A Kapo was a concentration camp prisoner who cooperated with the Nazis to act as a police officer inside the camp. Even though they were prisoners themselves, they were given more food and were not tortured like the other people in the camps. So perhaps to keep their "privileged" positions, Kapos were notoriously brutal and often would beat the other prisoners for the smallest reason. Wiesel's father was beaten just because he asked permission to go to the toilet. Not all Kapos were evil, however. Wiesel tells of one who was executed because he had been hiding weapons for a prison resistance movement.
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