page_title: Postenpflicht
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Postenpflicht / Background
caption_attribution_description: Dachau (1991)
context_page_description: The Postenpflicht was a general order issued to SS-Totenkopfverbände guards in Nazi concentration camps to summarily execute insubordinate prisoners. The order required guards to shoot prisoners who engaged in resistance or escape attempts, without warning; failing to do so would result in dismissal or arrest. The Postenpflicht was originally issued on October 1, 1933, for guards at Dachau concentration camp, but was later extended to other concentration camps.
context_section_description: Dachau concentration camp opened on March 22, 1933, near the town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria. Initially the camp used local Munich policemen as guards, but within weeks they were replaced by the SS. On April 13, 1933, Hilmar Wäckerle, an SS-Standartenführer, became the first commandant. Wäckerle was instructed by Heinrich Himmler, then-Munich chief of police and Obergruppenführer of the SS, to draw up a set of regulations for discipline in the camp. Wäckerle's rules were extremely harsh, and several prisoners died as a direct result of their punishment.
  In May 1933, the Munich prosecutor's office, not yet assimilated to Nazi policy in the Gleichschaltung process, began investigating the murder of several prisoners at Dachau, prompted by the formal complaint of Sophie Handschuh, who wanted to know the true cause of her son's death at the camp. Rumors were already widespread about harsh treatment of those under detention and Himmler was forced to refute those claims, even while announcing the opening of Dachau. Wäckerle and Himmler had charges of murder filed against them, prompting Wäckerle to be removed from his position, but these were later dropped after the chief prosecutor and his assistant were each transferred to other offices. Himmler continued his efforts to establish summary execution, then in practice only at Dachau, as a legitimate form of punishment.
caption: Fence and guard watch tower at Dachau
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