Sonderkommando

Sonderkommando, a German term meaning "special command" or "special unit," referred to prisoner detachments within Nazi concentration and extermination camps who were forced to carry out the most lethal tasks of the murder process. In the camp system, Sonderkommandos operated the gas chambers and crematoria, recovered bodies, sorted belongings, and assisted with disposal of victims. The designation was used in several camps, including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, and Majdanek.

Members were typically drawn from Jewish prisoners brought to the camps from ghettos and other locations, though other groups could be included. They worked under tight SS supervision and were kept apart from other prisoners. Their work exposed them to the direct act of murder and to incessant danger, as the SS periodically replaced or killed members to prevent testimony about the killings. The duration of service in a Sonderkommando varied, often lasting weeks to months; after the term ended, members were routinely killed and replaced.

The existence and experiences of the Sonderkommando are documented through survivor testimonies, archival records, and postwar investigations. Notably, a resistance uprising by parts of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando occurred on October 7, 1944, in which participants attempted to destroy crematoria and halt killings; the rebellion was crushed, and many of its members were killed in reprisal.

The Sonderkommando is an important subject in Holocaust historiography