Esterwegen concentration camp rule book

The Esterwegen concentration camp near Esterwegen was an early Nazi concentration camp within a series of camps first established in the Emsland district of Germany. It was established in the summer of 1933 as a concentration camp for 2000 so-called political Schutzhäftlinge (protective custody prisoners) and was for a time the second largest concentration camp after Dachau. The camp was closed in summer of 1936. Thereafter, until 1945 it was used as a prison camp. Political prisoners and so-called Nacht und Nebel prisoners were also held there. After the war ended, Esterwegen served as a British internment camp, as a prison, and, until 2000, as a depot for the German Army.

SS Gruppenführer Theodor Eicke, the apparent author of these rules and regulations, had been tasked with carrying out a fundamental restructuring of the camp system in his capacity as inspector of concentration camps. Esterwegen had been a camp run by SA guards and after the Röhm Putsch, in which Eicke played a key role, he introduced a new system run on SS lines.