Alexander Piorkowski
Alexander Bernhard Hans Piorkowski , also Alex Piorkowski , (born October 11, 1904 in Bremen , † October 22, 1948 in Landsberg am Lech , executed ) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer and camp commandant of the Dachau concentration camp .
Life
Alexander Piorkowski was a trained mechanic who worked as a traveling merchant in the 1920s.
He joined the SA on June 1, 1929. On November 1, 1929, Piorkowski became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 161,437). On June 1, 1933, he switched from the SA to the SS (membership number 8,737). He carried out his first SS standard in Bremen on July 20, 1935, and the Allenstein SS standard the following year. Due to illness, he left the service on September 19, 1936.
From July 1937 to December 1937 he was provisional camp commandant of the Lichtenburg concentration camp and, after the conversion of this camp into a women concentration camp, deputy camp director under Günther Tamaschke until August 1938. From there he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp at the beginning of August 1938, where he worked as a protective custody camp leader . From February 1940 to mid-September 1942 he was commandant of the Dachau concentration camp. Due to allegations of corruption, he was released on August 31, 1943 for "incapacity for work from the service relationship with the Waffen-SS [and at the same time] from the Schutzstaffel with effect from the same day".
After the end of the Second World War , Piorkowski and his adjutant Heinz Detmers had to answer before an American military court from January 6 to 17, 1947 in the course of the Dachau trials . The charges were crimes against humanity , deportation, kidnapping and mistreatment of prisoners in the former Dachau concentration camp. Piorkowski was sentenced to death and hanged on October 22, 1948 in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison after a review of the judgment and unsuccessful appeals for clemency .
| Piorkowski's SS ranks | |
|---|---|
| date | rank |
| January 8, 1932 | SS-Hauptscharführer |
| April 20, 1933 | SS-Untersturmführer |
| September 9, 1934 | SS-Obersturmführer |
| April 20, 1934 | SS-Hauptsturmführer |
| January 30, 1936 | SS-Sturmbannführer |
literature
- Martin Gruner: Sentenced in Dachau. The trial of the concentration camp commandant Alex Piorkowski in a US military court. Wißner-Verlag, Augsburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89639-650-1 .
- Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
- Stefan Hördler, Sigrid Jacobeit (eds.): Documentation and memorial site Lichtenburg concentration camp - conception of a new permanent exhibition for workshop buildings and bunkers. Lit-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-643-10038-2 .
- Johannes Tuchel : Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934–1938. (= Writings of the Federal Archives, Volume 39). H. Boldt, 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 .
Web links
- Recommendations on military court proceedings at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org (PDF file; 1.98 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Johannes Tuchel: Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934–1938. 1991, p. 385.
- ↑ Stefan Hördler, Sigrid Jacobeit (eds.): Documentation and memorial site Lichtenburg concentration camp. Berlin 2009, p. 125f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Piorkowski, Alexander |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Piorkowski, Alexander Bernhard Hans; Piorkowski, Alex |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German concentration camp commander |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 11, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bremen |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 22, 1948 |
| Place of death | Landsberg am Lech |