It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Prisoner functionary . (Discuss)

The armband of an oberkapo (chief kapo)

A kapo was a prisoner who worked inside German Nazi concentration camps during World War II in any of certain lower administrative positions. The official Nazi word was Funktionshäftling, or "prisoner functionary", but the Nazis commonly referred to them as kapos.

[edit] Etymology

The origin of "kapo" is unclear. Some think it is an abbreviated form of the word, Kameradschaftspolizei, (roughly, "comrade police force") or comes from the Italian word for "head", capo. According to the Duden, it is derived from the French word for "Corporal" (fr:Caporal)^[1][2][3].

[edit] Reputation for brutality

Kapos received more privileges than normal prisoners, towards whom they were often brutal. They were often convicts^[4] who were offered this work in exchange for a reduced sentence or parole.^{[citation needed]}

From Oliver Lustig's Dictionary of the Camp:

Vicenzo and Luigi Pappalettera wrote in their book The Brutes Have the Floor ^[5] that, every time a new transport of detainees arrived at Mauthausen, Kapo August Adam picked out the professors, lawyers, priests and magistrates and cynically asked them: "Are you a lawyer? A professor? Good! Do you see this green triangle? This means I am a killer. I have five convictions on my record: one for manslaughter and four for robbery. Well, here I am in command. The world has turned upside down, did you get that? Do you need a dolmetscher, an interpreter? Here it is!" And he was pointing to his bat, after which he struck. When he was satisfied, he formed a Scheisskompanie with those selected and sent them to clean the latrines.^[6]

[edit] Usage after 1945

This role has been described in many books, among them Primo Levi's If This is a Man and Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, the latter treating it from a psychiatrist's standpoint. It is also mentioned in Elie Wiesel's autobiography Night, and in Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus II, and is featured in the Gillo Pontecorvo movie Kapò.

[edit] References