There is, indeed, much literature from former "kapos" and some also about them. But when dealing with the subject one should first define who was a "kapo." Primarily, a "kapo" (original writing: "Capo," the "k" in the literature comes from the Polish camp clerks and memoir writers who wrote the word with a "k," because "c" in Polish is pronounced "tz") was the foreman of a working detail of prisoners. Working details with more than (roughly) 100 prisoners, e.g. Krematoriumsheizer, had various kapos and an oberkapo, and under the kapo there were the vorarbeiter for about a dozen prisoners.

Lutz Niethammer, in his seminal work about the "red kapos of Buchenwald" (Der gesäuberte Antifaschismus) uses a wider definition of "kapo," including all Funktionshäftlinge, i.e. all prisoners who were, in a certain sense, involved in keeping the camp running, who had an overseer or administrative function. This fact, BTW, is one of the reasons why quite a lot of kapos were indicted by the Americans for participation in the "common design" of the camps.

Since all kapos, in the narrower or the wider sense, belonged to the stratum of privileged prisoners, they had the highest probability of survival, and those who were able to write, i.e. in general the "political" kapos, were those who produced the bulk of camp memoirs and, such as Kogon or Langbein, the first historical works about the camps. Their early writings have shaped the image of the camps until today. One should - though admittedly it is not very pc - always read their memoirs with a pinch of salt. There is a tendency to glorify the own role (and that of their fellows of the same group), to downplay the own complicity (otherwise they would not have been able to survive), and to vilify the others - not only the SS, or the Germans as a whole (e.g. by Polish kapos), but also competing groups of prisoners. (A praiseworthy exception is T. Borowski, who is very self-critical, a fact that brought him into big trouble in his home country.) The great majority of the camp inmates, "gray mice" and "musselmen," were silent, not least because they made up the vast majority of those who died in the camps.

In my dissertation, I draw a scheme of the so-called Häftlingsselbstverwaltung. I do not have the possibility to scan and post it on the Web. But I could make a hardcopy and send it to somebody who would like to do this. I only need to know a "snail-mail" (postal) address.

maximusolson:

Borowski, if I remember correctly, did not call himself kapo, I guess Vorarbeiter was term he used.

You're absolutely correct. But Vorarbeiter was a "sub-capo," so we can count him in the "kapo" category. I think Borowski's reflexions that you had to adapt to the system for survival are very self-critical and deserve much attention. I wish you good look with your work project. But if you'll take your task seriously, you will inevitably find yourself "between the chairs." It is, however, IMO the adequate position for a good scholar.