Sonderkommando

American  

[zon-der-kuh-man-doh, zawn-duhr-kaw-mahn-daw] / ˈzɒn dər kəˌmæn doʊ, ˈzɔn dər kɔˈmɑn dɔ /

noun

1. a group of prisoners assigned to collect belongings and dispose of the bodies of other prisoners who had died or been killed.

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Etymology

Origin of Sonderkommando

< German: special detachment, equivalent to sonder- separate, special + Kommando detachment, mission, command < Italian commando; see command, commando

Example Sentences

But the clandestine pictures known as the Sonderkommando photographs carry the gravest weight of all.

From New York Times • Jul. 14, 2022

Sonderkommando units operated at the Nazis’ five extermination camps, said Peter Black, the senior historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

From New York Times • Oct. 7, 2012

"Chaim died in Auschwitz. He blew up the crematorium with his Sonderkommando group."

From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper