
Kapo
Sign in to saveA kapo was a type of prisoner functionary () at Nazi concentration and extermination camps. They were, whether voluntary or coerced, collaborators who worked under the Schutzstaffel (SS) to carry out administrative tasks or supervise the forced labour of inmates. Given authority over their fellow prisoners, they would often enjoy comparatively better conditions at the camps, such as increased food rations and less physical brutality from SS guards. Due to their privileged status and actions, kapos were highly resented and were frequently lynched by other prisoners when the camps were liberated
Key facts
- Holocaust event.name
- Kapo
- Holocaust event.location
- Nazi Germany Occupied Europe
- Holocaust event.date
- 1939–1945
- Holocaust event.incident_type
- Collaborationism
- Holocaust event.perpetrators
- SS-Totenkopfverbände
- Holocaust event.participants
- Collaborationist Holocaust victims
- Holocaust event.victims
- Non-collaborationist Holocaust victims
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 2 more facts
- female form of label
- Kapo
- Commons category
- Kapo
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Article
11 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Reprisals and prosecution
- In Europe
- In Israel
- Significance and legacy
- As a Jewish slur
- Works
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
A kapo was a type of prisoner functionary () at Nazi concentration and extermination camps. They were, whether voluntary or coerced, collaborators who worked under the Schutzstaffel (SS) to carry out administrative tasks or supervise the forced labour of inmates. Given authority over their fellow prisoners, they would often enjoy comparatively better conditions at the camps, such as increased food rations and less physical brutality from SS guards. Due to their privileged status and actions, kapos were highly resented and were frequently lynched by other prisoners when the camps were liberated by Allied forces during the final stages of World War II.
In the aftermath of World War II, there were many instances of kapos being prosecuted alongside Nazis for their role at the camps. Most notably, the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, which was passed by the government of Israel in 1950, was primarily aimed at providing a framework for prosecution of Jews who had served as kapos during the Holocaust. These efforts were spurred by the collective anger of Holocaust survivors towards Jewish collaborators, whose elimination was regarded as necessary to "purify" the global Jewish community.