The Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) or in German, IKL (Inspektion der Konzentrationslager; ) was the central Schutzstaffel (SS) administrative and managerial authority for the concentration camps of the Third Reich. Created by Theodor Eicke, it was originally known as the "General Inspection of the Enhanced SS-Totenkopfstandarten", after Eicke's position in the SS. It was later integrated into the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office as "Amt D".
Inspector of all concentration camps
SS-Oberführer Theodor Eicke became commandant of Dachau concentration camp on 26 June 1933. His form of organization at Dachau stood as the model for all later concentration camps. Eicke claimed the title of "Concentration Camps Inspector" for himself by May 1934. As part of the disempowerment of the SA through murder during the "Night of the Long Knives", he had personally shot Ernst Röhm on 1 July 1934.
Shortly after the Röhm affair on 4 July 1934, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler officially named Eicke chief of the Inspektion der Konzentrationslager—IKL (Concentration Camps Inspectorate or CCI). He also promoted Eicke to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer in command of the SS-Wachverbände. Himmler was unquestionably the master of the police organizations and the associated camps, but only those places under the official jurisdiction of the CCI were considered "concentration camps" within the territory comprising the Third Reich.
As a result of the Night of the Long Knives, the remaining SA-run camps were taken over by the SS. The factional police functions of the SS were dissolved on 20 July 1934 with the subordination of the SA. Additionally, the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) was officially established as a department for Eicke. The CCI moved into offices at Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8 in Berlin. While the offices of Reinhard Heydrich's police apparatus was in close physical proximity to the CCI office of Eicke, Himmler kept them distinct and separated; Heydrich policed the Reich, arrested and detained people and then sent them to concentration camps, where the inmates were superintended by the CCI under Eicke. The CCI was subordinate to the SD and Gestapo only in regards to who was admitted to the camps and who was released; what happened inside the camps was at the discretion of the CCI.
The head of the CCI (first Eicke) was subordinate both to the SS-Amt as an SS member but really only reported directly to the Chief of the German Police, Reichsführer-SS Himmler in this role. This form of dual subordination was characteristic of many SS posts and created free room for interpretation for their members, which is how and why the CCI under Eicke became an institution of both the Nazi Party and the state. Eicke had a free hand in bringing the concentration camps to the highest "level of efficiency"; he especially knew how to use this system for his own ends and contributed significantly to the CCI having sole control of all concentration camp prisoners.
Inspectorate from 1934 to 1945 In 1934, the CCI under Eicke was operating outward from Dachau. Changes and reorganization of the many camps were on the horizon. Under Eicke's direction, the smaller detention centers and punitive facilities throughout Germany were consolidated into five principal camps at Esterwegen, Lichtenburg, Moringen, Sachsenburg, and Dachau. The SS camp guards of the CCI came from all walks of life; there were men, women, Germans, non-Germans, Protestants, Catholics, other religious faiths, elderly soldiers, young men, army conscripts, ideologues, sadistic killers, and those who treated inmates humanely. In 1936, the concentration camp guards and administration units were formally designated as the SS-Totenkopfverbände (Death's Head Troops; SS-TV). In April 1936, Eicke was named commander of the SS-Totenkopfverbände and the number of men under his command increased from 2,876 to 3,222; the CCI was also provided official funding through the Reich's budget office, and Eicke was allowed to recruit future troops from the Hitler Youth based on regional needs.
The CCI's leader, Eicke, advocated for a tight-knit group. He also did his best to instill a sense of loyalty within the SS men assigned to the camps, encouraging "bombast, bravado, and deadly earnestness" in carrying out their duties. As the camps expanded into the mid-1930s, so did the number of personnel assigned to the CCI. Eicke's most important subordinate, beginning in 1936, was Richard Glücks. On 1 April 1936, Glücks was named by Eicke military chief of staff of the Inspector of the Wachverbände and later became Eicke's deputy. Many of the administrative duties at the CCI that Eicke preferred to ignore were assumed by Glücks, which over time led to his usurping significant amounts of authority; Glücks subsequent rise to prominence within the Nazi ranks had more to do with Eicke's "ineffectual management" of clerical responsibilities than Glücks' competence.
Ideological training intensified under Eicke's command and military training for new recruits working the camps was increased. Sometime in August 1938, Eicke's entire support staff was moved to Oranienburg (near Sachsenhausen) where the CCI's main office would remain until 1945. Nonetheless, Eicke's role as the chief of the CCI placed him within the framework of Heydrich's secret state police; whereas his command of the Death's Head units, made him accountable to the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) of the SS. All SS camps' regulations, both for guards and prisoners, followed the Dachau camp model established by Eicke. On 1 April 1937, the SS leadership consolidated the CCI's primary organization, the Death's Head Battalion, into three units; the first for service at Dachau, the second at Sachsenhausen, and the third at Buchenwald. Then during the autumn of 1938, a fourth unit was created for the latest concentration camp at Mauthausen. The CCI also administered the Columbia-Haus concentration camp in Berlin-Tempelhof. One of the CCI's original camps, Lichtenburg (which housed mostly women), was closed in May 1939 when Ravensbrück concentration camp became operational. Secrecy increased among the guards and CCI staff as the number of camps and the supporting network expanded. New camps were "largely shielded from sight" and established in remote places. The war contributed to this expansion as the camp system itself grew to support the Nazi territorial occupation with corresponding rapidity. Just one day after invading Poland (2 September 1939) for instance, the Nazis established the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig.
At the beginning of World War II, Eicke was reassigned to the front, to be the commander of the SS-Totenkopf-Standarten. Eicke's Waffen-SS unit carried-out policing duties, deportations, and even executions through 1940 and into 1941, a function that was in accordance with the Nazi regime's ethnic and political goals. Glücks was appointed the new CCI chief by Himmler in mid-November 1939. Glücks made few changes, leaving the organizational structure intact as Eicke had set it up. By 1940, the CCI came under the control of the Verwaltung und Wirtschaftshauptamt Hauptamt (VuWHA; Administration and Business office) which was set up under Oswald Pohl. Then in 1942, the CCI became Amt D (Office D) of the consolidated main office, known as the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt; WVHA). Therefore, the entire concentration camp system was placed under the authority of the WVHA with the CCI now subordinated to the Chief of the WVHA.
Near the end of 1941 and beginning of 1942, it was decided that to support the Nazi war machine, concentration camp prisoners should be put to work in armaments factories. Competing interests and SS beliefs placed the leadership of the WVHA and the CCI at odds with one another, particularly concerning slave labor; namely as Eicke thought of concentration camp inmates more along punitive politico-ideological lines, whereas Pohl viewed prisoners within the camps as economic fodder to be fully exploited, especially in cases where they possessed needed industrial skills or expertise. Conflicts between the WVHA and the CCI only proved deadly to the prisoners due to the fact that both organizations were equally reckless and inconsiderate to the needs of their slave-labor force. Since the inception of the concentration camp system, Pohl had been trying to influence the administration of them. He succeeded, in part, because while camp commandants handled the discipline of SS members under them, they were not actually their superiors. The SS camp members received their instructions from the CCI (later "Amt D"), through their SS camp department heads. This is another example of the SS practice of dual subordination.
Except for the admittance and release of concentration camp prisoners, which the SD and Gestapo handled (later as departments of the RSHA), the CCI had sole control over the prisoners. The CCI made all decisions regarding internal camp matters. The CCI also coordinated the operations for systematic murder in other SS divisions, for example, the murder of Soviet commissars, and the T4 killing operations like Action 14f13. Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek concentration camps were under the CCI, having been especially built for use as extermination camps in the Final Solution. Perhaps unique in part due to the scope of its operations, Auschwitz-Birkenau was concomitantly under the jurisdiction of the WVHA and within the administrative control of the CCI.
SS hierarchy inside the camps Divisions and duties The Politische Abteilung ("political department"), which controlled the lives of prisoners at each camp, became the most important subdivision within the CCI.
Under Eicke's direction, all new concentration camps were organized along the "Dachau model". Principally, this meant the segregation of SS members from among the guards or those working in the commandant's department. Within the commandant's department, the same sections were formed, building a core command structure that was replicated at each camp; the basic division of the command staff remained in force in every concentration camp until the collapse of Nazi Germany.
Commandant / Adjutant Political Department Protective Custody Camp Administration Camp Doctor Guard Command
A seventh branch, the Arbeitseinsatz (labor allocation), was added to the standard camp organization at the beginning of the 1940s.
Duties of the Schutzhaftlagerführer The Schutzhaftlagerführer (head of the "preventive detention camp") was the commandant's deputy, and he and his adjutant were responsible for the operation of the camp. The Schutzhaftlagerführer had to maintain order, discipline and cleanliness, take care of daily routines, roll calls and so on. Under him were the Rapportführer, the Arbeitseinsatzführer and the Oberaufseherin (if there was a women's camp). They were directly responsible for order in the camp and they assigned prisoners to the outside work details. The Blockführer, each of whom were responsible for one or more barracks, were subordinate to them. The Arbeitseinsatzführer (head of "work details") was responsible for prisoner work details, both at the camp and outside and making use of professional skills and abilities. The Arbeitseinsatzführer had every prisoner in the camp listed in a card file by profession and skill.