What did Eicke do and how did he impact the life of residents in the camps?

Theodor Eicke (1892-1943), was an SS Lieutenant General, commandant of Concentration Camps, and commander of the SS Death's Head Units (Totenkopfverbaende), an armed SS troop that guarded the concentration camps. He was credited to be the man who virtually created the concentration camp model.

In June 1933 Eicke was made commandant of the first concentration camp, Dachau. His personal motto was "Tolerance is a sign of weakness." His brutal style of command at Dachau was soon to become a model for other camp administrators. This included the torture of prisoners and encouragement of the Death Head Units' barbarous behavior.

In November 1939 Eicke was made commander of the Waffen-SS, which was the SS's military units. Under his leadership, they took part in the fighting in France and on the Russian front. Eicke's brutal style extended to the Waffen-SS; their first war crime was the murder of about 100 British prisoners of war in France on May 26, 1940. At the end of the war, the Allies labeled the Waffen-SS a "criminal organization." Eicke was killed on the Russian front on February 16, 1943, when his plane was shot down.