However, Dachau was under the control of the SS. Sometime in May 1933, SS camp commandant Hilmar Wäckerle wrote the first "Lagerordnung" for a concentration camp. It gave all legal powers to the camp commandant. The Dachau Lagerordnung allowed prisoners to be executed based on a decision from two SS men who had been chosen by the commandant. The accused prisoner would no longer have a defense. The executive, judicial, and legislative parts of government were all placed together under the camp commandant's power. There would be no system of checks and balances. The threat of the death penalty was always there, which created a constant state of emergency for Dachau's inmates.
The first legalized murders took place at Dachau. (There would never be as many political murders in any of the other, earlier concentration camps than there were in Dachau's first few months.) Sophie Handschuh, the mother of one of the murdered prisoners, filed a formal complaint to find out what had really happened to her son. The resulting prosecution forced Himmler to replace Wäckerle. Himmler chose Theodor Eicke, a fanatical "SS-Oberführer" who had, in March 1933, been committed for evaluation at a psychiatric clinic at the University of Würzburg due to extremely violent behavior. Himmler arranged for Eicke to be released, asking his doctor, Werner Heyde, to talk to Eicke and get him to promise to control himself.
Six months later, on October 1, 1933, Commandant Eicke wrote a second edition of the "Lagerordnung", adding the Postenpflicht and introducing corporal punishment (flogging). The "Lagerordnung" established a "state within a state." The second edition established an orderly system in which "legally" arrested political opponents could be tortured and executed.
From this point on, all SS concentration camps were to follow the Dachau model and become a "state within a state": shielded centers of terror with their own laws and judges, without legal defense, and with their own executable violence.
After January 1, 1934, all subsequent versions of the "Lagerordnung" were effective for all SS-run concentration camps.
[Translator's note: The sometimes odd phrasing, inconsistencies of capitalization, and style itself are from the source, not the translator.]
Dachau Concentration Camp<br>
Office of the Commandant, October 1, 1933
Disciplinary and Penal Code for the Detention Camp
Introduction
The following penalties are issued within the scope of existing camp regulations, to maintain order and discipline on the grounds of Dachau concentration camp,
These regulations apply to all prisoners of the DCC from the time of admission on, till the hour of discharge.
"These rules are added on to the list of rules Dachau already has. Its goal is to keep order and discipline at Dachau. They apply to all prisoners, all the time."<br>
The consummate authority of punishment is in the hands of the camp commandant, who is personally responsible to the political police commander for the implementation of the rules as issued.
"[The camp commandant has complete and total authority to punish prisoners. He is in charge of implementing these rules.]"<br>
Tolerance means weakness. Realizing this, there will be a ruthless grip there, where, in the interests of the fatherland, it appears necessary. The decent, incited [sic] "Volksgenosse" will not come into contact with these penalties. But to the politicizing rabble-rouser and intellectual agitator — regardless of which direction — let it be said, beware, that you're not nabbed, otherwise you'll be grabbed by the neck and after your own recipe, [sic] made to hold your peace.
"["Tolerance means peace." People who speak out against Germany will be punished badly. People who mind their own business and do not question Germany will not be punished this way. But people who try to cause trouble by getting people upset about politics will be forced to be quiet.]"
§1
§5
To be punished with 8 days of hard time and with several weeks of punitive labor:
1. Whoever shirks his work or feigns physical deficiency or disease with the aim of being idle.
2. Whoever leaves a work place or workshop without command, prematurely backs in, fails [at quitting time] to check out with the supervising SS man, checks out at quitting time with a fellow prisoner.
§6
To be punished with 8 days of hard time and be flogged 25 times with a stick at the beginning and end of the punishment:
1. whoever makes derogatory or sarcastic remarks to an SS member, deliberately neglects the mandatory salute, or by his manner otherwise indicates that he will not submit to the compulsory discipline and order,
2. whoever as prisoner-sergeant, as prisoner-corporal or as foreman exceeds the powers as "Ordnungsmann", assumes the rights of a superior with respect to other prisoners, maneuvers preferred work or any other advantage for politically like-minded prisoners, bullies politically otherwise-minded fellow prisoners, makes false reports about them or in some way discriminates.
§7
Will be punished with 14 days of severe time
1. Whoever exchanges his assigned housing with another, unauthorized without the order of the commander of the company, or incites or misleads fellow prisoners,
2. whoever attaches forbidden or camp-made items in outgoing laundry packages, hides or sews in clothing items etc.,
3. whoever enters or leaves barracks, housing, or other buildings outside the stipulated entry ways, crawls through windows or existing openings,
4. whoever smokes in the barracks, toilets and in flammable atmospheres, or stores or sets flammable items down in such areas. If a fire occurs as a result of disregarding this ban, then sabotage will be assumed.
§8
"'Will be punish with 14 days of severe time and be flogged 25 times with a stick at the beginning and end of the punishment:
1. Whoever leaves or enters the prison camp without escort, whoever follows a work column marching out of the camp, unauthorized,
2. whoever in letters or other communication makes derogatory remarks about National Socialist leaders, the state and government, authorities and establishments, exalts Marxist or liberal leaders or "November parties", communicates goings-on in the concentration camp,
3. whoever keeps prohibited items, tools, batons and knives in his room or in straw sacks
§9
Will be punished with 21 days of severe time
Whoever carts off government-owned items, of whatever sort, from said location to another, deliberately damages, destroys, squanders, alters or uses for any other than purpose than prescribed; apart from the penalty, according to circumstances, is liable to some or all of the prisoners for any losses incurred.
§10
Will be punished with 42 days of severe time or lengthy detention in solitary confinement:
1. Whoever accumulates sums of money in the camp, finances prohibited efforts in or outside of the camp, or brings fellow prisoners to heel or binds them to secrecy through money,
2. whoever has sent to himself sums of money which come from prohibited Rote Hilfe collections, or distributes to fellow prisoners,
3. clergy who make announcements that lie outside the framework of pastoral care, slip letters or messages to be passed on, [whoever] seeks the clergy to achieve forbidden objectives,
4. the symbols of the National Socialist state or the pillars of same, makes contemptible, curses, or in other ways disregards,
§11