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Glite Dictionary
🤐 Group betrayer 🪖 Prisoner supervisor
kapo

kapo

1 9.9
A prisoner in a concentration camp chosen by guards to watch other prisoners
  • noun
  • NSFW
: kapo
  • At the end of the shift, the kapo managed to whisper to Colette: "I owe you one."
  • deputy kapo

Examples

  • During the roll call, the kapo kept a strict count of all the inmates present.

  • The kapo oversaw the daily tasks assigned to the prisoners in the camp.

  • Early the next morning, the kapo came to her bunk.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Suddenly, the kapo announced that she would like to have the razor.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Gavriel is a Kapo based at the Kanada sector of the camp.

    The Escape from Auschwitz (2020)

  • The kapo had some shady associations with several SS men, but probably not with Weisacker.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • As a kapo, he had to enforce the guards' orders while trying to protect his fellow prisoners.

Synonyms

prisoner
vskapo
∞ 1.1

A person kept locked because they broke the law or were captured during a war

has assigned authority from guards to supervise and manage others

Surface Forms

kapo singular
kapos plural

Etymology

Kapo comes from the Italian word capo, which means 'head' or 'boss'. Guards used the word in German to name prisoners put in charge of others, so a kapo was literally a 'head' among prisoners.