Sonderkommando
Who: Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners forced to aid the killing process during The Holocaust. The term itself in German means "special unit" and was part of the vague and euphemistic language which the Nazis used to refer to aspects of the Final Solution
What: Sonderkommando members did not participate directly in the killing, which was reserved for the guards. Their primary responsibility was disposing of the corpses. They were forced into the position, and accepted it because it meant a few more days or weeks of life, as well as vastly-better living conditions. They would sleep in their own barracks, which more than any other in the camp resembled normal human dwellings; various goods such as food, medicines and cigarettes, plundered from those who were already sent to the gas chambers, were at their disposal. Because the Sonderkommandos were privy to information about Nazi methods that the Nazis did not wish to reach the outside world, the groups were murdered at regular intervals; new Sonderkommandos were selected from the subsequent transports. The first task of the new Sonderkommandos would be to dispose of their predecessors' corpses.
Where: German death camps: Auschwitz, Majdanek, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka
When: WWII
Significance: Sonderkommandos are mentioned in Levi’s The Drowned and the Saved. He writes: “ It was their task to maintain order among the new arrivals who were to be sent into the gas chambers, to extract the corpses from the chambers, to pull gold teeth from jaws, to cut women’s hair, to sort and classify clothes, shoes, and the contents of luggage, to transport the bodies to the crematoria and oversee the operation of the ovens, to extract and eliminate ashes.” “We know that not all the SS gladly accepted massacre as a daily task; delegating part of the work--and indeed the filthiest part--to the victims was meant to (and probably did) ease a few consciences here and there.”