Kapo was a term used for certain prisoners who worked inside the Nazi concentration camps during World War II in various lower administrative positions. The German word may also mean "foreman" and "non-commissioned officer", and is derived from French for "Corporal" (fr:Caporal) or the Italian word capo. Kapos received more privileges than normal prisoners, towards whom they were often brutal. They were often convicts who were offered this work in exchange for a reduced sentence or parole. Prior to and during World War II Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps (Konzentrationslager or KZ) throughout the territory it controlled. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... Foreman is the surname of: Dave Foreman Gordy Foreman Deborah Foreman Kevin Foreman George Foreman - a boxer Carl Foreman Freeda Foreman Tim Foreman Richard Foreman David Foreman Jon Foreman Susan Foreman Joseph Foreman Jack Foreman Mantle it may refer also to: Foreman, Arkansas Foreman of Signals George Foreman Grill Stanley... A non-commissioned officer (sometimes noncommissioned officer), also known as an NCO or noncom, is a non-commissioned member of an armed force who has been given authority by a commissioned officer. ... Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries, police forces or other uniformed organizations around the world. ... Parole can have different meanings depending on the context. ...

This role has been described in many books, among them Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, treating it from a psychiatrist's standpoint. Mans search for meaning Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph. ... Viktor Frankls 1946 book Mans Search for Meaning chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding a reason to live. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental and emotional disorders (see mental illness). ...

From Oliver Lustig's Dictionary of the Camp:

Vicenzo and Luigi Pappalettera wrote in their book The Brutes Have the Floor ^[1]that, every time a new transport of detainees arrived at Mauthausen, Kapo August Adam picked out the professors, lawyers, priests and magistrates and cynically asked them: "Are you a lawyer? A professor? Good! Do you see this green triangle? This means I am a killer. I have five convictions on my record: one for manslaughter and four for robbery. Well, here I am in command. The world has turned upside down, did you get that? Do you need a Dolmetscher, an interpreter? Here it is!" And he was pointing to his bat, after which he striked. When he was satisfied, he formed a Scheisskompanie with those selected and sent them to clean the latrines. ^[2] Vincenzo Pappalettera (1919-1998) was an Italian writer and historian, notable for his first-hand account of his imprisonment in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp during the years of World War II. He was born November 28, 1919 in Milan, to a renown family of Puglia. ...

Reference

1. ^ The author or translator probably refer to the book: Pappalettera, Vincenzo y Luigi. " La parola agli aguzzini: le SS e i Kapò di Mauthausen svelano le leggi del lager.", Milano: Mondadori (1969), Mursia, (1979), also "Los SS tienen la palabra: las leyes del campo de Mauthausen reveladas por las Schutz-Staffeln". Barcelona: Editorial Laia, (1969).
2. ^ Oliver Lustig, Dicţionar de lagăr, Bucharest, Hasefer, 2002 ISBN 973-630-011-0 (English translation online)