Mauthausen main trial
The Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials was a war crimes trial of the United States Army in the American occupation zone in military court in Dachau . This process took place from March 29, 1946 to May 13, 1946 in the Dachau internment camp , where the Dachau concentration camp was located until the end of April 1945 . In this trial, 61 people were charged with war crimes in connection with the Mauthausen concentration camp and its sub-camps . The trial ended with 61 convictions. The case was officially identified as United States of America vs. Hans Altfuldisch et al. - Case 000-50-5 called. The Mauthausen main proceedings were followed by 61 subsidiary proceedings with 238 defendants, which also took place as part of the Dachau trials .
prehistory
When American troops reached the Mauthausen concentration camp and the subcamps in early May 1945, they found prisoners who were sick, dying or already deceased. Among the total of around 100,000 victims who died as a result of inhumane working and living conditions, illness, abuse and killings in the Mauthausen concentration camp and the subcamps, there were also over 8,000 prisoners who perished between April 27, 1945 and May 6, 1945. Even after the war ended, more than 2,200 prisoners died as a result of their concentration camp imprisonment.
Against this background, American investigators quickly began investigations to determine those responsible for these crimes as part of the War Crimes Program , a US program to create legal norms and a judicial apparatus to prosecute German war crimes. The perpetrators were soon caught and interned. Testimony was recorded and evidence was saved, including the books of the dead. In addition, photographs and film recordings of the crimes were made. The results of the investigation created the basis for the indictment and thus the main Mauthausen trial.
However, those chiefly responsible for these crimes escaped responsibility through flight and suicide. The former camp commandant Franz Ziereis was shot after his discovery by members of the US Army while attempting to escape on May 23, 1945 and succumbed to his injuries on May 25, 1945 after he was still able to testify on May 24, 1945. The first protective custody camp leader Georg Bachmayer first killed his wife and children on May 8, 1945, and then committed suicide. Karl Schulz , head of the political department , fled at the end of the war and went into hiding.
Legal basis, indictment and litigation
The legal basis of the procedure was formed by the "Rules of Military Government Courts", based on the decrees of the Military Government .
The content of the complaint was the “violation of the customs and laws of war” that had been committed against non-German civilians and prisoners of war in Mauthausen and the satellite camps from January 1, 1942 to May 8, 1945. Crimes committed by German perpetrators against German victims went unpunished for a long time and were usually only tried in German courts later. The defendants were also accused of unlawfully and deliberately participating in the ill-treatment and killing of non-German civilians and prisoners of war as part of a common design .
The trial was opened on March 29, 1946 before the military court in Dachau by the chairman Major General Fay Brink Prickett. The prosecution under Chief Prosecutor William D. Denson consisted of several American officers. Legal counsel was provided to the defendants. Since the language of the court was English, interpreters had to translate into English and German between the court and the defendants. After reading out the indictment, the defendants all pleaded “not guilty”, with the exception of the former Gauleiter August Eigruber , who did not understand the indictment.
55 SS members, an employee of the SD , three prison functionaries and two civilians were charged . In addition to 42 Germans, twelve Austrians, three Czechoslovaks, two Yugoslavs and one Romanian and one Hungarian were accused. The defendants were charged with neglecting, ill-treating and killing the detainees. August Eigruber , Gauleiter in Upper Austria, had no function in the Mauthausen concentration camp. As the responsible Gauleiter and head of the Food Office in Upper Austria, however, he was responsible for the prisoners' nutritional situation. He also took part in executions of prisoners and made Hartheim Castle available, in which prisoners were gassed as part of Operation 14f13 . Among the civilians accused was Vinzenz Nohel , who worked as a "(corpse) burner" in the Nazi killing center in Hartheim . Four suspects, including one civilian, were employees of Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH and were accused of mistreating prisoners. In addition, four members of the Political Affairs Department were accused of exaggerated interrogation methods, mistreatment and participation in executions. The commandant's staff were accused of having been primarily responsible for the catastrophic conditions in the camp and thereby creating the system of killings, mistreatment and inhuman neglect. In addition, the second protective custody camp leader , a camp leader, members of the guards, a guard company leader, block and command leaders, and three prison functionaries sat in the dock. In addition to mistreatment and killings, some of these defendants were also accused of participating in executions, shooting when attempting to escape or crimes in evacuating sub-camps. The site and camp doctors and medical staff were charged with mistreating, neglecting, selecting and, in some cases, killing prisoners. The defendants played down the acts, invoked an imperative to order , remained silent or denied having been at the scene at the time of the crime.
On May 13, 1946, the judgments were pronounced by the chairman of the military tribunal. In addition to 58 death sentences , three life sentences were imposed. Following review, nine of the death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and the other sentences were upheld. The convicts were transferred to the Landsberg war crimes prison . With one exception (Otto Striegel on June 20), the death sentences were carried out on May 27 (23 executions ) and May 28, 1947 (25 executions) by the Strand in Landsberg.
The 61 judgments in detail
| Defendant | rank | function | judgment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johann Altfuldisch | SS-Obersturmführer | second protective custody camp leader | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| August Eigruber | SS-Obergruppenführer | Gauleiter | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Julius Ludolf | SS-Untersturmführer | Camp manager of sub-camps | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Adolf Zutter | SS-Hauptsturmführer | adjutant | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Viktor Zoller | SS-Hauptsturmführer | adjutant | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Erich Wasicky | SS-Hauptsturmführer | Warehouse pharmacist | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Wilhelm Jobst | SS-Hauptsturmführer | Camp doctor | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Friedrich Entress | SS-Hauptsturmführer | Camp doctor | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Waldemar Wolter | SS-Sturmbannführer | Site doctor | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Eduard Krebsbach | SS-Sturmbannführer | Site doctor | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Wilhelm Henkel | SS-Hauptsturmführer | Senior dentist | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Stefan Barczay | SS storm man | Guard in sub-camps | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Willy Brünning | SS Rottenführer | Guards | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| August lead | SS-Obersturmführer | Commander of the guard company | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Otto Drabek | SS-Unterscharführer | Quartermaster Wiener Graben | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Hans Diehl | SS-Unterscharführer | Political Department | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Heinrich Eisenhöfer | SS-Untersturmführer | Head of the personal effects chamber, deputy administrative manager | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Willy Eckert | SS-Hauptscharführer | Head of clothing store, command leader | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Heinrich Fitschok | SS storm man | Security guard in sub-camps | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Willy Frey | Function prisoner | Block elder, Kapo camp fire brigade | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Rudolf Fiegl | Function prisoner | Kapo quarry and disinfection command in Gusen concentration camp | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Johannes Grimm | SS-Obersturmführer | Manager Wiener Graben | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Georg Gössl | Function prisoner | Kapo in the prisoner infirmary in Hinterbrühl | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Werner Grahn | SD staff | Political Department | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Heinrich Häger | SS-Hauptscharführer | Command leader | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Franz Huber | SS Rottenführer | Block leader Hinterbrühl | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Hans Hegenscheidt | SS-Unterscharführer | Head of kitchen magazine | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Gustav Kreindl | SS-Unterscharführer | SS medical rank | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Kaspar Klimowitsch | SS Rottenführer | Security guard Gusen 1 and 2, Ebensee concentration camp | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Franz Kautny | SS-Oberscharführer | Security team at the subcamp | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Kurt Keilwitz | SS-Unterscharführer | Guards | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Anton Kaufmann | SS-Unterscharführer | Head of warehouse in Gusen | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Paul Kaiser | SS-Unterscharführer | Site manager in Gusen and sub-camps | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Josef Leeb | SS-Unterscharführer | Political Department | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Erich Miessner | SS Rottenführer | Block leader | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Emil Müller | SS-Hauptscharführer | Block and command leaders | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Wilhelm Muller | SS-Unterscharführer | Political Department | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Rudolf Mynzak | SS Rottenführer | Command leader | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Josef Niedermayer | SS-Unterscharführer | Report leader, command leader bunker | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Vincent Nohel | civilian | "(Corpse) burner" in Hartheim | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Hermann Pribyll | SS-Oberscharführer | Labor Service Leader Ebensee | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Theophil Priebel | SS Rottenführer | Guards | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Josef Riegler | SS-Unterscharführer | Report leader | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Thomas Sigmund | SS rank unknown | Guards | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Karl Struller | SS-Stabsscharführer | Head of the office in the camp commandant's office | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Otto Striegel | SS-Hauptscharführer | Head of the storage room and kitchen in Melk | Death penalty, executed June 20, 1947 |
| Andreas Trum | SS-Oberscharführer | Report and work assignment leader | Death penalty, executed May 28, 1947 |
| Leopold Trauner | civilian | "Deutsche Erd und Steinwerke GmbH" | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Hans Spatzenegger | SS-Hauptscharführer | Command leader in the Wiener Graben | Death penalty, executed May 27, 1947 |
| Walter Höhler | SS-Hauptsturmführer | Senior dentist | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Heinrich Giese | SS rank unknown | Security team, financial accounting | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Herbert Grzybowski | SS Rottenführer | Guards at Gusen | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Karl Billmann | SS Rottenführer | Security team Gusen II | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Ludwig Dörr | SS Rottenführer | Guard in Gusen | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Viktor Korger | SS Rottenführer | Guard in Gusen | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Ferdinand Lappert | SS storm man | Security team Gusen 1 and 2 | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Wilhelm Mack | SS-Unterscharführer | Command Leader Construction Command Gusen | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Adolf Rutka | SS rank unknown | Dog handler | Death penalty, later commuted to life imprisonment |
| Josef Mayer | SS rank unknown | Guards | lifelong prison sentence |
| Michael Cserny | SS rank unknown | Security team Ebensee | lifelong prison sentence |
| Paul Gützlaff | SS Rottenführer | Guards at Gusen | lifelong prison sentence |
Side processes
A further 61 secondary trials were based on the Mauthausen main trial, in which another 238 accused of war crimes in the Mauthausen concentration camp and its sub-camps had to answer. These secondary trials with up to twelve accused also took place in the Dachau internment camp from the end of March 1947 to the end of October 1947. In addition to 21 acquittals, prison terms and 58 death sentences were pronounced, of which 48 were carried out.
The United States of America v. Lauriano Navas et al. - Case No. 50-5-25 , which was fought against four Spanish kapos from July 14, 1947 to July 21, 1947. These proceedings are interesting because they were conducted against nationals of a state that was neutral during the Second World War and because it was the only subsidiary proceedings in which no German or Austrian citizen was tried. The Spanish Kapos, who had fought on the side of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War against the establishment of a dictatorship under Franco , fled to France at the end of the civil war. There they were interned and after the occupation of France by the German Reich transferred as political prisoners to the Mauthausen concentration camp. All four kapos were found guilty of mistreatment of inmates, sometimes resulting in death. Indalecio Gonzalez was sentenced to death and hanged on February 2, 1949. Lauriano Navas was sentenced to life imprisonment, Moises Fernandez to 20 years and Felix Domingo to two years.
Valuations and effects
The main Mauthausen trial, also called the second Dachau trial, was the most extensive concentration camp trial in the Dachau trials with 61 defendants. Due to the short time gap between the end of the war and the main Dachau trial, the toughest judgments were pronounced in this trial . The prisoners sentenced to prison terms were all released from the war crimes prison in Landsberg by November 1951, at least on probation.
In addition to the constitutional punishment of the concentration camp crimes, the population should also be informed about these Nazi crimes and the criminal character of the acts of violence should be made clear. Furthermore, these processes should set in motion a collective reflection process among the Austrian and German populations in order to establish a constitutional and democratic culture in these countries.
According to Bertrand Perz, the negotiation of the main Mauthausen trial at the symbolic location of Dachau - and not in Austria - reinforced the victim thesis circulating among the Austrian population , according to which Austria was the first victim of National Socialist power politics. Often the responsibility for the concentration camp crimes was perceived as an exclusively German problem.
Legal reassessment and new procedures since 2011
In the course of the reassessment of aiding and abetting murder through the trial of John Demjanjuk , several proceedings had already taken place in the case of other concentration camps and extermination camps, including Oskar Gröning and Reinhold Hanning . In December 2018, the Berlin public prosecutor charged a former SS man Hans H., who was 95 at the time, with aiding and abetting murder in Mauthausen concentration camp. On December 21, 2018, however, the Berlin Regional Court refused to admit the indictment because the public prosecutor's office had not provided sufficient evidence of complicity. The public prosecutor appealed against this.
literature
- Robert Sigel: In the interests of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945–48. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-593-34641-9 .
- Ute Stiepani: The Dachau Trials and their significance in the context of the Allied prosecution of Nazi crimes. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär : The allied trials against war criminals and soldiers 1943–1952. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13589-3 .
- Review and Recommendations of the Deputy Judge Advocate for War Crimes: United States of America v. Hans Altfuldisch et al. - Case No. 000.50.5 Original document Mauthausen main trial (PDF; 75 MB) April 30, 1947 (English)
- Florian Freund : The Dachau Mauthausen Trial. In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. Yearbook 2001. Vienna 2001, pp. 35–66.
- Bertrand Perz : Trials at Mauthausen concentration camp. In: Ludwig Eiber , Robert Sigl (eds.): Dachau Trials - Nazi crimes before American military courts in Dachau 1945–1948. Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0167-2 .
- Tomaz Jardim: The Mauthausen Trial: American Military Justice in Germany . Harvard University Press, 2012. Tomaz Jardim is an Assistant Professor of History at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Web links
- Mauthausen main process and secondary processes on jewishvirtuallibrary.org (English)
- Video collection of the Robert H. Jackson Center , including three contributions from the Wochenschau Welt im Film on the Mauthausen trial: 1) indictment , 2) taking evidence and 3) pronouncing the verdict .
Individual evidence
-
↑ Florian Freund : The Dachau Mauthausen Trial. In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. Yearbook 2001. Vienna 2001, p. 35f.
Mauthausen main trial: Deputy Judge Advocate's Office 7708 War Crimes Group European Command APO 407, ( United States of America vs Hans Altfuldisch et al. - Case 000-50-5 ), April 1947 -
↑ 60 years of liberation of the concentration camp in Mauthausen . ( 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. (PDF) In: Le Signal , No. 9, May 3, 2005, p. 9 Bertrand Perz : Trials at the Mauthausen concentration camp. In: Ludwig Eiber, Robert Sigl (eds.): Dachau Trials - Nazi crimes before American military courts in Dachau 1945–1948. Göttingen 2007, p. 174 f.
-
↑ Florian Freund: The Dachau Mauthausen Trial. In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. Yearbook 2001. Vienna 2001, p. 42 f.
Robert Sigel: In the interests of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945–48. Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 16 ff. - ^ Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 24, p. 158
- ↑ Robert Sigel: In the interests of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945–48. Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 36.
- ^ Review and Recommendations of the Deputy Judge Advocate for War Crimes: United States of America v. Hans Altfuldisch et al. - Case No. 000.50.5, pp. 1f., 14f.
-
↑ Case No. 000-50-37 (US vs. Kurt Andrae et al) Tried 30 Dec 47, pp. 2f., 30ff.
Florian Freund: The Dachau Mauthausen Trial. In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. Yearbook 2001. Vienna 2001, p. 44ff., P. 57ff. - ^ Bertrand Perz: Trials of the Mauthausen concentration camp. In: Ludwig Eiber, Robert Sigl (eds.): Dachau Trials - Nazi crimes before American military courts in Dachau 1945–1948. Göttingen 2007, p. 181f.
-
↑ Florian Freund: The Dachau Mauthausen Trial. In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. Yearbook 2001. Vienna 2001, p. 44ff., P. 57ff.
Bertrand Perz: Trials at Mauthausen concentration camp. In: Ludwig Eiber, Robert Sigl (eds.): Dachau Trials - Nazi crimes before American military courts in Dachau 1945–1948. Göttingen 2007, p. 181f. - ↑ Mauthausen Trial on jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
-
^ Bertrand Perz: Trials of the Mauthausen concentration camp. in: Ludwig Eiber, Robert Sigl (eds.): Dachau trials - Nazi crimes before American military courts in Dachau 1945–1948. Göttingen 2007, p. 182f.
Robert Sigel: In the interests of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945–48. Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 107. - ↑ United States of America v. Lauriano Navas et al. - Case No. 50-5-25 (PDF; 15.0 MB) Review and Recommendations of the Deputy Judge Advocate for War Crimes, January 14, 1948 (English)
- ↑ Robert Sigel: In the interests of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945–48. Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 107.
- ↑ Florian Freund: The Dachau Mauthausen Trial. In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. Yearbook 2001. Vienna 2001, p. 44ff., P. 65.
- ↑ Ute Stiepani, 1999, p. 232 f.
- ^ Bertrand Perz: Trials of the Mauthausen concentration camp. In: Ludwig Eiber, Robert Sigl (eds.): Dachau Trials - Nazi crimes before American military courts in Dachau 1945–1948. Göttingen 2007, p. 186.
- ↑ https://www.bz-berlin.de/tatort/menschen-vor-gericht/berliner-landgericht-lehnt-anklage-gegen-mutmasslichen-kz-wachmann-ab
