Adolf Haas (concentration camp commandant)

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Adolf Haas (born November 14, 1893 in Siegen ; date of death unknown, declared dead in 1950 by the Hachenburg District Court; the officially determined date of death was set to March 31, 1945, although on April 14, 1945 he was still a member of a trial against three SS men was a German SS-Obersturmbannführer and camp commandant of the Niederhagen - Wewelsburg and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps because of " decomposition of military strength " in the Neuengamme concentration camp .

Life

Adolf Haas was the son of an innkeeper. The family lived in Hachenburg ( Westerwald ) since 1895 . After finishing elementary school, Haas learned a baker and confectioner. On October 1, 1913, he was drafted into the military and on January 12, 1914, he was shipped to Tsingtau as a soldier in the naval artillery. There he came on November 7, 1914 in Japanese POW camp and eventually came to the POW camp Bando in Japan, from which he was released in December 1919th From 1925 he was the owner of his own bakery in Hachenburg. He joined the NSDAP in 1931 (membership number 760.610) and thus bore the honorary title of "Old Party Member". In 1932 he joined the General SS (SS No. 28.943) and was promoted to Sturmbannführer there in 1936. In 1938 he took part in the desecrations of the synagogues in Mogendorf and Hachenburg and organized the establishment of the SS in the upper section of the Rhine. In addition, he neglected his bakery to such an extent that it had to be given up. He switched to the Waffen-SS and in 1940 worked for the "Inspector of the Concentration Camps" . In the same year he was promoted to Obersturmbannführer of the Waffen SS. In the same year he was trained as a protective custody camp leader in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and then commissioned with the construction of the Niederhagen - Wewelsburg concentration camp , where he was the camp commandant from 1941 to 1943. “Among the prisoners, Haas was seen as an unpredictable and ruthless commander.” (John-Stucke) 1,281 people died there during his tenure.

"I am the Lord God of Wewelsburg"

- Adolf Haas

This was followed by the leadership of a construction command to establish the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , where Haas became the first commandant in December 1943. 1,845 people died there during his tenure. Allegedly due to incompetence and corruption, he was transferred from there to the front in December 1944 and used as the commander of an SS Panzergrenadier battalion. During the final phase of the Nazi regime, he was to be found in Neuengamme concentration camp , where on April 14, 1945 he acted as an assessor in an SS and police court , which sentenced a deserted SS leader from the camp to a death sentence and carried out on April 24, 1945 who had fled the camp into private and was found drunk among comrades and in the presence of several women.

Haas disappeared shortly after the execution. It is unknown where. Claimed to be " missing ", he was declared dead on August 18, 1950 by the Hachenburg District Court . From 1961 there were investigations into a group of SS members, including Haas, because of the death sentence of April 1945.

literature

  • Michael Greve: SS perpetrators biographies of the Wewelsburg and the Niederhagen concentration camp , in: Juliane Kerzel (Ed.): Memorial work and remembrance culture in Ostwestfalen-Lippe , Paderborn 2002, pp. 236–249.
  • Werner A. Güth, Johannes Kempf, Abraham Frank: Zachor - A book of remembrance. In memory of the Jewish community of Hachenburg . City of Hachenburg, Hachenburg 2002.
  • Karl Hüser: Wewelsburg 1933 to 1945. Cult and terror site of the SS. Documentation . Verlag Bonifatius-Druckerei, Paderborn 1982, ISBN 3-87088-305-7 .
  • Bruno M. Struif: Hachenburg - Traces of time of a Westerwald residence city . City of Hachenburg, Hachenburg 1999, ISBN 3-00-005238-0 , pp. 224-227.
  • Kirsten John-Stucke: Niederhagen / Wewelsburg concentration camp . In: Erik Schulte / Working Group of Nazi Memorials in North Rhine-Westphalia (ed.): Concentration camps in the Rhineland and in Westphalia 1933-1945. Central control and regional initiative , Paderborn 2008, pp. 97–111
  • Markus Müller: The First World War: “Urkatastrophe” in the biography of the later SS henchman Adolf Haas from Hachenburg? In: Wäller Heimat , vol. 2014, pp. 70–79.
  • Jakob Saß: The rise of a mediocre. The SS career of Adolf Haas, concentration camp commandant in Wewelsburg and Bergen-Belsen (series of publications by the Hachenburg City Archives, no.4), Hachenburg 2016.
  • Bruno M. Struif: Biography Adolf Haas . Commentary on issue 4 by Jakob Saß, Hachenburg City Archives. In: GeschichtsWerkstatt Hachenburg (ed.): GWH-Info 33 (June 2016); Additions to the biography of Haas in GWH-Info 34 (Sept. 2016) and GWH-Info 43 (Nov. 2018).
  • Jakob Saß: violence, greed and grace. The concentration camp commandant Adolf Haas and his way to Wewelsburg and Bergen-Belsen . Past Publishing, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-86408-246-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nazi major criminals - career as a concentration camp commandant. In: SZ online. January 6, 2020, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c curriculum vitae and excerpt from an official assessment of the Wewelsburg concentration camp commandant Haas. In: Internet portal "Westphalian history". February 7, 2011, accessed January 7, 2020 .
  3. ↑ The mysterious disappearance of the concentration camp commandant Adolf Haas: One of the unknown mass murderers of the Holocaust. In: Der Tagesspiegel Online. January 20, 2020, accessed April 14, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Uli Jungbluth : On the synagogue and the Jews of Mogendorf. In: Joachim Jösch, Uli Jungbluth u. a. (Ed.): Jews in the Westerwald. Life, suffering and remembrance. A guide to the search for clues. Montabaur 1998, p. 105.
  5. ↑ Security team of the Niederhagen / Wewelsburg concentration camp, probably 1941. In: Internet portal “Westphalian history”. February 25, 2004, accessed September 30, 2019 .
  6. ↑ All information, unless otherwise stated, in: Haas, Adolf. In: Regional personal lexicon on National Socialism in the old districts of Siegen and Wittgenstein. VVN-BdA , Kreisvereinigung Siegerland-Wittgenstein., Accessed on September 30, 2019 . Jakob Saß: Rise of a Mediocre (= series of publications by the Hachenburg City Archives, no.4). Hachenburg 2016.
  7. ↑ Hamburg public prosecutor 141 Js 803/61, previously 14 Js 542/47, see: Regionales Personenlexikon, article Adolf Haas .
personal data
SURNAME Haas, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Camp commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Wins
DATE OF DEATH after May 1, 1945