On
this date, December 13, 1945, 11 Nazi War Criminals were all hanged by Albert Pierrepoint in Hamelin Prison, Germany. I will post the information about Josef
Kramer A.K.A The Beast of Belsen from Wikipedia and other links.
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Josef Kramer, in Celle awaiting trial,
August 1945.
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Born
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November 10, 1906
Munich |
Died
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December 13, 1945 (aged 39)
Hamelin |
Cause of death
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Executed by hanging
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Criminal penalty
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Death by hanging
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Criminal status
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Prison guard
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Motive
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Nazism
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Conviction(s)
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Crimes against humanity at Bergen-Belsen concentration
camp.
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Josef Kramer
(November 10, 1906 – December 13, 1945) was the Commandant of the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp. Dubbed "The Beast of Belsen" by camp
inmates; he was a notorious German Nazi war criminal, directly responsible for
the deaths of thousands of people. He was convicted of war crimes and hanged in
Hamelin prison by noted British executioner Albert Pierrepoint after World War
II.
Early career
Kramer
was born in Munich and joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and the SS in 1932. His SS
training led him into work as a prison guard and, after the outbreak of war, as
a concentration camp guard.
In
1934, he was assigned as a guard at Dachau. His promotion was rapid, obtaining
senior posts at Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen concentration camps. He became
assistant to Rudolf Höß, the Commandant at Auschwitz in 1940 and later the
Commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof
concentration camp in April 1941.
In
1940, he accompanied Rudolf Höß to inspect Auschwitz as a possible site for a
new synthetic coal oil and rubber plant, which was a vital industry in Germany
given its shortage of oil.
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Natzweiler-Stuthof
Kramer
served as commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof, the only concentration camp
established by the Nazis on present-day French territory, though there were French-run
transit camps such as the one at Drancy. At the time, the Alsace-Lorraine area
in which it was established had been annexed by Nazi Germany.
As
commandant at Natzweiler-Stuthof, Kramer personally carried out the gassings of
80 Jewish men and women, part of a group of 87 selected at Auschwitz to become
anatomical specimens in a proposed Jewish skeleton collection to be housed
at the Anatomy Institute at the Reich University of Strasbourg under the
direction of August Hirt.
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Former guards at Bergen-Belsen
are made to load the bodies of dead prisoners onto a truck for burial, April
17–18, 1945
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Auschwitz
Kramer
was promoted to the rank of Hauptsturmführer
(Captain) in 1942 and, in May 1944, was put in charge of the gas chambers in Auschwitz
concentration camp. He was to hold that position until December
1944, when he was transferred out and appointed as Commandant of Belsen.
At
Auschwitz, Kramer soon became notorious among his subordinates as a harsh
taskmaster. One of the defendants at the Frankfurt Trial, Dr. Franz Lucas, testified that he tried to
avoid assignments given him by Kramer by pleading stomach and intestinal
disorders. When Dr. Lucas saw that his name had been added to the list of
selecting physicians for a large group of inmates transferred from Hungary, he
objected strenuously. Kramer reacted sharply: "I know you are being investigated
for favouring prisoners. I am now ordering you to go to the ramp, and if you
fail to obey an order, I shall have you arrested on the spot".
Belsen
In
December 1944, Kramer was transferred from Birkenau to Bergen Belsen, near the
village of Bergen. Belsen had originally served as a temporary camp for those
leaving Germany, but during the war had been expanded to serve as a
convalescent depot for the ill and displaced people from across north-west
Europe. Although it had no gas chambers, Kramer's rule was so harsh that he
became known as the 'Beast of Belsen'. As Germany collapsed, administration of
the camp broke down, but Kramer remained devoted to bureaucracy. On March 1,
1945, he filed a report asking for help and resources, stating that of the
42,000 inmates in his camp, 250–300 died each day from typhus. On March 19, the
number of inmates rose to 60,000 as the Germans continued to evacuate camps
that were soon to be liberated by the Allies. As late as the week of April 13,
some 28,000 additional prisoners were brought in.
With
the collapse of administration and many guards fleeing to escape retribution,
roll calls were stopped, and the inmates were left to their own devices.
Corpses rotted everywhere, and rats attacked the living too weak to fight them
off. Kramer remained even when the British arrived to liberate the camp, and
took them on a tour of the camp to inspect the 'scenes'. Piles of corpses were
lying all over the camp, mass graves were filled in, and the huts were filled
with prisoners in every stage of emaciation and disease.
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Josef Kramer,
photographed in leg irons at Belsen before being removed to the POW cage
at Celle, 17 April 1945.
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Trial and execution
Josef
Kramer was imprisoned at the Hamelin jail. Josef Kramer and 44 other camp staff
were tried in the Belsen Trial by a British military court at Lüneburg.
The trial lasted several weeks from September to November 1945. During the
trial Anita Lasker testified that Kramer took part in selections for the gas
chamber. Kramer was sentenced to death on November 17, 1945, and hanged at
Hamelin jail by Albert Pierrepoint on December 13, 1945.
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