Hans Horstmann

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Hans Horstmann (born December 15, 1885 in Stargard , † January 11, 1972 in Wilhelmshaven ) was a German military and war criminal.

Live and act

Horstmann was initially a foreman at the Kriegsmarine shipyard in Wilhelmshaven . He signed up on November 5, 1913 at the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven, did active military service in the First World War and returned to Wilhelmshaven after the end of the war . After his military service, u. a. in a naval squadron, he returned in 1920 to the Wilhelmshaven shipyard. Nothing is known about its functions during the Great Depression and in the interwar period . In 1936 he became a member of the NSDAP . In April 1942 he was promoted to senior engineer and deputy head of the shipyard .

He was involved in numerous war crimes there and checked the work progress and productivity of the forced laborers from the Neuengamme concentration camp almost daily . In December 1944 he was promoted to head of the site and, according to witness reports, demanded replacement for the prisoners who died under the harsh working conditions. Although he himself did not exercise any direct violence against the so-called "prisoners", he said several times to his subordinates that these were not people for him, but only "numbers" that could be replaced and exchanged at will. During interrogation, he admitted to having handed over forced laborers to the shipyard police for food theft.

In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British . On March 6, 1947, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a British military tribunal; he began imprisonment in the Werl prison . In 1950 Horstmann applied for its denazification . The main denazification committee of the Oldenburg administrative district declared Horstmann exonerated (category V). In 1952 Horstmann was released from captivity.

literature

  • Marc Buggeln: Slave Laboratory in Nazi Concentration Camps . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-101764-3 , pp. 246 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Marc Buggeln: Slave Laboratory in Nazi Concentration Camps. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, p. 246
  2. ↑ a b NLA OL Rep 980 Order. 351 No. 48891. Arcinsys, accessed on November 20, 2019 .
  3. ↑ NLA OL Rep 400 acc. 226 No. 731. Arcinsys, accessed November 20, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Horstmann, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manager involved in war crimes during World War II
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Stargard
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1972
Place of death Wilhelmshaven