August Harbaum

August Harbaum (born March 25, 1913 in Gütersloh ; † after 1946) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer and adjutant to Richard Glücks , the head of the inspection of the concentration camps .

Life

Harbaum was a member of the Jungstahlhelm when he was 14 . After finishing school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship and made a living from short-term jobs. From 1932 he was a member of the SS (SS No. 37.163) and the NSDAP ( membership number 1.264.669). After the handover of power to the National Socialists , he worked full-time for the SS and in autumn 1934 went to the SS school at Haus Wewelsburg . Due to disciplinary offenses, he was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and from there later assigned to the Dachau concentration camp , where he was a member of the guards. In March 1939 he became adjutant to the camp commandant in the Flossenbürg concentration camp , his successor in this function was Ludwig Baumgartner in the spring of 1940 .

From March 1942 to April 1945, Harbaum was adjutant to Richard Glücks , the head of the inspection of the concentration camps in the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA). He also headed the personnel department of Office Group D in the WVHA. From June 1942 he took over the deputy head of the main department DI / 6 (dog being) under Franz Mueller-Darß . In June 1944 he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer of the Waffen-SS .

After the war he was in Allied internment. In the Staumühle internment camp , on March 19, 1946, he made an affidavit on the tasks and figures of the personnel department he led in the WVHA for the Nuremberg trial of major war criminals . Harbaum stated that the department subordinate to him processed transfers and promotions of members of the Waffen SS in the concentration camp service. For March 1942, he gave a total of 15,000 members of the Waffen SS in camp service, the number of which had increased to 30,000 to 35,000 by April 1945. Around 10,000 members of the Waffen SS in the camp service were transferred to the front during this period or otherwise used and replaced by new camp personnel. For the period from March 1942 to April 1945, he therefore estimated that a total of around 45,000 members of the Waffen SS would have served in concentration camps.

Soon after his testimony, Harbaum managed to escape from internment. He could not be apprehended again and the Federal German judiciary was later unable to determine his whereabouts. However, he is said to have been seen as late as 1969. Harbaum was "still wanted for a search in 2003".

literature

• Ernst Klee : Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3 .
• Christa Schikorra, Jörg Skriebeleit, Bavarian Memorials Foundation: Flossenbürg Concentration Camp 1938-1945: Catalog for the permanent exhibition , Wallstein 2008

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johannes Tuchel : The inspection of the concentration camps 1938–1945. The system of terror. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, p. 217
2. ^ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 162
3. ↑ August Harbaum on the SS seniority list  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on www.dws-xip.pl  
4. ^ International Military Trials Nuremberg. Nazi Conspiracy to Aggression. Volume VII, Washington 1946, pp. 212f.
5. ↑ Johannes Tuchel : Case 4: The trial against Oswald Pohl and other members of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office . In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (Hrsg.): National Socialism in front of a court. The allied trials of war criminals and soldiers 1943–1952 (= Fischer pocket books. The time of National Socialism 13589). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 119
6. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 225