December 10, 1934
Himmler Establishes the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps
Historical context
On this day, December 10, 1934, Heinrich Himmler established the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps under Theodor Eicke.
Archive record
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- Date
- December 10, 1934
- Verified sources
- 2
- Archive threads
- 4
On this day, Heinrich Himmler ordered the office of Inspector of Concentration Camps into being, effective 10 December 1934, and placed SS-Gruppenführer Theodor Eicke at its head. The office sat in the Gestapo building on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse in Berlin and reported directly to Himmler. Camp organization and administration moved to it. Decisions about who was taken into protective custody stayed with the Gestapo.
USHMM records that Himmler chose Eicke, commandant of Dachau since June 1933, when he centralized the camps. After December 1934 the SS was the only agency authorized to run places formally called concentration camps. In 1937 four remained in Germany: Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and Lichtenburg.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Himmler orders the establishment of the Camp Inspectorate, 10 December 1934 · Birkbeck, University of London · The Nazi Camp System View source
- Concentration Camps, 1933–1939 · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · Holocaust Encyclopedia View source
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