Between Obedience and Humanity
How two prisoner functionaries in concentration camps took advantage of the limited leeway their position allowed
“Prisoner functionaries” (German: Funktionshäftlinge) were the “extended arm” of the camp SS in the concentration camps. They were assigned to a variety of tasks: as camp elders (German: Lagerälteste), for instance, some were responsible for maintaining order in the camps, while others, so-called “Capos” (SS-appointed overseers), had to supervise labor details. In return, they enjoyed certain privileges. While some of them were just as cruel as their SS guards , others used the little freedom of action available to them to save lives – as did Otto Küsel and Walter Neff.
The camp SS chose people imprisoned for different reasons to serve as prisoner functionaries: In Mauthausen, for instance, German and Austrian prisoners who had been detained as criminals were chosen to be prisoner-functionaries in the early days. Political prisoners and non-German internees increasingly filled these positions later. Depending on their role in the camp, prisoner functionaries had a certain, if limited, amount of room for maneuver, but they were firmly embedded in the camp system controlled by the SS at the same time.
As long as the prisoner-functionaries carried out their duties to the satisfaction of the SS, they were sometimes spared hard physical work, for instance, or could be given separate sleeping quarters in the barracks. However, depending on the way they behaved, they could find themselves the target of their fellow prisoners’ hatred. This was clearly intended by the camp SS who sought to drive a wedge between various prisoner groups. Furthermore, they were responsible for the tasks that had been assigned to them: If, for instance, a labor detail under their supervision did not manage to complete the workload imposed on them, or if a prisoner functionary was personally denounced, they could lose their position in the worst case. They then faced the threat of vigilante justice from their fellow prisoners.
Otto Küsel – the man who saved lives
Berlin resident Otto Küsel, born on May 16, 1909, was one of the first thirty prisoners who were transferred from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp to Auschwitz on May 20, 1940. The National Socialists had classified the trained merchant as a “career criminal” owing to a series of property offences.
Otto became a prisoner-functionary and was given the task of assigning prisoners to the various labor details. He is not known to have beaten, robbed, or tortured the prisoners under his command. On the contrary; he made a point of assigning the lightest work possible to prisoners who were ill or exhausted. By acting in this way, he saved lives, including the life of Roman Dabrowski.
Meeting again after Auschwitz
Many Auschwitz survivors who knew Otto Küsel later spoke of him with great respect. Roman Dabrowski, who was employed as a driver by the Arolsen Archives – then known as the International Tracing Service (ITS) – between 1948 and 1950, wrote about him as follows in a letter he addressed to the tracing service in 1975: “This man saved my life, and I would like to thank him, but I have no way of finding him.”
The ITS helped the two men get back in touch. Otto Küsel had escaped from the camp in 1942 together with three Polish prisoners and had been active in a Warsaw resistance group for a short while. Just under one year later, he was recaptured and sent back to Auschwitz. In February 1944, he was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp where he was liberated one year later.
Walter Neff – willing helper or saboteur?
While Otto Küsel apparently used the limited power his position gave him to benefit his fellow prisoners, others behaved much more ambiguously – such as the Augsburg prisoner functionary Walter Neff. From 1938 onwards, Walter had to work as a nurse in the sickbay of the Dachau concentration camp where he was tasked with taking care of tuberculosis patients.
On the one hand, he selected patients who were severely ill for transport to the Nazi killing center Hartheim, acting on orders given by the camp physician. On the other hand, he released less severely ill patients from the tuberculosis ward to save them from selection. Later, Walter assisted Nazi doctor Dr Sigmund Rascher with medical experiments in the tuberculosis block at the Dachau concentration camp.
To test the effects of parachute jumps from high altitudes, prisoners were subjected to extreme pressure conditions and hypothermia. Many of them did not survive the ordeal. Walter Neff was said to have sabotaged experiments and saved victims’ lives. At the same time, however, records show that he was personally involved in the experiments. In 1942, Dr Sigmund Rascher petitioned the Reichsführer SS for Walter’s release from the camp with the following words:
“Neff, a prisoner in protective custody, is feverishly awaiting a decision in his case…. He has rendered outstanding services by assisting, for instance, with dissections in the pressure chamber at an altitude of 13.8 kilometers.” (Dr Sigmund Rascher, in a letter addressed to Heinrich Himmler on June 15, 1942)
Three months later, in September 1942, Walter Neff was indeed released from Dachau concentration camp. He then continued to work as a civilian employee of the Waffen SS in Dachau. Just a few days before the end of the war, he and another former prisoner led the Dachau Uprising. They wanted to prevent the concentration camp from being destroyed before the arrival of the Allies. The SS bloodily suppressed the insurrection, Walter Neff managed to escape. He died in Munich in 1960.
Hierarchy, control, and room for maneuver
Prisoner-functionaries were part of the hierarchy imposed by the camp SS and could not act freely. They were subjected to SS rules and terror and acted within a system deliberately designed to foster competition, fear, and a lack of solidarity. The SS used them to maintain control over huge numbers of prisoners without having to be omnipresent themselves. The functions assigned to them (block elders/foremen, overseers, kapos, etc.) differed widely – as did the conduct of the individuals themselves. The biographies of Otto Küsel and Walter Neff make this clear: they were able to use the little leeway they had to help fellow prisoners – but could also be involved in crimes, like Walter Neff.
