# Kommando

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{{Short description|General term for special police and military forces}}
{{other uses}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{notability|date=August 2024}}
{{original research|date=August 2024}}
{{Unfocused|talk=Unfocused|date=June 2020}}
}}
A '''''Kommando''''' ({{IPA|de|kɔˈmando|lang|De-Kommando.ogg}}, {{lit.}} "unit" or "command") is a general term for special police and military forces in [German](/source/German_language), [Dutch](/source/Dutch_language), and [Afrikaans](/source/Afrikaans) speaking nations.

It was also the term in the World War II era ''Luftwaffe'' for special units used to test new aircraft for combat readiness (as ''[Erprobungskommando](/source/Erprobungskommando)'' units) and examples existed that only used the "Kommando" name, such as the Luftwaffe [''Gruppe''-sized](/source/Group_(military_aviation_unit)) ''[Kommando Nowotny](/source/Kommando_Nowotny)''. In the winter/spring 1945 period, single-plane ''Kommando''-designated units that used the [Arado Ar 234](/source/Arado_Ar_234) ''Blitz'' jet powered reconnaissance-bomber operated from hidden, forest-lined runways in eastern Germany.

Before and during [World War II](/source/World_War_II), the basic unit of organization of [forced labourers](/source/Forced_labour_under_German_rule_during_World_War_II) in [Nazi concentration camps](/source/Nazi_concentration_camps), equivalent to a detail or detachment were referred to as ''Kommandos''.

Among the most notable of such units were the [Sonderkommando](/source/Sonderkommando)s ({{lit|Special ''Kommandos''}}), carrying out the [Final Solution](/source/Final_Solution) by guarding the newly arrived inmates, escorting them to [gas chamber](/source/gas_chamber)s, searching the bodies and burning them. ''[Außenkommando](/source/Au%C3%9Fenkommando)s'' were external work details that were set up, either leaving from the concentration camp or from outside the camp boundary.<ref>Bernhard Frankfurter (Ed.), translated and annotated by [Susan E. Cernyak-Spatz](/source/Susan_Cernyak-Spatz), [https://books.google.com/books?id=7AiY1QFhJygC&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq ''The meeting: an Auschwitz survivor confronts an SS physician''] Google Books. English translation (2000) Syracuse University Press, p.&nbsp;183 {{ISBN|0-8156-0604-4}}</ref>

In ''[Auschwitz](/source/Auschwitz_concentration_camp): A Doctor's Eyewitness Account'', concentration camp survivor Dr. [Miklós Nyiszli](/source/Mikl%C3%B3s_Nyiszli) (who served on Dr. [Josef Mengele](/source/Josef_Mengele)'s medical '''kommando''') describes the "tooth-pulling kommando". These teams of eight, all "fine stomatologists and dental surgeons" equipped "in one hand with a lever, and in the other a pair of [pliers](/source/pliers) for extracting teeth", worked in the [crematoria](/source/Crematoria).  Stationed in front of the ovens, their job was to pry open the mouths of prisoners who had been gassed and extract, or break off, "all [gold teeth](/source/gold_teeth), as well as any gold [bridgework](/source/Bridge_(dentistry)) and [fillings](/source/Dental_fillings)".<ref>{{cite book|author=Nyiszli, Miklós|author-link=Miklós Nyiszli|title=Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account|pages=53–55|chapter=3|year=2011|publisher=New York: Arcade Publishing}}</ref>

Other kommandos depended on the job they were assigned to, such as woodcutting kommandos, factory kommandos or kitchen kommandos.

== See also ==
* [Subcamp (SS)](/source/Subcamp_(SS))
* [Luftwaffe](/source/Luftwaffe)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==See also==
*[Commando](/source/Commando)
*[Kapo](/source/Kapo_(concentration_camp))
*[Language of Nazi concentration camps](/source/Language_of_Nazi_concentration_camps)

Category:Nazi concentration camp occupations

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kommando](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommando) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommando?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.