Josef Seuss

Josef Seuss (born March 3, 1906 in Nuremberg , † May 28, 1946 in Landsberg am Lech ) was a German SS-Hauptscharführer , report leader and deputy protective custody camp leader in the Dachau concentration camp . He was also commando leader in the Dachau external command in Radolfzell and camp leader of the external commandos belonging to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in Oberehnheim (1943), Schömberg , Leonberg, Thil and Dautmergen (1944).

Career

In 1932 Seuss became a member of the general SS . From April 20, 1933 he was part of the staff of the Dachau concentration camp. Initially employed as a guard for 13 months, Seuss then worked for 4½ years as a telephone operator in the camp commandant's office . From 1938 or 1939 Seuss was a guard in so-called commandant arrest, in which prisoners were held in solitary confinement. In the winter of 1939/1940 he was temporarily employed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp , since the Dachau concentration camp was used for the training of the SS division "Totenkopf" during this time . From May 1941 Seuss was commando leader in the Radolfzell external command , an external command of the Dachau concentration camp. After his return to Dachau in August 1942, Seuss was initially deputy report leader, and later deputy protective custody camp leader. His activity in Dachau ended in November 1942, as he was transferred to the Alsatian concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof on December 1, 1942 .

From December 15, 1942 to December 1943, he was camp leader in the Oberehnheim external command, where the prisoners were forced to carry out construction work for the Oberehnheim SS news school. From December 1943 to April 1945 Josef Seuß was camp commandant in the Schömberg , Thil, Leonberg and Dautmergen satellite camps . Seuss, simply referred to as "Zack-Zack" by the prisoners in Schömberg, was known for forming "shoesless" commands despite the winter. In November 1944, Seuss was supposed to organize the deployment of around 90 concentration camp prisoners from Natzweiler as part of the relocation of the Daimler-Benz plant from Gaggenau to the front valley of the Eyach near Neuenbürg and met with representatives of the company in Gaggenau to plan appropriate things a letter from Seuss to the commandant's office in Natzweiler is documented.

Seuss married in July 1944 and this marriage had five children.

After the end of the war

Dock in the first Dachau trial. Josef Seuss: second row from the top, outside left.

After the end of the war, from November 15, 1945, Seuss and 39 other members of the camp staff were accused in the main Dachau trial, which took place as part of the Dachau trials . The US Military Tribunal was charged with "violating the laws and customs of war" against civilians and prisoners of war alike . Within the prosecution, the concept of “ common design ”, the common plan for a crime, played a central role: not only the individual acts of the concentration camp personnel were viewed as criminal, but the concentration camp system itself. In the course of the preliminary investigations, it had proven difficult to assign individual crimes to the respective accused, as the concentration camp prisoners only partially survived, their statements lacked the necessary precision due to the traumatization or they only partially knew the names of the perpetrators.

According to prisoners' statements, Seuss had beaten prisoners; One prisoner declared: “Seuss was not a human.” In an affidavit that was drawn up before the trial began , Seuss stated that in August 1942 he was once involved in the shooting of Soviet prisoners of war in Dachau. The prisoners of war were taken directly from the train station to the SS shooting range, forced to undress and then shot. In his statement, Seuss also stated that he had beaten the concentration camp prisoners in the Radolfzell external detachment and had “treated them particularly harshly” there. The co-defendant Hugo Lausterer , security guard of the work detachment under Seuss between February and August 1942, stated through his superior: “SS-Hauptscharführer Seuss beat the prisoners very often during their time in Radolfzell. He hit her with his hands, with sticks and also kicked her. Once I saw him beating a sick inmate because the inmate was too sick to work. I also saw Seuss pushing prisoners down a 30 to 50 m high dam. He did this after he had beaten her. ”Seuss also admitted that he was once involved in the shooting of three prisoners in Dachau who were under arrest. During his time as a guard in the commandant's detention center , stake hanging was used both for interrogation and as a punishment. In addition, like his brother, he was involved in an invalid transport for " Aktion 14f13 ". During these transports, sick and weakened prisoners were taken to the Nazi killing center in Hartheim near Linz and murdered in the gas chamber there . He knew in advance that the prisoners in Hartheim were to be killed, according to Seuss. He said he knew he and his brother had a bad reputation among prisoners. In his testimony, Seuss regretted the conditions in the Dachau concentration camp and the poor living conditions of the prisoners.

On December 13, 1945, Josef Seuss was sentenced to death along with 35 co-defendants . In the judgment, the beating and kicking of prisoners were taken into account as individual acts of excess in Seuss. After his sentencing took place in prison for war criminals in Landsberg an interview by the court psychologists of the Allied Nuremberg Military Tribunal , Gustave Gilbert . From this conversation, Gilbert's alleged statement by Seuss about his work in the concentration camp has come down to us:
“What could I do? A soldier can only carry out orders. We didn't know that Himmler was such a scoundrel to run away and leave us in a mess. "

The death sentence against Seuss was confirmed on April 5, 1946 by the Commander-in-Chief of the American Armed Forces in Europe , who had received a corresponding recommendation from a "Review Board" of the army. Seuss was hanged on May 28, 1946 in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison .

literature

Markus Wolter: The SS Garrison Radolfzell 1937–1945. In: City of Radolfzell am Bodensee, Department of City History (Hrsg.): Radolfzell am Bodensee - The Chronicle. Stadler, Konstanz 2017, ISBN 978-3-7977-0723-9 , here the chapter Dachau in Radolfzell. The concentration camp external command 1941–1945 , p. 288 ff.
Holger Lessing: The first Dachau trial (1945/46). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1993, ISBN 3-7890-2933-5 .

Web links

Review of Proceedings of General Military Court in the Case United States vs. Martin Gottfried Weiss (pdf, 40 MB) at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Individual evidence

↑ To the CV Review (pdf, 40 MB), pp. 27ff, 92.
↑ See on this: Erwin Gostner: 1000 days in the concentration camp. An experience report from the Dachau, Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps. Innsbruck 1945; on "Blockführer Seitz (recte: Seuss)" as a guard at the commandant's arrest ("Bunker") here p. 30 ff. and p. 78.
↑ See on this: Markus Wolter: Die SS-Garrison Radolfzell 1937-1945. In: City of Radolfzell am Bodensee, Department of City History (Hrsg.): Radolfzell am Bodensee - The Chronicle. Stadler, Konstanz 2017, ISBN 978-3-7977-0723-9 , here the chapter Dachau in Radolfzell , p. 288 ff .; see. also: Markus Wolter: Radolfzell in National Socialism. The Heinrich Koeppen barracks as the location of the Waffen SS , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings, Volume 129, Ostfildern, Thorbecke 2011, here: The Dachauer KZ-Außenkommando Radolfzell , pp. 270-277.
↑ Cf. on this: Michael Grandt: Enterprise "Desert" - Hitler's last hope. The NS oil shale program on the Swabian Alb , Tübingen 2002, p. 69 f.
^ On the Natzweiler satellite camp in Neuenbürg see: Hopmann, Barbara: Forced Labor at Daimler-Benz in the years 1933-1945 , Stuttgart 1994; Seuss's letter can be found here on p. 328 f.
↑ On "Common Design": Robert Sigel: In the interest of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945-1948. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt 1992, ISBN 3-593-34641-9 , p. 42ff.
↑ Excerpt from the statements in English translation in the review (pdf, 40 MB), p. 27.
↑ Excerpt from the affidavit in English translation in the review (pdf, 40 MB), p. 27ff.
↑ Back translation from the English original protocol: Review of Proceedings of General Military Court in the Case United States vs. Martin Gottfried Weiss et al. (pdf, 40 MB) at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org, here: Affidavit by Hugo Lausterer, p. 61f.
↑ Lessing, Prozess , p. 324.
↑ GM Gilbert: Nürnberger Tagebuch. Frankfurt am Main, 1996, p. 102.
↑ Summary of the review on Jarolin: Review (PDF file, 40 MB), p. 146. Ibid, p. 164, the recommendation to keep the death penalty in the case of Seuss.

personal data
SURNAME	Seuss, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German SS-Hauptscharführer
DATE OF BIRTH	March 3, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH	May 28, 1946
Place of death	Landsberg am Lech

[1] To the CV Review (pdf, 40 MB), pp. 27ff, 92.

[2] See on this: Erwin Gostner: 1000 days in the concentration camp. An experience report from the Dachau, Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps. Innsbruck 1945; on "Blockführer Seitz (recte: Seuss)" as a guard at the commandant's arrest ("Bunker") here p. 30 ff. and p. 78.

[3] See on this: Markus Wolter: Die SS-Garrison Radolfzell 1937-1945. In: City of Radolfzell am Bodensee, Department of City History (Hrsg.): Radolfzell am Bodensee - The Chronicle. Stadler, Konstanz 2017, ISBN 978-3-7977-0723-9 , here the chapter Dachau in Radolfzell , p. 288 ff .; see. also: Markus Wolter: Radolfzell in National Socialism. The Heinrich Koeppen barracks as the location of the Waffen SS , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings, Volume 129, Ostfildern, Thorbecke 2011, here: The Dachauer KZ-Außenkommando Radolfzell , pp. 270-277.

[4] Cf. on this: Michael Grandt: Enterprise "Desert" - Hitler's last hope. The NS oil shale program on the Swabian Alb , Tübingen 2002, p. 69 f.

[5] On the Natzweiler satellite camp in Neuenbürg see: Hopmann, Barbara: Forced Labor at Daimler-Benz in the years 1933-1945 , Stuttgart 1994; Seuss's letter can be found here on p. 328 f.

[6] On "Common Design": Robert Sigel: In the interest of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945-1948. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt 1992, ISBN 3-593-34641-9 , p. 42ff.

[7] Excerpt from the statements in English translation in the review (pdf, 40 MB), p. 27.

[8] Excerpt from the affidavit in English translation in the review (pdf, 40 MB), p. 27ff.

[9] Back translation from the English original protocol: Review of Proceedings of General Military Court in the Case United States vs. Martin Gottfried Weiss et al. (pdf, 40 MB) at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org, here: Affidavit by Hugo Lausterer, p. 61f.

[10] Lessing, Prozess , p. 324.

[11] GM Gilbert: Nürnberger Tagebuch. Frankfurt am Main, 1996, p. 102.

[12] Summary of the review on Jarolin: Review (PDF file, 40 MB), p. 146. Ibid, p. 164, the recommendation to keep the death penalty in the case of Seuss.