prevention is no longer the main consideration. The mobilization of all prisoners who are fit for work, for purposes of the war now, and for purposes of construction in the forthcoming peace, come to the foreground more and more.
2. From this knowledge some necessary measures result with the aim to transform the concentration camps into organizations more suitable for the economic tasks, while formerly they were merely politically interested.
3. For this reason I have gathered together all the leaders of the former inspectorate of Concentration camps, all Camp-Commanders, and all managers and supervisors of work on the 23rd and 24th April 1942, I have explained personally to them this new development. I have compiled in the order attached the main essentials which have to be brought into effect with the utmost urgency if the commencement of work for purposes of the armament industry is not to be delayed.
4. The transfer of the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps, to the Main-Office Economics and Administration has been carried out under full agreement of all Main-Offices concerned. The collaboration of all authorities goes on without any friction, the abolishment of lack of coordination in the concentration camps is hailed everywhere as the shedding of the fetters hindering
Pr0gress- Heil Hitler!
Signed: POHL
SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Waffen-SS.
1 enclosure.
Stamp: Personal Staff Reichsfuëhrer SS Document Administration File No. AR/1/24
The Chief of the SS-Main-Office-Economics and Administration Ch. Po/Ha. Berlin, 30th April 1942
Distribution: Chief Department D all Camp-Commanders ' all work-managers
all authorities economics r , , ,
[pencilled note]
agreed
[initials] HH [?]
200
Order
The instructions and advices given to the camp-commanders and work managers at the occasion of the discussions of 24th and 25th April 1942, are herewith issued as an order to become applicable as from the 1st May 1942.
1. The management of a concentration camp and of all the economic enterprises of the SS within its sphere of organization is in the hands of the camp-commander. He alone is therefore responsible that the economic enterprises are as productive as possible.
2. For the management of the economic enterprises the campcommander avails himself of the services of the work-manager. The work-manager is bound to report to the camp-commander whether he expects any risks or disadvantages in carrying out an order of the camp-commander with regard to the work or the economic results.
3. By this duty the work-manager becomes jointly responsible if any damages of failures ensue with regard to the work or the economic results.
4. The camp-commander alone is responsible for the employment of the labor available. This employment must be, in the true meaning of the word, exhaustive, in order to obtain the greatest measure of performance.
Work is allotted by the Chief of the Department D centrally and 'alone. The camp-commanders themselves may not accept on their own initiative work offered by third parties and may not negotiate about it. -
5. There is no limit to working hours. Their duration depends on the kind of working establishments in the camps and the kind of work to be done. They are fixed by the camp-commanders alone.
6. Any circumstances which may result is a shortening of work
hours (e.g. meals, roll-calls) have therefore to be restricted to the minimum, which cannot be condensed any more. It is forbidden to allow long walks to the place of working and noon intervals only for eating purposes. *
7. Guard-duties have to be freed from their traditional rigidity
and to be made more flexible having regard to the coming tasks of peace. Sentries on horseback, watchdogs, movable watch towers and movable obstacles are to be developed. -' 8. Much more than before is required from each and every camp-commander if they carry out his order correctly. Hardly any camp is like any other one, therefore no uniform instructions shall be issued. But the whole responsibility is shifted on to the
initiative of the camp-commander. He needs a clear professional knowledge of matters military and economic and. he must be a 'clever and wise leader of men, whom he has to weld into a big potential of performance.
Signed: POHL
SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Waffen-SS For correct copy: Schiller
SS-Obersturmfuehrer and Adjutant *