[Ads-l] kapo

[Barretts Mail]

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/nyregion/auschwitz-love-story.html
 <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/08/nyregion/auschwitz-love-story.html>Lovers in Auschwitz, Reunited 72 Years Later. He Had One Question.
By Keren Blankfeld
December 8, 2019

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Yet Ms. Spitzer was never a Nazi collaborator or a kapo, a Jew assigned to oversee other prisoners.
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2. Not in the OED or Merriam-Webster. Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kapo <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kapo>) has: "(historical) A prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp who was given food and privileges in return for supervising other prisoners doing forced labor.”

3. Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapo_(concentration_camp) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapo_(concentration_camp)>
A kapo or prisoner functionary (German: Funktionshäftling, see § Etymology) was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp who was assigned by the SS guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks.

4. https://www.thoughtco.com/kapos-prisoner-supervisors-1779685 <https://www.thoughtco.com/kapos-prisoner-supervisors-1779685>
Role of Kapos in Nazi Concentration Camps
by Jennifer L. Goss, Contributing Writer
Updated August 07, 2019

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Kapos, called Funktionshäftling by the SS, were prisoners who collaborated with the Nazis to serve in leadership or administrative roles over others interned in the same Nazi concentration camp.
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Benjamin Barrett (he/him/his)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org