The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen
Architect of Terror: Theodor Eicke and the Birth of the Nazi Camp System
14m
The liberation of Dachau exposes the full horror of the Nazi camp system—but its foundations were laid years earlier by Theodor Eicke, the man who turned repression into policy.
This documentary traces Eicke’s journey from a disillusioned World War I veteran to one of Heinrich Himmler’s most trusted enforcers. As commandant of Dachau, he creates the “Dachau model,” a system of discipline, punishment, and prisoner control that becomes the blueprint for concentration camps across the Third Reich.
Following his role in the Night of the Long Knives and his leadership of the SS Death’s Head Units, the film reveals how the brutality of the camps carried onto the battlefield, where Eicke’s division became infamous for war crimes. His story is not just one man’s rise—but the making of a system designed to destroy.
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