Strafkompanie

thumb|Concentration camp badge of prisoner in a Strafkompanie ' ("Punitive Unit") is the German word for the penal labor division in the Nazi concentration camps.

SK' was the abbreviation used in the concentration camps for the notorious Strafkompanies. These penal divisions were yet another hardship that could be forced on the already exhausted inmates of the camps. The prisoners of the Strafkompanie were given hard work, e.g., in the quarries, where most "workers" died. In the SK they worked longer hours than other inmates, had shorter breaks, less food, more brutal treatment, and they lived isolated in separate barracks.