"The Kapos were beating us again, but I no longer felt pain" (36).
Kapos were inmates who supervised the prisoners. Many were more brutal than the Nazis, although a few were even Jewish. They were given special privileges for doing so. If they failed to perform their duties, they would receive severe punishment or death. They were prosecuted as war criminals when World War II ended.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kapos.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Kapo
I'm glad you asked this question. When we think of the Holocaust, we mainly think of the crimes the Nazis committed and tend to overlook those of others. It is true that they probably mainly did it out of fear for their life, but that still does not excuse them. It seems rather difficult to believe that a person would abuse others just for a few privilages, such as extra food, clothes, or sleeping quarters. It would be interesting to know why no one really remembers them as criminals of war, but rather as prisoners themselves. Of course they were Nazi prisoners, but they definitely had a choice. They must have regretted their choice at the end of the war when they were procecuted.
ReplyDeleteI almost asked the same question. At first I had no idea who they were or what side they were on. Then I read about them beating the Jews, so I wasn't sure if they were even Nazi's or not. Now reading this I see that some of them were even Jews themselves. It kind of sucks how they were prosecuted for this, even though the Germans put them up to it and if they didn't fill out their duty they would have been killed.
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