Werner Schäfer (concentration camp commandant)

Werner August Max Schäfer (born April 18, 1904 in Strasbourg ; † 1973 in Lindenberg im Allgäu ) was a German SA Oberführer and camp commandant of the Oranienburg concentration camp and the prison camp of the Reich Justice Administration , the Emsland camp .

Origin, career entry and police service

Schäfer, the son of a senior musician in the German Army , attended secondary school in Strasbourg until 1918. After the end of the First World War , the family had to leave Strasbourg. Schäfer continued his school career in Kassel and from 1919 in Berlin at the Oberrealschule until he graduated from Obersekunda. Due to the lack of financial means of his parents, Schäfer had to leave school and worked as a worker and piano player. From 1920 to 1925, Schäfer was a member of the Olympia Freikorps . He began a commercial apprenticeship, which he had to give up due to the bankruptcy of his training company. Schäfer finished another apprenticeship at Wertheim-Bank , the house bank of the Wertheim Group , in 1925 at his own request, since he had applied, albeit unsuccessfully, as an officer candidate with the Reichsmarine . Instead, Schäfer joined the police force in 1926 and, from April 7, 1926, attended a one-year course at the Großberlin-Brandenburg Police School. He then worked as a police sergeant in Berlin. Schäfer had been married since the end of October 1930 and the couple had one child.

National Socialist activity

Because he had joined the NSDAP in 1928 , he had to resign from the police force in May 1928. Schäfer then worked as an employee at the Kreissparkasse Niederbarnim and later became a branch manager there. From 1930 to 1932 he was the local group leader of the NSDAP in Klosterfelde in the Berlin district of Spandau . Since he saw himself hindered in his party activities due to a planned transfer, he resigned his employment and was unemployed from 1932. He then worked as a driver for the Nazi Gau newspaper Der Attack . In March 1932, Schäfer joined the SA and rose there in March 1938 to SA Oberführer . From 1933 to 1934 he was a member of the Niederbarnim district council .

Camp commandant in Oranienburg concentration camp

From March 21, 1933 to the beginning of April 1934, Schäfer took over the camp command in the Oranienburg concentration camp . In this function he published his “Anti-Brown Book” on this concentration camp in 1934. In it he declared the reports in the international press about mistreatment and homicidal crimes against the prisoners to be "horror tales" and took the propaganda line that the prisoners were SPD bigwigs and communist enemies of the state, which was now due to the excellent discipline and order that prevailed in the camp would be trained to work. Schäfer also spoke on the radio about the Oranienburg concentration camp, in which he reported untruthfully about "singing and playing" prisoners. He introduced "dark arrest cells" in the Oranienburg concentration camp, in which prisoners spent up to four weeks, and "stone coffins" in which prisoners had to be punished in a confined space. Schäfer was characterized by the former concentration camp inmate Gerhart Seger as follows:

“Schäfer is a subordinate person. His hatred of the Social Democrats is limitless. He prefers to use it by insulting defenseless prisoners who, according to the camp rules, have to stand at attention in front of him. Schäfer did not often allow himself to be carried away into physical abuse; He was all the more generous with the imposition of disciplinary punishments, detention in the dark, post and visit bans, and dispatch to punishment detachments. […] Commandant Schäfer is, there can be no doubt, to be fully responsible for everything that has ever occurred in Oranienburg in terms of crimes, ill-treatment and otherwise inhumane treatment of the prisoners. "

Camp commandant of the Emsland camps

At the beginning of April 1934, Schäfer became camp commandant of the Emslandlager , the prisoner camp of the Reich Justice Administration, and remained in this position until May 1942. He also led the guards consisting of SA men at all times, which belonged to SA Standard 229, whose leader he was from 1935 to 1935 1936 was. Schäfer worked at the headquarters of the central administration in Papenburg .

During this time, Schäfer, like many other members of the SA camp personnel, was temporarily suspended from duty due to disciplinary offenses due to the mistreatment of prisoners. His case was tried from May 23, 1938 before the criminal chamber of the Higher Regional Court of Celle, whereby the court had no doubt that there had been large numbers of ill-treatment. However, according to the court in its verdict on June 3, 1938, these prisoners were "often enough worthless in character" and would shamelessly exaggerate, "if not resort to an open lie". In addition, the only fault of the young and inexperienced shepherd was to trust his guards too much. Therefore, a reprimand and Schäfer's contribution to the costs of one tenth, but not more than 200 Reichsmarks, are sufficient.

Schäfer was able to return to his command post. In addition, he held the title of senior government councilor from 1936, and in 1940 he was promoted to government director. On May 25, 1942, Schäfer was drafted into the Wehrmacht and took part in the Second World War as a soldier .

post war period

After the end of the war, Schäfer was taken prisoner of war and was then interned in the Neuengamme internment camp . During the Nuremberg trial of major war criminals , Schäfer was interrogated on August 13, 1946 as a witness in particular to the attacks by the SA guards, which he denied. At the beginning of February 1948 he came into custody, from which he was released at the end of March 1949 in Oldenburg. Schäfer was sentenced to four years in prison for offenses in the concentration camps in 1950 and, after another trial, to two and a half years in prison in 1953. In this context, incriminating statements by the former inmate of the Emsland camps, Adolf Rögner, also played a role, who later started the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial. His statements were only partially confirmed by other witnesses. In the grounds of the judgment of the Osnabrück Regional Court , the following was stated:

"The accused is acquitted, otherwise for bodily harm in general in 20 cases, of which in 2 cases i. TE. m. Sentenced to a total prison sentence of 2 years and 6 months for serious bodily harm. The sentence has been served through pre-trial detention and internment. "

Schäfer, who was denazified as a minor , moved to Munich after his release from prison , where he opened a travel agency.

Fonts

• Oranienburg concentration camp. The anti-brown book about the first German concentration camp. Book and Gravure Printing Society, Berlin 1934.

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
• Klaus Drobisch , Günther Wieland : System of Nazi concentration camps. 1933-1939. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-000823-7 .
• Sebastian Weitkamp: Between SA and justice - the proceedings against SA-Oberführer and government director Werner Schäfer 1938 and 1950. In: Albrecht Pohle, Martin Stupperich, Wilfried Wiedemann (eds.): NS-Justiz und Nachkriegsjustiz. Contributions to school and educational work. Wochenschau Verlag, Schwalbach / Ts. 2014, ISBN 978-3-7344-0003-2 , pp. 149-171.

Web links

• Schäfer, Werner. In: Website of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Theisinger : The bank. Textbook and reference work for banking and savings banks. Volume I. Gabler, Wiesbaden 1952, p. 274; SpringerLink : ISBN 978-3-663-05480-1 .
2. ^ ^{A b} Klaus Drobisch , Günther Wieland : System of the Nazi concentration camps. 1933-1939. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1993, p. 96.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Schäfer, Werner. In: Website of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 525.
5. ^ Sebastian Weitkamp: Between SA and Justice - The proceedings against SA-Oberführer and Government Director Werner Schäfer 1938 and 1950. In: Albrecht Pohle, Martin Stupperich, Wilfried Wiedemann (eds.): NS-Justiz und Nachkriegsjustiz. Contributions to school and educational work. Wochenschau Verlag, Schwalbach / Ts. 2014, p. 151.
6. ↑ Gerhart Seger about Werner Schäfer. In: Gerhart Seger : Oranienburg concentration camp. First authentic report by a refugee from the concentration camp. In: Irene A. Diekmann, Klaus Wettig (ed.): Oranienburg concentration camp. Eyewitness reports from 1933. Potsdam 2003, pp. 15–89, here: pp. 38 ff. Quoted in: Schäfer, Werner. In: Website of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation.
7. ^ Sebastian Weitkamp: Between SA and Justice - The proceedings against SA-Oberführer and Government Director Werner Schäfer 1938 and 1950. In: Albrecht Pohle u. a. (Ed.): Nazi justice and post-war justice. Contributions to school and educational work. Schwalbach / Ts. 2014, p. 156 f.
8. ^ Sebastian Weitkamp: Between SA and Justice - The proceedings against SA-Oberführer and Government Director Werner Schäfer 1938 and 1950. In: Albrecht Pohle u. a. (Ed.): Nazi justice and post-war justice. Contributions to school and educational work. Schwalbach / Ts. 2014, p. 157.
9. ^ The Nuremberg Trial. Main negotiations. Two hundred and two days. Tuesday, August 13, 1946. Morning session. In: Zeno.org .
10. ↑ Quoted from the public prosecutor's office in the Kleve district court: Investigation case against Schäfer for murder. In: Schäfer, Werner. In: Website of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation.