The orchestration of power

Violence in the camp

"It was even more terrifying when our Lagerältester, the mentally deranged Georg, went on a rampage. One night I saw him smash a bed board over a prisoner’s head, then take his rubber baton and beat the man’s face until he had reduced it into a single bloody mess."
 

Violence in the camp

Violence was a regular occurrence in the three satellite camps of the Neuengamme concentration camp at Porta Westfalica. This all came down to the camp SS and its commandant Hermann Wicklein. But the soldiers who were assigned as guards and civilians also perpetrated in this violence. The SS used ‘kapos’ in the camp. These were prisoners with a role – in this case, keeping the other prisoners under control. At the head of the hierarchy of the prisoner functionaries were the Lagerälteste (camp leaders). In both Barkhausen and Lerbeck they were particularly known for their violent behaviour.

There was already a permanent form of violence in the camp – the inhumane living conditions. There was a perpetual lack of food supplies, facilities to wash and bathe, clothing and all other day-to-day essentials. In addition to this, there was also constant psychological torment, heightened by everyday procedures such as the camp roll call and the constant shouting of orders at the prisoners.

Violence against prisoners was often deliberately orchestrated as an instrument of power. Corporal punishment was inflicted in the camp or the construction sites for alleged misconduct, such as poor work performance or giving the ‘wrong’ greeting. This was carried out in front of the gathered camp prisoners by the prisoner functionaries, all under the orders of the SS. Prisoners who attempted to escape and were caught were hanged from a makeshift gallows in the former ballroom of Hotel Kaiserhof.
On top of this, physical violence continually took place in everyday life in the camps and on the construction sites. Guards, civilian workers and prisoner functionaries would use their bare hands or objects to kick and beat the often already exhausted prisoners and urge them on.