Theodor Eicke

Theodor Eicke (17 October 1892 – 26 February 1943)

was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. He Theodor Eicke
was one of the key figures in the development of Nazi
concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Eicke served as the second commandant of the Dachau

concentration camp from June 1933 to July 1934, and
together with his adjutant Michael Lippert, was one of
the executioners of SA Chief Ernst Röhm during the
Night of the Long Knives purge.[1] In 1939, Eicke
became commander of the SS Division Totenkopf of
the Waffen-SS, leading the division during the Second
World War on the Western and Eastern fronts, and
continuing to expand and develop the concentration
camp system.

Eicke was killed on 26 February 1943, when his plane

was shot down during the Third Battle of Kharkov.

Contents
Early life and World War I
Born 17 October 1892
SS career
Nazi activism, early SS membership, and Hampont
exile
(Hudingen),
Return to Germany
Development of concentration camp Elsass-Lothringen,
system
German Empire
Night of the Long Knives
Camp inspector Died 26 February 1943
SS Division Totenkopf (aged 50)
Death
near Lozova,
Awards
See also
Ukrainian SSR,
References Soviet Union
Citations
Allegiance  German
Bibliography
Further reading Empire
 Weimar
Early life and World War I Republic
 Nazi Germany
Service/ Bavarian Army
Theodor Eicke was born on 17 October 1892, in
Hampont (renamed Hudingen in 1915) near Château-
branch Schutzstaffel
Salins, then in the German Reichsland (province) of Waffen-SS
Elsass-Lothringen, the youngest of 11 children of a
lower middle-class family. His father was a station Years of 1909–19 (Bavaria)
master described as a German patriot. Eicke was an
underachiever in school, dropping out at the age of 17 service 1930–1943 (SS)
before graduation. Instead he joined the Bavarian
Army (23rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment at Landau) as
Rank SS-
a volunteer, and then was transferred to the Bavarian Obergruppenführer
3rd Infantry Regiment in 1913.[2] Upon the start of
First World War in 1914, Eicke participated in the Service NSDAP #114,901
Lorraine campaign, fighting at both the First Battle of
Ypres in 1914 and the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915,
number SS #2,921
and was with the 2nd Bavarian Foot Artillery
Regiment at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Eicke
Unit SS-
served as a clerk, an assistant paymaster, and a front- Totenkopfverbände
line infantryman, and for his bravery during the war
was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class.[2] Despite Waffen-SS
being decorated, Eicke spent most of the conflict
behind the lines as a regimental paymaster.[3]
Commands Dachau
held concentration
Late in 1914, Eicke's commander had approved his
request to temporarily return home on leave to marry camp
Bertha Schwebel of Ilmenau on 26 December 1914,
with whom he had two children: a daughter, Irma, on 5
SS Division
April 1916 and a son, Hermann, on 4 May 1920.[4] Totenkopf
Reportedly, relatives of Eicke had fought on the
French side during the war. Battles/wars World War I
Following the end of the First World War, Eicke World War II
remained as an army paymaster now in service of the
Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, until resigning
from the position in 1919.[5] Eicke began studying at a Battle of
technical school in Ilmenau, but was forced to drop out France
shortly due to a lack of funds. From 1920, Eicke
pursued a career as a police officer working for two Operation
different departments, initially worked as an informant
and later as a regular policeman.[6] Eicke's police Barbarossa
career was ended in 1923 due to his open hatred for
the Weimar Republic and his repeated participation in
Third Battle of
violent political demonstrations.[5] He found work in Kharkov †
1923 at IG Farben in Ludwigshafen and remained
there as a "security officer" until 1932.[7] Awards Knight's Cross of
the Iron Cross with
SS career
Oak Leaves

Nazi activism, early SS membership, and exile

Eicke's views on the Weimar Republic mirrored those of the Nazi Party, which he joined as member number
114,901 on 1 December 1928, and also joined the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's paramilitary street
organization led by Ernst Röhm.[8] Eicke left the SA by August 1930 to join the Schutzstaffel (SS) as member
number 2,921, where he quickly rose in rank after recruiting new members and building up the SS organization
in the Bavarian Palatinate. In 1931, Eicke was promoted to the rank of SS-Standartenführer (equivalent to
colonel) by Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer of the SS.[5]

In early 1932, his political activities caught the attention of his employer IG Farben, who subsequently
terminated his employment. At the same time, he was caught preparing bomb attacks on political enemies in
Bavaria for which he received a two-year prison sentence in July 1932.[5] However, due to protection received
from the Bavarian Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner, a Nazi sympathizer who would later serve as minister of
justice under Adolf Hitler, Eicke was able to avoid his sentence and flee to Italy on orders from Heinrich
Himmler.[9] Italy at the time was already a fascist state under the rule of Benito Mussolini, and Eicke was
entrusted by Himmler with running a "terrorist training camp for Austrian Nazis" at Lake Garda, and once even
had the privilege of "showing Italian dictator Benito Mussolini around."[10]

Return to Germany

In March 1933, less than three months after Hitler's rise to power, Eicke returned to Germany. Upon his return,
Eicke had political quarrels with Gauleiter Joseph Bürckel, who had him arrested and detained for several
months in a mental asylum in Würzburg.[8] During his stay at the mental hospital, Eicke was stripped of his
rank and SS membership by Himmler for having broken his word of honor.[11] Also during the same month,
Himmler set up the first official concentration camp at Dachau, about which Hitler had stated that he did not
want it to be just another prison or detention camp.[12] In June 1933, after the mental asylum's director
informed Himmler that Eicke was not "mentally unbalanced," Himmler arranged his release, paid his family
200 Reich marks as a gift, reinstated him into the SS, and promoted him to SS-Oberführer (equivalent to senior
colonel).[13] On 26 June 1933, Himmler appointed Eicke commandant of the Dachau concentration camp after
complaints and criminal proceedings were brought against the camp's first commandant, SS-Sturmbannführer
Hilmar Wäckerle, following the murder of several detainees under the "guise of punishment".[14] Eicke
requested a permanent unit and Himmler granted the request, forming the SS-Wachverbände (Guard Unit).[15]

Development of concentration camp system

Eicke was promoted on 30 January 1934 to SS-Brigadeführer (equivalent to Generalmajor in the German Army
and a brigadier general, in the US Army), and began to extensively reorganize the Dachau camp from its
original configuration under Wäckerle. Eicke fired half of the 120 guards who had been billeted at Dachau
when he arrived, and devised a system that was used as a model for future camps throughout Germany.[16] He
established new guarding provisions, which included rigid discipline, total obedience to orders, and tightening
disciplinary and punishment regulations for detainees.[17] Uniforms were issued for prisoners and guards alike,
and it was Eicke who introduced the infamous blue and white striped pyjamas that came to symbolize the Nazi
concentration camps across Europe.[18] The uniforms for the guards at the camps had a special "death's head"
insignia on their collars. While Eicke's reforms ended the haphazard brutality that had characterized the original
camps, the new regulations were very far from humane: heavy-handed discipline, including death in some
cases, was instituted for even trivial offenses.[19] Eicke was known for his brutality, detested weakness, and
instructed his men that any SS man with a soft heart should "... retire at once to a monastery".[8][20] Historian
Nikolaus Wachsmann asserts that while it was Himmler who established the "general direction for the later SS
camp system," it was Eicke who "became its powerful motor."[21] Eicke's anti-semitism, anti-bolshevism, as
well as his insistence on unconditional obedience towards him, the SS, and Hitler, made a positive impression
on Himmler.[20] By May 1934, Eicke had already styled himself as the "inspector of concentration camps" for
Nazi Germany.[22]

Night of the Long Knives

In early 1934, Hitler and other Nazi leaders became concerned that Ernst
Röhm, the SA Chief of Staff, was planning a coup d'état.[23] On 21 June,
Hitler decided that Röhm and the SA leadership had to be eliminated,
and on 30 June began a national purge of the SA leadership and other
enemies of the state in an event that became known as the Night of the
Long Knives. Eicke, along with hand-chosen members of the SS and
Gestapo, assisted Sepp Dietrich's Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in the
arrest and imprisonment of SA commanders, before they were
subsequently shot.[24] After Röhm was arrested, Hitler gave him the
choice to commit suicide or be shot. Eicke entered the cell and placed a Dachau entrance gate with the
revolver on Röhm's prison-cell table and informed him that he had "ten Arbeit Macht Frei ("Work sets
you free") slogan commonly
minutes to make good on Hitler's offer."[25] When Röhm refused to kill
featured at Nazi concentration
himself, he was shot dead by Eicke and his adjutant, Michael Lippert, on
camps.
1 July 1934.[26] Eicke proclaimed that he was proud for having shot 48.268347°N 11.466865°E
Röhm, and shortly after the affair on 4 July 1934, Himmler officially
named Eicke chief of the Inspektion der Konzentrationslager
(Concentration Camps Inspectorate or CCI).[27][28] Himmler also
promoted Eicke to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer in command of the SS-Wachverbände. As a result of the Night
of the Long Knives, the SA was extensively weakened, and the remaining SA-run camps were taken over by
the SS.[29][30] Further, in 1935, Dachau became the training center for the concentration camps service.[8]

Camp inspector

In his role as the Concentration Camps Inspector, Eicke began a mass reorganisation of the camps in 1935. On
29 March 1936, the concentration camp guards and administration units were officially designated as the SS-
Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), and the introduction of forced labour made the camps one of the SS's most
powerful tools.[31] This earned him the enmity of Reinhard Heydrich, who had already unsuccessfully
attempted to take control of the Dachau concentration camp in his position as chief of the Sicherheitsdienst
(SD), but Eicke prevailed due to his support from Heinrich Himmler.[32] In April 1936, Eicke was named
commander of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (Death's Head Troops) and the number of men under his command
increased from 2,876 to 3,222; the unit was also provided official funding through the Reich's budget office,
and he was allowed to recruit future troops from the Hitler Youth based on regional needs.[33] Ideological
training intensified under Eicke's command, and military training for new recruits working the camps was
intensified.[34] The numerous smaller camps in the system were dismantled and were replaced with new larger
camps. Dachau concentration camp remained, then Sachsenhausen concentration camp opened in summer
1936, Buchenwald in summer 1937 and Ravensbrück (near Lichtenburg concentration camp) in May 1939.
Following the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria, new camps were set up there, such as Mauthausen-Gusen
concentration camp, opened in 1938.[8] Sometime in August 1938, Eicke’s entire supporting staff was moved to
Oranienburg (near Sachsenhausen) where the Inspektion office would remain until 1945.[35] Nonetheless,
Eicke's role as the person designated to inspect concentration camps placed him within the framework of
Heydrich’s SD secret state police; whereas his command of the Death’s Head units, made him accountable to
the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) of the SS.[35] All regulations for SS-run camps, both for guards and
prisoners, followed the model established by Eicke at the Dachau camp.[16]

SS Division Totenkopf
At the beginning of World War II in 1939, the success of the Totenkopf's sister formations, the SS-Infanterie-
Regiment (mot) Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the three Standarten of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT)
led to the creation of three additional Waffen-SS divisions by October 1939.[36][37] Eicke was given command
of a new division, the SS Division Totenkopf, which was formed from concentration camp guards of the 1st
(Oberbayern), 2nd (Brandenburg) and 3rd (Thüringen) Standarten (regiments) of the SS-Totenkopfverbände,
and soldiers from the SS Heimwehr Danzig.[38] After Eicke was assigned to combat duty, his deputy Richard
Glücks was appointed the new CCI chief by Himmler.[39] By 1940, the CCI
came under the administrative control of the Verwaltung und
Wirtschaftshauptamt Hauptamt (VuWHA; Administration and Business
office) which was set up under Oswald Pohl. In 1942, the CCI became Amt D
(Office D) of the consolidated SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (SS
Economic and Administrative Department; WVHA) also under Pohl.[40]
Therefore, the entire concentration camp system was placed under the
authority of the WVHA with the Inspector of Concentration Camps now a
subordinate to the Chief of the WVHA.[41] Pohl assured Eicke that the
command structure he had introduced would not fall to the jurisdiction of the
Gestapo or SD. The CCI and later Amt D were subordinate to the SD and
Eicke and the SS Division
Gestapo only in regards to who was admitted to the camps and who was
Totenkopf in the Soviet
released, and what happened inside the camps was under the command of
Union in 1941.
Amt D.[42]

The SS Division Totenkopf, also known as the Totenkopf Division, went on

to become one of the most effective German formations on the Eastern Front, fighting during invasion of the
Soviet Union in 1941, as well as the summer offensive in 1942, the capture of Kharkov, in the Demyansk
Pocket, during the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and the Battle of Budapest in 1945.[43] During the course of the
war, Eicke and his division became known for their effectiveness but also brutality and war crimes, including
the murder of 97 British POWs in Le Paradis, France, in 1940, while serving on the Western Front.[44][45] The
division was also known for the frequent murder of captured Soviet soldiers and the widespread pillaging of
Soviet villages.[46]

Death
Eicke was killed on 26 February 1943, during the opening stages of the Third Battle of Kharkov, when his
Fieseler Fi 156 Storch reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by flak of the Red Army between the villages of
Artil'ne and Mykolaivka, 105 kilometers (65 mi) south of Kharkov near Lozova.[47] Eicke was portrayed in the
Axis press as a hero, and soon after his death one of the Totenkopf's infantry regiments received the cuff title
"Theodor Eicke". Eicke was first buried at a German military cemetery near the village of Oddykhne
(Оддихне) in the Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.[48] When the Germans were forced to retreat as the Red Army
counter-attacked, Himmler had Eicke's body moved to a cemetery in Hegewald south of Zhitomir in
Ukraine.[49] Eicke's body remained in Ukraine, where it was likely bulldozed by Soviet forces as it was
customary for them to destroy German graves.[50]

Awards
Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class[51]
Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (26 May 1940)
Iron Cross (1939) 1st Class (31 May 1940)[52]
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Knight's Cross on 26 December 1941 as SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of the
Waffen-SS and commander of SS-Division "Totenkopf"[53]
88th Oak Leaves on 20 April 1942 as SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS
and commander of SS-"Totenkopf" Division[54]
Wound Badge in Silver[55]

See also
List SS-Obergruppenführer
References

Citations
1. Kershaw 2008, p. 312.
2. Mitcham & Mueller 2012, p. 261.
3. Gilbert 2019, p. 16.
4. Mitcham & Mueller 2012, pp. 261–262.
5. Hamilton 1984, p. 261.
6. Mitcham & Mueller 2012, p. 262.
7. Sydnor 1977, p. 5.
8. McNab 2009, p. 137.
9. Sydnor 1977, p. 6.
10. Wachsmann 2015, p. 58.
11. Longerich 2012, pp. 152–153.
12. Evans 2003, p. 344.
13. Longerich 2012, p. 153.
14. Padfield 2001, pp. 128–129.
15. Padfield 2001, p. 129.
16. Evans 2005, p. 84.
17. Rees 2017, p. 78.
18. Childers 2017, p. 320.
19. Evans 2005, pp. 84–85.
20. Hamilton 1984, p. 263.
21. Wachsmann 2015, p. 57.
22. Wachsmann 2015, p. 84.
23. Kershaw 2008, pp. 306–309.
24. Dams & Stolle 2014, pp. 14–15.
25. Gilbert 2019, p. 19.
26. Stein 1984, p. 8.
27. Rees 2017, p. 83.
28. Longerich 2012, pp. 174–175.
29. Kershaw 2008, pp. 308–314.
30. Evans 2005, pp. 31–35, 39.
31. Buchheim 1968, p. 258.
32. Breitman 1991, pp. 66–67.
33. Koehl 2004, p. 146.
34. Koehl 2004, p. 147.
35. Sofsky 1997, p. 31.
36. Stein 1984, pp. 33–34.
37. Sydnor 1977, p. 52.
38. Mitcham & Mueller 2012, p. 266.
39. Broszat 1968, p. 461.
40. Weale 2012, p. 115.
41. Koehl 2004, pp. 182–183.
42. Williams 2001, p. 51.
43. McNab 2009, pp. 66–68, 73.
 44. Sydnor 1977, pp. 94–95.
45. Cooper 2004.
46. Sydnor 1977, p. 295, fn.
47. Flaherty 2004, p. 146.
48. Ripley 2004, p. 59.
49. Mitcham & Mueller 2012, pp. 271–272.
50. Mitcham & Mueller 2012, p. 272.
51. Sydnor 1977, p. 4.
52. Thomas 1997, p. 149.
53. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 171.
54. Fellgiebel 2000, p. 59.
55. Miller 2006, p. 296.

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Breitman, Richard (1991). The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution (https://archive.
org/details/architectofgenoc00rich). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-39456-841-6.
Broszat, Martin (1968). "The Concentration Camps, 1933–45". In Krausnick, Helmut; Buchheim,
Hans; Broszat, Martin; Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf (eds.). Anatomy of the SS State. New York:
Walker and Company. ISBN 978-0-00211-026-6.
Buchheim, Hans (1968). "The SS – Instrument of Domination". In Krausnick, Helmut; Buchheim,
Hans; Broszat, Martin; Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf (eds.). Anatomy of the SS State. New York:
Walker and Company. ISBN 978-0-00211-026-6.
Childers, Thomas (2017). The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 978-1-45165-113-3.
Cooper, D. (22 February 2004). "WW2 People's War: Le Paradis: The murder of 97 soldiers in a
French field on the 26/27th May 1940" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/8
3/a2328383.shtml). BBC Online. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
Dams, Carsten; Stolle, Michael (2014). The Gestapo: Power and Terror in the Third Reich (https://arc
hive.org/details/gestapopowerterr0000dams). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-966921-9.
Evans, Richard J. (2003). The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-
303469-8.
Evans, Richard J. (2005). The Third Reich in Power. New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-
303790-3.
Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–
1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller
Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The
Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in
German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
Flaherty, T. H. (2004) [1988]. The Third Reich: The SS. Time-Life. ISBN 1-84447-073-3.
Gilbert, Adrian (2019). Waffen-SS: Hitler's Army at War. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-
30682-465-4.
Hamilton, Charles (1984). Leaders & Personalities of the Third Reich, Vol. 1. R. James Bender
Publishing. ISBN 0912138270.
Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-
06757-6.
Koehl, Robert (2004). The SS: A History 1919–45. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 978-0-75242-559-7.
Longerich, Peter (2012). Heinrich Himmler. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0199592326.
McNab, Chris (2009). The SS: 1923–1945. Amber Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906626-49-5.
Miller, Michael (2006). Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 1. R. James Bender Publishing.
ISBN 9-32970-037-3.
Mitcham, Samuel W. Jr.; Mueller, Gene (2012). Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the
Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN 978-1-44221-153-7.
Padfield, Peter (2001) [1990]. Himmler: Reichsführer-SS. London: Cassel & Co. ISBN 0-304-35839-
8.
Rees, Laurence (2017). The Holocaust: A New History. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-61039-
844-2.
Ripley, Tim (2004). The Waffen-SS at War: Hitler's Praetorians 1925–1945. Zenith Press. ISBN 978-
1-86227-248-4.
Sofsky, Wolfgang (1997). The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp (https://archive.org/details/or
derofterrorthe00sofs). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-69100-685-7.
Stein, George (1984) [1966]. The Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War 1939–1945 (https://archive.o
rg/details/waffensshitlers00stei). Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-
9275-4.
Sydnor, Charles (1977). Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death's Head Division, 1933–1945.
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001Y18PZ6).
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Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-37411-825-9.
Weale, Adrian (2012). Army of Evil: A History of the SS. New York; Toronto: NAL Caliber (Penguin
Group). ISBN 978-0-451-23791-0.
Williams, Max (2001). Reinhard Heydrich: The Biography, Volume 1—Road To War. Church Stretton:
Ulric Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9537577-5-6.

Further reading
Allen, Michael Thad (2002). The Business of Genocide: The SS, Slave Labor, and the
Concentration Camps (https://archive.org/details/businessofgenoci00alle). London and Chapel
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-80782-677-5.
Bauer, Yehuda (1982). A History of the Holocaust (https://archive.org/details/historyofholocau00
yehu). New York: Franklin Watts. ISBN 0-531-09862-1.
Bloxham, Donald (2009). The Final Solution: A Genocide. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19955-034-0.
Dawidowicz, Lucy S. (1975). The War against the Jews: 1933–1945 (https://archive.org/details/
waragainstjews1900dawi). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0-03-013661-X.
Diner, Dan (2006). Beyond the Conceivable: Studies on Germany, Nazism, and the Holocaust.
Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52021-345-6.
Kogon, Eugen (2006). The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and
the System behind Them. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-37452-992-5.
Friedländer, Saul (2009). Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933–1945. New York: Harper
Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06135-027-6.
Gilbert, Martin (1985). The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World
War (https://archive.org/details/holocausthistory0000gilb). New York: Henry Holt and Company.
ISBN 0-8050-0348-7.
Grunberger, Richard (1993). Hitler's SS. New York: Dorset Press. ISBN 978-1-56619-152-4.
Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford;
New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280436-5.
 Mayer, Arno (2012). Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The "Final Solution" in History. New
York: Verso Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84467-777-1.
Overy, Richard (1996). The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich (https://archive.org/detail
s/penguinhistorica00rich). New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14051-330-1.
Reitlinger, Gerald (1989). The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922–1945. New York: Da Capo Press.
ISBN 978-0-30680-351-2.
Spielvogel, Jackson (1992). Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History (https://archive.org/details/hitler
nazigerman0000spie). New York: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13393-182-2.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus; Caplan, Jane, eds. (2010). Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The
New Histories. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41542-651-0.
Weise, Niels (2013). Eicke. Eine SS-Karriere zwischen Nervenklinik, KZ-System und Waffen-
SS. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. ISBN 978-3-506-77705-8.
Williamson, David (2002). The Third Reich (https://archive.org/details/thirdreich0003will).
London: Longman Publishers. ISBN 978-0-58236-883-5.

Military offices

Commander of
Preceded by Dachau
Succeeded by
SS- concentration
SS-Oberführer
Standartenführer camp
Alexander Reiner
Hilmar Wäckerle 26 June 1933 – 4
July 1934

Succeeded by
Commander of SS
SS-
Preceded by Division Totenkopf
Obergruppenführer
none 14 November 1939
Matthias
– 6 July 1941
Kleinheisterkamp

Preceded by Commander of SS Succeeded by

SS- Division Totenkopf SS-
Obergruppenführer 21 September 1941 Obergruppenführer
Georg Keppler – 26 February 1943 Hermann Prieß

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