SECRET
Berlin 2 Jan 1941
The Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service State Police Headquarters, Duesseldorf
15 Jan 1941
IV C2 general Nr.'4685/40 g [rubber stamp]
To:
a. Reichs security headquarters (Distributor B).
b. All State police headquarters.
c. All commandants of the security police and security service.
For the information of:
d. All inspectors of the security police and security service.
e. The inspectors of the concentration camps (with 15 copies for the camp commandants).
f. The commanders of the security police and security service in Krakow and Prague.
Subject: Classification of the concentration camps.
The Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German police has given his approval to classify the concentration camps into various categories which take into account the personality of the prisoner as well as the degree of his danger to the State. Accordingly, the concentration camps will be classified into the following categories:
Category I: For all prisoners with only little accusation and definitely qualified for correction, also for special cases and solitary confinement, the camps:
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! 063-A-PS
Dachau
Sachsenhausen Auschwitz I
(The latter also applies in part to category II)
Category la: For all old prisoners and conditionally qualified for work, who can still be used in the medicinal herb gardens, the camp:
Dachau
Category II: For prisoners with heavy accusations, but still qualified for reeducation and correction, the camps:
Buchenwald Flossenbuerg Auschwitz II
Category III: For the heavily accused prisoners, at the same time also for those who have been previously convicted for criminal offences, for social prisoners that is to say, those who can hardly be corrected, the camp: Mauthausen.
Not to be included in category la are old prisoners not qualified for work and in need of medical treatment. They are therefore to remain in the specifically provided sections for this purpose of the respective concentration camp. More serious cases are to be transferred to the hospital section of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen.
A regrouping of the prisoners within the camps according to the new classification cannot be undertaken right now in view of the current measures for the execution of the prisoner commitment. New dispositions will be made, however, in accordance with the classification.
I ask therefore, that in the future, with the arrest warrant and the transfer to a concentration camp, suggestions be made as to the category of the prisoner with regard to his personality as well as the degree of his danger to the State.
I therefore order that a complete record of the political life, previous convictions for criminal offences and conduct of the prisoner since the taking over of the power be established, and that request for assignment into category III be specifically and carefully motivated.
This decree does not apply to the district and local police authorities.
[seal of the secret state police]
/s/ HEYDRICH
certified correct /s/ BLEECK
776
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1063-A-PS
Date: Date Unknown
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-1063-A
HLSL Item No.: Unknown