Here are the charges and testimonies of all tried of everyone tried, if you want to deep dive. I skimmed very briefly and only found 1 of the prisoners on 118-119. Didn’t have time to look for the other 2.
The very brief overview from Wikipedia is “Two of the three prisoner functionaries were accused of mistreating and killing prisoners. The other was accused of participating in executions.”
Thanks for the source, if you’re interested the relevant entries are Christof Ludwig Knoll on pages 47 and 107, Fritz M K Becher on pages 63 and 118, and Emil Erwin Mahl on pages 71 and 123. Looks like Mahl was sentenced to 10 years hard labour and the other 2 received the death sentence, but I don’t know if that’s what actually happened or if that’s just what the court recommended. That’s at the top of page 166.
I imagine they were “kapos,” a term which I first came across in Spiegelman’s legendary Maus. It was an upper position (often filled by non Jews) amongst prisoners who oversaw other prisoners, and my sense is that it was pretty ordinary for them to lord their petty little bit of power over Jews at these concentration camps.
Some examples:
https://www.google.com/search?q="maus"+"kapo"&udm=2
@Infernal_pizza@lemmy.world @lemmy.world
Wow I can’t believe I’ve never heard of that before. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me but I find it baffling that even when suffering under the worst conditions imaginable some people still found a way to make it worse for others
Exactly my thought, altho TBF I think the situation had some complexities to it. For example, as prisoners slated to eventually be exterminated themselves, the kapos lived in fear just like the others, and it’s not surprising to me that some would be abusive where they could. (“shit rolls downhill” and all that)
Also, the better and more ruthless you were as a kapo, likely the better the Nazi guards liked you and gave you special perks, like your own room, better food, and a longer stay of death.
I’d strongly recommend reading Maus if you can. It’s the greatest graphic novel of all time IMO.
