Franz Hoessler

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Franz Hößler in August 1945

Franz Hößler , also Franz Hössler , (born February 4, 1906 in Oberdorf near Martinszell in the Allgäu ; † December 13, 1945 in Hameln ) was a German SS leader and protective custody camp leader in Auschwitz , Mittelbau and Bergen-Belsen . Hößler was sentenced to death as a war criminal in the Bergen-Belsen trial and executed .

Life

Hößler was the son of a foreman. After finishing school he broke off an apprenticeship as a photographer. He then worked as a warehouse worker and was unemployed in the early 1930s. He was married and had three children. He joined the NSDAP ( membership number 1,374,713) and SS (SS number 41,940) in early November 1932. In the SS Hössler rose in April 1944 to SS-Obersturmführer or Obersturmführer in the reserve of the Waffen-SS . After the Dachau concentration camp was founded, he was a member of the guards from July 1933 and later worked there as a cook.

In June 1940 he was transferred to the main camp of Auschwitz . He then briefly headed the camp kitchen in the main camp and was then employed as a commando leader. In July / August 1940 he headed an external command in Sosnica near Gleiwitz, where prisoners had to unwind the barbed wire of a former prisoner of war camp in order to be able to fence in the main camp. He also led the punishment company for a time . Hössler also became a labor service leader. After the construction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , he headed various prisoner commands there. In 1942 he was responsible for building a vacation home for the SS near Żywiec , the so-called “ Solahütte ”, for a few months . In addition, in mid-1943 Hößler recruited so-called Aryan prisoner women for the newly opened camp brothel in the main camp , with the prospect of better food and care. From August 1943 to the beginning of 1944 he was Paul Heinrich Theodor Müller's successor in the protective custody camp leader of the women's camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which he ran together with supervisor Maria Mandl . From March 15 to May 15, 1944, Hößler was commandant of the Neckarelz concentration camp , a satellite camp of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp . In June 1944 he returned to the main camp of Auschwitz, where he was the head of the protective custody camp under camp commandant Richard Baer until the camp was evacuated in January 1945 .

SS vacation home Solahütte
After his arrest in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 24, 1945, Franz Hößler stands in front of a microphone, behind him is a truck trailer loaded with corpses.

With prisoner transports from the evacuated Auschwitz concentration camp, Hößler came to the Mittelbau concentration camp, where he was again head of the main camp Dora under camp commandant Richard Baer. After its evacuation, Hößler accompanied a prisoner transport to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 8, 1945 . There he was briefly deputy camp commandant under Josef Kramer , until after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945, he was arrested by a unit of the British army with the other SS men who remained in the camp, although he had tried shortly before to hide as a prisoner in the camp. Together with the other arrested SS men, he had to bury the thousands of corpses lying around the camp grounds in mass graves .

Then he and the remaining camp personnel were transferred to the Celle prison. On May 17, 1945, Hößler was interrogated by investigators from the War Crimes Investigation Team (WCIT), with Hanns Alexander also present and, in particular, interpreting. Hößler offered a cooperation and initially provided information about his career. When asked about the gas chambers in Auschwitz concentration camp , he stated that they were known in the camp. However, he did not take part in selections of prisoners, but was only present in order to ensure the "maintenance of order" during these actions. The camp doctors were responsible for the selections. In addition, he reported on the incoming transports of Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and the gassing of sick people who were unable to work. He named Rudolf Höss and his successor Richard Baer as the responsible commanders in Auschwitz . Hößler was sentenced to death by hanging by the British military court in the Bergen-Belsen trial on November 17 in Lüneburg for his actions in the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps . The sentence was carried out by Albert Pierrepoint on December 13, 1945 in Hameln prison .

Crimes in Auschwitz concentration camp

On July 28, 1941, Hößler accompanied a transport of 575 selected Auschwitz prisoners to the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing center , where they were gassed in Operation 14f13 . After the failed uprising attempt by the penal company in Auschwitz in June 1942, he took part in the murder of the survivors of the uprising , as did Otto Moll and Hans Aumeier .

On September 16, 1942, he drove to the Kulmhof extermination camp with Rudolf Höss and Walter Dejaco to study the methods of clearing up mass graves that had been tried and tested by SS Standartenführer Paul Blobel . From September to November 1942 he implemented the “knowledge” he gained there with the so-called “ Sonderkommando Hößler” in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The prisoners of the Sonderkommando, almost all of whom were murdered after the end of the operation, exhumed the (estimated) 107,000 corpses buried in Birkenau in order to then cremate them in the crematoria .

At the same time he led, as before in the old crematorium of the main camp of Auschwitz, and gassed in the bunkers I and II. Before the gassings he juggled according to the Auschwitz survivors Filip Müller to the victims of mass murder before they would go swimming and was therefore at known to the prisoners as Mojsche Liars :

“After bathing there is a serving of soup and coffee or tea for everyone. Yes, so that I don't forget, you have all the lesson letters, diplomas, school reports and other documents ready after bathing so that we can use everyone according to their knowledge and skills. One more thing: Diabetics who are not allowed to consume sugar report to the staff on duty after bathing. "

Johann Paul Kremer , who worked as a concentration camp doctor in Auschwitz from August 30 to November 17, 1942 , noted in his diary on October 12, 1942 when a transport with 1,703 Dutch Jews (352 of whom were sent to the camp and 1,351 were gassed) in the concentration camp was admitted:

“Attended a special event from Holland (1600 people) that night. Horrible scene in front of the last bunker! (Hößler!) That was the 10th special offer. "

Kremer later stated in an interrogation protocol on July 18, 1947 during the trial against the members of the SS team at Auschwitz-Birkenau:

“In connection with the gassing described in my diary on October 12, 1942, I declare that around 1,600 Dutch people were gassed at that time. This is an approximate figure I gave based on what I heard from others. SS officer Hößler led the action. I remember trying to get the whole group into a single bunker. He succeeded in doing this except for one man who could no longer be crammed into the bunker in any way. Hößler shot this man with a revolver. That is the reason why I wrote in the diary about the gruesome scene in front of the last bunker, mentioning the name Hößler. "

Hößler also took part in selections and gassings in his function as a protective custody camp leader of the women's camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Despite these crimes , according to former inmates , the Auschwitz survivor Hermann Langbein describes Hößler as a brutal commando leader who - in relation to other camp leaders - turned into a protective custody camp leader who was more tolerable for the inmates.

literature

  • Wacław Długoborski , Franciszek Piper (eds.): Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Verlag Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oswiecim 1999, 5 volumes: I. Construction and structure of the camp. II. The prisoners - living conditions, work and death. III. Destruction. IV. Resistance. V. Epilog., ISBN 83-85047-76-X .
  • Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oswiecim 1998, ISBN 83-85047-35-2 .
  • 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 .
  • Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz . Ullstein-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-548-33014-2
  • Karin Orth : The concentration camp SS . dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-34085-1 .
  • Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. Pendo Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-85842-450-1
  • Jens-Christian Wagner (Ed.): Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp 1943–1945 Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition in the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Wallstein, Göttingen, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0118-4 .

Web links

Commons : Franz Hößler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner (ed.): Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943–1945 . Göttingen 2007., p. 136
  2. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, 1980, p. 516
  3. ↑ a b Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz . In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp . Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp . Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum , Oświęcim 1999, p. 230.
  4. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. An encyclopedia of persons , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 183
  5. ↑ Franz Hößler on dws-xip.pl
  6. ↑ a b c d e Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oswiecim 1998, p. 232
  7. ↑ a b Short biography on ARC main page
  8. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, 1980, p. 455
  9. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner: Inferno and Liberation - Auschwitz in the Harz . In: Die Zeit , No. 4/2005
  10. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS . Munich 2004, p. 266 f.
  11. ^ Thomas Harding : Hanns and Rudolf. The German Jew and the Hunt for the Commander of Auschwitz . Translated from the English by Michael Schwellien. dtv, Munich 2014. ISBN 3-423-28044-1 , pp. 209 ff., 159 f.
  12. ↑ Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. , Hamburg 2002, p. 138
  13. ^ Notes by Rudolf Höß . In: State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oswiecim 1998, p. 79 f.
  14. ↑ a b State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oswiecim 1998, p. 159.
  15. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, 1980, p. 369ff.
  16. ^ Bernhard M. Hoppe: Review of the exhibition at hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de
personal data
SURNAME Hößler, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hössler, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS leaders in concentration camps
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberdorf near Martinszell in the Allgäu
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1945
Place of death Hamelin