Hannah Davis

The Widely Unexplored Impact of Privileged Prisoners in the Nazi Death and Concentration Camps

Abstract:

My Senior Project explores the role played by privileged prisoners in the Nazi death and concentration camps in helping their fellow, non-privileged inmates. Many scholars throughout the years have criticized these individuals, claiming that they acted against the interests of others in order to further their own but I believe this view is one-sided, as there are many first-hand accounts of elite prisoners who actually used their privilege to help others. Chapter I will explain the commonly misunderstood differences between the death and concentration camps as well as provide a brief history of several of the more major ones. Chapter II describes the role that skilled craftsmen played in providing both direct and indirect aid to others. Chapter III explores the ways in which medical personnel assisted their non-privileged comrades by providing medical care and supplies, concealing cases of disease from the SS, and using their specially-designed facilities to hide prisoners slated for execution or deportation. Finally, Chapter IV discusses how Jewish leaders, who had the greatest amount of power in the camps, used their positions to help other prisoners escape, assign the weak and ill to special indoor work assignments, and set up a camp-wide network to share resources and important information. My conclusion will sum up the arguments made in previous chapters as well as explore several of the greater themes this subject brings to light.