Camp command, killing systems and evacuation

The concentration-camp system joined central direction by the Inspectorate and the SS-WVHA to individual commandants' offices, specialised departments, guard formations and prisoner details. A commandant coordinated the camp but did not personally perform every subordinate act. Conversely, a specialised technical function could carry direct agency without conferring authority over the entire camp.

At Auschwitz, the division of the complex matters. Rudolf Höss, Arthur Liebehenschel and later command structures exercised command at different times and levels, while Maximilian Grabner's Political Department performed a distinct police and investigative role. Liebehenschel's authority as commandant of Auschwitz I and the garrison must not be expanded into personal authorship of every order issued by the separate Birkenau commandant.

Stutthof makes the relation between command, killing and evacuation particularly visible. The final West German judgment found that Paul Werner Hoppe ordered the gassing of Jewish prisoners no longer fit for work; other evidence documents forced-labour administration and his evacuation order. His nine-year conviction concerned the gassing complex, not the entire forced-labour system or every killing during the death march.

At Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau, Erich Mußfeldt directed crematorium and corpse-disposal work. This documented role in concealing mass murder must be distinguished from the higher-level order to begin Aktion Erntefest. Reading commandants and specialised staff together reconstructs a chain without assigning each person every crime committed within it.