On
this date, October 8, 1946, the Hangman of Majdanek, Anton Thumann, was
executed by hanging at Hamelin Prison. I will post the information about him
from Wikipedia.
 |
|
Anton Thumann after
capture
|
Nickname(s)
|
Hangman of Majdanek
|
Born
|
31 October 1912
Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm Bavaria, German Empire |
Died
|
8 October 1946 (aged 33)
Hamelin Prison, Germany |
Allegiance
|
Nazi Germany
|
Service/branch
|
Schutzstaffel
|
Years of service
|
1933–1945
|
Rank
|
SS-Obersturmführer
|
Service number
|
NSDAP #1,726,633
SS #24,444 |
Unit
|
SS-Totenkopfverbände
|
Commands held
|
Schutzhaftlagerführer Gross-Rosen
(1941–1943)
Schutzhaftlagerführer Majdanek (1943–1944) Schutzhaftlagerführer Neuengamme (1944–1945) |
Awards
|
Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP
|
Anton Thumann
(31 October 1912 — 8 October 1946) was a Nazi German SS-Obersturmführer
and a Schutzhaftlagerführer in various concentration camps during World
War II. After the war, Thumann was arrested by British occupation forces and
charged with crimes against humanity. At the Neuengamme Trial in 1946 he was
found to be guilty, sentenced to death and executed by hanging at Hamelin
Prison.
Biography
Early
years
Thumann
was born in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria, German Empire in 1912. In the
1930s he joined the Nazi party (member no. 1,726,633) and the SS (member no.
24,444). He then served as a guard at Dachau concentration camp from 1933
onward. Starting in 1937, Thumann was employed in the Office of Guard Command
and ascended to the rank of Protective Custody Camp Leader (German: Schutzhaftlagerführer) in 1940. By early August 1940 he transferred to Gross-Rosen
concentration camp, which at the time was still a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen
concentration camp. In early May 1941, Thumann became the Protective Custody
Camp Leader of the now independent Gross-Rosen camp, under Commander Arthur
Rödl.
Majdanek
From
mid-February 1943 to March 1944 he began service as Protective Custody Camp
Leader at the Majdanek
concentration camp. Due to his sadistic tendencies and participation
in selections, gassings and shootings, the prisoners called him the
"Hangman of Majdanek". According to eyewitness Jerzy Kwiatkowski, who
was interned at Majdanek from March 1943 to July 1944, Thumann personally
executed prisoners and Soviet prisoners
of war. He owned a German Shepherd
that he used to bite the inmates.
For
a few weeks between March and April 1944 Thumann was at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Thumann also appears in a series of photographs from an SS recreation camp, the
Solahütte near Auschwitz, discovered in
2007. In one of the photos Thumann is pictured with Richard Baer, Josef Mengele, Josef Kramer
and Rudolf Hoess.
Neuengamme
Thumann
then served as Protective Custody Camp Leader at Neuengamme
concentration camp from mid-April 1944 until the end of April 1945.
Often accompanied by his dog, he was very feared in Neuengamme due to a reputation
for abuse of prisoners at Gross-Rosen and Majdanek. As the British Army closed
in on Neuengamme, the SS began an evacuation of the prisoners to prison ships.
During the evacuation, 58 male and 13 female resistance fighters from nearby Fuhlsbüttel
concentration camp were selected to be brought to Neuengamme to be executed on
the orders of the Higher SS
and Police Leader Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr. With the
participation of Thumann, these prisoners were hanged between 21 and 23 April
1945 in a detention cell. After some of the doomed men continued to resist,
Thumann threw a hand grenade through the cell window. Under the command of
Thumann and Wilhelm Dreimann, the last 700 prisoners remaining at Neuengamme
were forced to dispose of bodies and cover up the traces of the camp. On 30
April 1945 the prisoners were then sent on a death march with the aim of
reaching the area of the Flensburg government. Georg Gussregen was his
unterstormfuehrer at Gross-Rosen.
Trial
and death
At
the end of the war Thumann was arrested by the British occupation forces.
Thumann was put on trial before a British military tribunal in the
"Neuengamme Trial" in Hamburg. Thumann and 13 other defendants,
including Wilhelm Dreimann and the Commandant of Neuengamme Max Pauly, were
charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court handed down a
guilty verdict on 18 March 1946 and sentenced 11 of the 14 defendants to death
by hanging on 3 May 1946, including Thumann, Dreimann and Pauly. The death
sentence was carried out by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint at Hamelin
prison on 8 October 1946.
Awards
- NSDAP Golden Party Badge (German: Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP)
- Anschluss Medal (German: Medaille zur Erinnerung) on 13 March 1938
- Sudetenland Medal (German: Medaille zur Erinnerung) an on 1 October 1938
OTHER LINKS:
No comments:
Post a Comment