The Jourhaus was the entrance and exit of the prisoner camp, which the SS officially called the \u201cprotective custody camp\u201d. Located in the Jourhaus were the duty rooms of the camp SS and the staff of the political department. Prisoners were forced to construct the building in 1936 as part of the rebuilding of the camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cJourhaus\u201d is a military term. \u201cJour\u201d is French for \u201cday\u201d. Hence, the Jourhaus was where the officer of the day and his staff were stationed. From here, they organized the prisoner work details, controlled the barracks, wrote applications for imposing punishments, and arranged the guarding of the prisoners. From the perspective of their prisoners, the Jourhaus was the center of SS power.<\/p>\n
Installed and controlled by the SS, and hence dependent on them, the \u201cprisoner functionaries\u201d assumed a series of guard, supervisory, and administrative tasks. These prisoners were forced to carry out the orders issued by the SS, even if these orders threatened the health or life of their fellow prisoners \u2013 otherwise they could expect to be punished. Many of them used their position to protect their fellow prisoners. Deploying prisoner functionaries was an instrument of SS control.<\/p>\n
Every newly arrived prisoner passed through the wrought-iron gate of the Jourhaus with the inscription \u201cArbeit macht frei\u201d (\u201cWork sets you free\u201d). This saying reflected how the Nazi propaganda aimed to downplay what took place in the concentration camp, presenting it as a \u201cwork and education camp\u201d. It also revealed the cynical debasing attitude towards the prisoners, for forced labor was one of the main instruments of extermination and terror used by the SS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"