page_title: Concentration Camps Inspectorate
section_title: Inspector of all concentration camps
hierarchical_section_title: Concentration Camps Inspectorate / Inspector of all concentration camps
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Theodor Eicke ADN-ZB Theodor Eicke, Faschist und Kriegsverbrecher. geb. 17.10.1892 gest. (gefallen) 1943, 1933 erster Kommandeur der SS-Totenkopf-Standarte, 1934 SS Brigadeführer und Inspekteur der Konzentrationslager, später SS Obergruppenführer und General der faschistischen Waffen-SS. 2366-42 [SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke (Porträt)] Abgebildete Personen: Eicke, Theodor: Kommandant KZ Dachau, Generalleutnant, Ritterkreuz (RK), Waffen-SS, Deutschland (PND 119253801)
context_page_description: The Concentration Camps Inspectorate or in German, IKL was the central SS administrative and managerial authority for the concentration camps of the Third Reich. Created by Theodor Eicke, it was originally known as the "General Inspection of the Enhanced SS-Totenkopfstandarten", after Eicke's position in the SS. It was later integrated into the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office as "Amt D".
context_section_description: SS-Oberführer Theodor Eicke, became commandant of Dachau concentration camp on 26 June 1933. His form of organization at Dachau stood as the model for all later concentration camps. Eicke claimed the title of "Concentration Camps Inspector" for himself by May 1934. As part of the disempowerment of the SA through murder during the "Night of the Long Knives" he had personally shot Ernst Röhm on 1 July 1934.
  Shortly after the Röhm affair on 4 July 1934, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler officially named Eicke chief of the Inspektion der Konzentrationslager—IKL (Concentration Camps Inspectorate or CCI). He also promoted Eicke to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer in command of the SS-Wachverbände. Himmler was unquestionably the master of the police organizations and the associated camps, but only those places under the official jurisdiction of the CCI were considered "concentration camps" within the territory comprising the Third Reich.
  As a result of the Night of the Long Knives, the remaining SA-run camps were taken over by the SS. The factional police functions of the SS were dissolved on 20 July 1934 with the subordination of the SA. Additionally, the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) was officially established as a department for Eicke. The CCI moved into offices at Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8 in Berlin. While the offices of Reinhard Heydrich's police apparatus was in close physical proximity to the CCI office of Eicke, Himmler kept them distinct and separated; Heydrich policed the Reich, arrested and detained people and then sent them to concentration camps, where the inmates were superintended by the CCI under Eicke. The CCI was subordinate to the SD and Gestapo only in regards to who was admitted to the camps and who was released; what happened inside the camps was at the discretion of the CCI.
  The head of the CCI (first Eicke) was subordinate both to the SS-Amt as an SS member but really only reported directly to the Chief of the German Police, Reichsführer-SS Himmler in this role. This form of dual subordination was characteristic of many SS posts and created free room for interpretation for their members, which is how and why the CCI under Eicke became an institution of both the Nazi Party and the state. Eicke had a free hand in bringing the concentration camps to the highest "level of  efficiency"; he especially knew how to use this system for his own ends and contributed significantly to the CCI having sole control of all concentration camp prisoners.
caption: Concentration Camp Inspector Theodor Eicke
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