Konzentration Lager

This Parabellum is a survivor of the infamous Nazi concentration camps begun in 1933 with the Kozentrationlager 1933 head stamp. This is a 1933 Simson Rework of an Erfurt manufactured Parabellum from WWI. This is a 9mm 4" (100mm) barrel with extensive Simson E6 proofs. This is an extraordinary find in that the conventional wisdom had all these known guns with this unique chamber markings were re-worked by Mauser and had three digit serial numbers. This theory is still debated. (1172)

There are two theories regarding the Kl. 1933 variation:

Jan Still in Weimar & Early Nazi Lugers, believes that these guns were re-worked by Simson & Mauser and Kl is an abbreviation of Konzentrationlager which were issued to the early SA & SS guards at the first concentration camps, probably Dachau. (Page 207). Kl was an early abbreviation for concentration camps. Known guns run from the two digit serial number (11) to four digit numbers. There was also some Simson toggled guns marked with the Kl. 1933




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Walnut grips, stock lug and matching magazine. Serial number is placement is exposed as in most military model. The thumb safety is marked "Gesichert" and extractor "Geladen." The barrel is numbered and proofed and matches the frame.

Kenyon, Lugers at Random ( Page 234), writes that in 1933 Germany set up a cadet training school for SA and SS officers. Mauser was contracted to rework a few hundred WWI Military Lugers. All of these Lugers were either "DWM" or "Erfurt" marked pieces. Mauser re-worked these guns, removed the original dates and in its place marked them "K.I." "1933". Estimated production was only a few hundred, all the was needed for the school.

So you either decide if it is a KI or a Kl. Having seen several of these guns over the last thirty years we have concluded that the Kl theory has more substance since no one can give an address or location for the Kadetten Institut for us to hang our hat on. Not that it didn't exist but there is nothing you can refer to.

While enjoying all the war-time proofing of the Erfurt Imperial Luger you can see the Crown RC rework proofs and then the Crown 6 (Simson Rework proof) on several parts of the gun.

The 1170 is the weapon number issued in the camp and the 1 is the 1st magazine of two. This is the magazine captured with the gun.

The proofs on the Luger tell it's story of where it came from and subsequent trips to the factory. Note that the Weimar proof and Crown RC proof is next to the Eagle 6 which is the Simson proof. You can also see the acceptance of the Weimar proof on the barrel. Hitler referred to these years as the "Quite Time" while German was building up their armed forces and consolidating power.

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established about 20,000 camps to imprison its many millions of prisoners and political opponents. These camps were used for a range of purposes including forced-labor camps, transit camps which served as temporary way stations, and extermination camps built primarily or exclusively for mass murder. These facilities, begun in 1933, by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler who built a series of detention facilities to imprison and eliminate so-called "enemies of the state." Most prisoners in the early concentration camps were German Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, Roma (Gypsies), Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and persons accused of "asocial" or socially deviant behavior. These facilities were called “concentration camps” because those imprisoned there were physically “concentrated” in one location. They grew rapidly through the 1930s as political opponents and many other groups of people were incarcerated without trial or judicial process. The term "concentration camp" was borrowed from the British concentration camps of the Second Anglo-Boer War.

Himmler was in charge of Germany's concentration camps (he had set up the first at Dachau in 1933) and eastern Europe's worker camps. His brilliance at organization had terrible consequences for the Jews. It was Himmler who made sure that the 'cattle' trains ran on time and that each camp was run on business lines so that they paid for themselves and made profits where possible. Ironically, for a man associated with the spilling of so much blood, Himmler himself would nearly faint at the sight of blood

Pictures of workers for Siemens in the concentration camps where they were intended to provide inexpensive labor to permit more German men to join the military. Below Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler inspecting a camp.


SS Guards in Concentration camp. One is wearing a wound badge The other is watching closely while next to him is a "kapo" Inside the concentration camps there were Jewish police, prisoners known as "kapos." In return for special privileges, kapos forced other Jews to obey Nazi orders, just as the Jewish police had done in the ghettos. In the concentration camps, however, there were also German guards (and sometimes Polish and Ukranian guards) always present, ready and willing to beat or shoot anyone who did not obey orders.

It is entirely subjective to give any Luger a rating of excellent or fine, just as it is to declare it xx% blued or strawed. Few Lugers are out of the box new and these are premium priced. Bluing percentages is like Beauty, in the eye of the beholder.

We strive to provide pictures so you can judge for yourself if the gun meets your criteria.

This is a excellent example of the 1933 Model that was made by Erfurt and converted for the Concentration Camp Guards in 1933. A rare example of an infamous use of this war-time Luger.

This is a Excellent Example of the Imperial Erfurt Luger that comes with all the basic Imperial proofs and has been factory converted by Simson & Co., to a concentration camp guard gun with the Kl.1933 (Konzentrationlager).