Josef Kramer

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Josef Kramer (August 1945)

Josef Kramer (born November 10, 1906 in Munich ; † December 13, 1945 in Hameln ) was a German SS leader and camp commandant of the Natzweiler-Struthof , Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps , who served as a war criminal in the Bergen-Belsen trial was sentenced to death and executed.

Origin, time at school, training and unemployment

Josef Kramer grew up as an only child in a middle class family, his father was a civil servant auditor. His parents raised him "strictly Catholic ". In 1913 the family moved from Munich to Augsburg , where Kramer graduated from elementary school. From 1920 he did an electrician apprenticeship . He then attended business school and completed a three-year training as an accountant in a department store. Due to the difficult economic situation of his employer, he lost his first job in 1925 after a few months. For the next nine years he was unemployed except for odd jobs as a peddler and during this time he still lived in the parents' house. When his father also lost his job during the Great Depression in 1931/32, the whole family got into economic hardship.

Turning to National Socialism

On December 1, 1931, Kramer, who had not been politically interested until then, became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 753.597). On June 20, 1932, he joined the SS (SS no. 32.217). As an SS member, he carried out voluntary activities for the 29th SS Standard, II. SS-Sturm stationed in Augsburg, under the direction of Hans Loritz . After the National Socialists came to power , he got a job as a daily allowance clerk at the tax office in Augsburg at the end of October 1933 and moved to the Augsburg registry office in January 1934 . He was entrusted with drawing up the vaccination lists for the district doctor in Augsburg Stadt. He also prepared a directory for birth, marriage and death registers and church resignations .

His full-time employment with the SS relief organization in the Dachau concentration camp in 1934 marked the first stage of his ascent in the National Socialist concentration camp system . He was requested there by Hans Loritz and moved out of the parental home for the first time. At the SS Relief Organization, an institution that looked after National Socialists who had fled Austria, he was employed as a clerk in the SS pay office. He was informed about what was happening in the concentration camp.

Entry and promotion with the concentration camp SS

From November 1934 to June 1936 he worked as a clerk in the command office of the Esterwegen concentration camp under camp commandant Loritz. When the Esterwegen camp was abandoned in 1936, he returned to Dachau, where, again under Loritz, he was posted to the commandant's office as a clerk. From June 1937 to August 1938 he was first employed in the Adjutantur in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and then rose to head the post office. When he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp in August 1938, he became an adjutant under the camp commandant Franz Ziereis . From May 1940 to November 1940 he was adjutant to Rudolf Höß in Auschwitz concentration camp and then completed training to become a protective custody camp leader in Dachau concentration camp until April 1941 .

Camp commandant in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp

Immediately afterwards, he was in the Alsace located Natzweiler-Struthof initially used until May 1942 as officer in charge, worked from February 1942 as Acting Commander before he ascended there in October 1942 to the camp commander.

Under his command, a gas chamber for human experiments was built by the Research Association of German Ahnenerbe in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp , the completion of which he reported on April 12, 1943. In August 1943 he had 86 prisoners transferred from the Auschwitz concentration camp gassed there in order to complete the notorious “ skull and skeleton collection ” of the anatomy professor August Hirt at the University of Strasbourg . Kramer led this murder operation and watched the death throes of the victims through a window. In the spring of 1943 he was awarded the War Merit Cross 2nd Class.

Camp commandant in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

In May 1944, Kramer succeeded Friedrich Hartjenstein as camp commandant in Auschwitz-Birkenau , who in turn was transferred to Natzweiler-Struthof. At that time, Oswald Pohl , as head of the WVHA, ordered a change of the camp commanders deployed in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex and at the same time appointed Rudolf Höß as site elder . From this point in time, the so-called “Hungary Action”, the murder of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews , began under the leadership of Höß , and Höß was also involved in training the newly appointed camp commanders Baer and Kramer. The gas chambers and crematoria were in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp; SS-Hauptscharführer Otto Moll was directly responsible for them . The Auschwitz survivor Olga Lengyel experienced Kramer during a selection in the infirmary of the women's camp, where, according to her statement, he "smashed the skull of a female inmate with a club while loading the victims onto the truck ".

Camp commandant in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Prisoner corpses on the grounds of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945

In the course of the amalgamation of the Auschwitz concentration camp with the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp under the direction of Richard Baer, ​​Kramer was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and took over the camp management there on December 2, 1944, succeeding Adolf Haas . He took some of his previous staff with him to Bergen-Belsen. Under his leadership, Jewish prisoners' self-government was abolished in the so-called Sternlager. Jewish prisoners were removed from “specially protected workplaces” and replaced by non-Jewish prison functionaries who immediately introduced a regiment of terror. In addition, the living conditions for the Jewish prisoners deteriorated due to reduced food rations and overcrowding in prisoner barracks .

Conditions in the camp developed into an unimaginable horror under Kramer's camp commandant, to which most of the Belsen prisoners fell victim , mainly to exhaustion and typhus . Towards the end of the war, Bergen-Belsen was the target of several evacuation transports from other concentration camps, as a result the camp was completely overcrowded, and the increasingly poor supply situation and epidemics claimed massive lives.

Shortly before the camp was liberated, Kramer had the files of the commandant's office destroyed and instructed the exhausted prisoners to clear away the thousands of corpses lying around the camp grounds. In January 1945 he was awarded the 1st Class War Merit Cross.

arrest

Josef Kramer is led through the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on April 17, 1945 in shackles.

On April 15, 1945, the 11th Panzer Division of the British Army occupied the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The neutralized area was handed over. Colonel Taylor, the Commander of the British 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment, was given the post of camp commandant. For fear of possible prisoners tumult, Kramer tried unsuccessfully to deny the British Army members access to the camp. However, they drove to the camp and informed the inmates of their arrival. When inmates tried to break into the inmate's kitchen and potato cellar shortly afterwards, the camp SS shot them, which was immediately stopped by British officers. Then a British officer pointed his pistol at Kramer and forced him to carry an injured prisoner to the hospital. On April 17, 1945, Kramer was arrested, placed under arrest and led through the camp in shackles. After several interrogations, he was transferred to the prisoner-of-war camp in Celle on April 18, 1945 . In early May 1945, he was briefly the Belgian Diest transferred and then brought back to Celle. Kramer willingly provided information during the interrogation. He described his curriculum vitae and also commented on crimes committed: For example, he admitted the gassing of 86 Jews in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp, which he carried out as a recipient of orders without feeling anything.

Post War - Trial, Death Sentence and Execution

Irma Grese and Josef Kramer in the prison yard in Celle in August 1945

Kramer was among the British public as the "Beast of Belsen" ( beast called Belsen). From September 17, 1945, he and 44 other members of the Belsen camp staff had to answer in the Bergen-Belsen trial before a British military court for war crimes and crimes against humanity . In his case, crimes committed not only in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp were tried, but also crimes in the Auschwitz concentration camp, as was the case with ten other accused. At the beginning of the trial, like all other defendants, he pleaded "not guilty". Only his wife Rosina (* 1914), a shorthand typist , with whom he had been married since October 1937 and had three children, testified for Kramer .

On November 17, 1945, Kramer was sentenced to death by hanging . Ten days later he made a petition for clemency from Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery , which was not granted: In it, Kramer blamed his superiors for the catastrophic conditions in Bergen-Belsen and referred to the circumstances caused by the war. He described himself as a recipient of orders who had fulfilled his duty “self-sacrificingly” and “without consideration”. Before the camp was handed over, he did not flee “cowardly”, but rather remained conscientiously on site “out of concern for the prisoners entrusted to him”. He resolved his petition for clemency as follows: “1.) I am completely innocent of the crimes I have been charged with for Bergen-Belsen, as well as for Auschwitz. 2.) I'm not a war criminal. 3.) I didn't kill a person on my own initiative. 4.) I was only a soldier and as such I carried out the orders of my military superiors. "

The sentence was on 13 December 1945 in the penitentiary Hameln enforced . Kramer's executioner was Albert Pierrepoint .

Ranks

date rank
Late 1933 SS-Unterscharführer
September 1934 SS squad leader
April 1935 SS-Hauptscharführer
Spring 1937 SS-Untersturmführer
January 1939 SS-Obersturmführer
June 1, 1942 SS-Hauptsturmführer

literature

  • 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 .
  • Tom Segev : The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-499-18826-0 .
  • Eberhard Kolb : Bergen-Belsen. History of the “Residence Camp” 1943–1945. Verlag für Literatur und Zeitgeschehen, Hannover 1962 (reprint of the 1962 edition, Lit Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-11067-1 ).
  • Raymond Phillips (Ed.): Trial of Josef Kramer and forty-four others (The Belsen-Trial). War Crimes Trials Series Vol. II, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow 1949.
  • 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 .
  • 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, ISBN 83-85047-76-X . Five volumes: I. Structure of the camp. II. The prisoners - living conditions, work and death. III. Destruction. IV. Resistance. V. Epilog.

Web links

Commons : Josef Kramer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders . Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, p. 63f.
  2. ↑ a b c d Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 103.
  3. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders . Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, p. 64.
  4. ↑ a b Eberhard Kolb: Bergen-Belsen. History of the “residence camp” 1943–1945 , Lit Verlag, Berlin 2011, p. 122 f.
  5. ↑ a b Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 104.
  6. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders . Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, p. 66.
  7. ↑ a b Eberhard Kolb: Bergen-Belsen. History of the “residence camp” 1943–1945 , Lit Verlag, Berlin 2011, p. 123.
  8. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 214.
  9. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. An encyclopedia of persons , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 233f.
  10. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 247
  11. ^ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. An encyclopedia of persons , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 283.
  12. ^ Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz , Frankfurt 1980, p. 363.
  13. ↑ Eberhard Kolb: Bergen-Belsen. History of the “residence camp” 1943–1945 , Lit Verlag, Berlin 2011, p. 124.
  14. ↑ Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. , Hamburg 2002, p. 266.
  15. ↑ Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. , Hamburg 2002, p. 267.
  16. ↑ Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. , Hamburg 2002, p. 268f.
  17. ↑ Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. , Hamburg 2002, p. 310.
  18. ↑ "The 11th Panzer Division (Great Britain)", United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  19. ↑ Derrick Sington: The gates are opening. LIT Verlab, Dr. W. Hopf Berlin. ISBN 978-3-88660-622-1
  20. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 266.
  21. ↑ Josef Kramer - He didn't feel anything . In: Der Spiegel , issue 18 from April 25, 2015, p. 51.
  22. ↑ cf. Claudia Taake: Accused: SS women in court , Oldenburg 1998, p. 52ff.
  23. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 137.
  24. ↑ http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205078763
  25. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 280f.
  26. ^ Plea for clemency from Josef Kramer on November 27, 1945 to Bernard Montgomery. Quoted from: Karin Orth: Die Concentration Camp SS , Munich 2004, p. 281.
personal data
SURNAME Kramer, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German concentration camp commander and SS leader
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1945
Place of death Hamelin