Holocaust and Genocide Studies

During the years of 1933 and 1934, two of the major concentration camps were under the command of Thomas Eicke. He was the leader of Dachau and Lichtenburg. While Lichtenburg was under Eicke’s command he implemented a uniform system that soon became used throughout the other concentration camps. Dachau long had been equal with the establishment of the camp system, and other innovative camps such as Sachsenhausen which was established in 1936 and Buchenwald which was established in 1937 had been widely recognized as fundamental. But the early camps of Lichtenburg, Sachsenburg, Esterwegen, and Columbia-Haus had yet to be considered crucial camps to the Nazis.

Lichtenburg had a variety of purposed throughout its existence, ranging from prison to men’s concentration camp. The most interesting purpose however was during the time period of 1937-1939, Lichtenburg was used as a women’s camp. Lichtenburg housed only men until it became a women’s camp in the fall of 1937, serving as a women’s camp mid-1939. In December 1937 Lichtenburg saw the system’s first employment of women guards. The women’s camps were constantly overpopulated for example; capacity for Lichtenburg was set at 500 to 600 women. When the camp was getting ready to be closed in 1939 the population within the camp was over 1,000 women. Lichtenburg was the only camp that served as both a men’s and women’s camp. The women’s concentration camp at Lichtenburg was the first of its kind, a starting point for testing a camp structure integrating female with male prisoners. Female guards soon became a significant part of the SS camp staff, creating their own career networks. As of 1945, 3,508 female camp guards and 36,487 SS men were guarding 202,674 female and 511,535 male prisoners.

Until the end of 1938, female prisoners were not assigned to the barracks camps, for the simple reason as they were not seen as a threat to anything. The IKL and the Gestapo apparently did not expect a huge increase in the number of female prisoners even in the case of war. But the construction of the barracks-based women’s camp of Ravensbrück signaled a commitment to continue incarcerating women.

Lichtenburg played a crucial role in the staffing of the concentration camp system, becoming a training facility of national significance. At the personal level, it served as the facilitator for concentration camp careers. Many of its alumni would later become camp commandants, department heads, or “killing experts”.

 “Before the Holocaust.” Project Muse. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov 2011. <http://muse.jhu.edu.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/journals/holocaust_and_genocide_studies/v025/25.1.hordler.html&gt;.