Lagerführer was a paramilitary title of the SS, specific to the Totenkopfverbande (Concentration Camp Service). A Lagerführer was the head SS officer assigned to a particular Concentration Camp

Nazi concentration camps

Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

, serving as the commander of the said camp.

The term Lagerführer was distinct and separate from the position of Kommondant. Lagerführers were typically employed in camp complexes, where a main camp would be divided into one or more smaller camps. The most recognizable example of this was the Auschwitz command and control system

SS command of Auschwitz concentration camp

The SS command of Auschwitz concentration camp refers to those units, commands, and agencies of the German SS which operated and administered the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II; it is not a list of all personnel who served at Auschwitz, but does include those in command positions...

, in which a single Kommondant oversaw the activities of three subordinate Lagerführers, each in charge of one of three main Auschwitz concentration camp

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

s.

The title of Lagerführer was typically not used to denote commanders of "sub-camps". Sub-camps were considered satellite work areas of a single Concentration Camp, often overseen by a senior SS-NCO or a junior SS officer who in turn either answered to their own Lagerführer or the Kommondant of the main camp.

Source

• Zentner, Christian & Bedürftig, Friedemann, The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, (Macmillan), New York (1991)