Johann Schwarzhuber (29 August 1904 – 3 May 1947) was a German ''
SS-Obersturmführer'', who was in charge of various concentration
subcamps during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. His positions included the ''
Schutzhaftlagerführer
''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' (head of the "preventive detention camp") was a paramilitary title of the SS, specific to the concentration and extermination camps '' Totenkopfverbande'' ("Death's-Head units"). A ''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' was in ch ...
'' of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau men's camp, where he oversaw the selection process for the gassing of thousands of detainees. He was later transferred to the
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...
, where he held the post of the ''Lagerdirektor'', second only to the overall camp commander
Fritz Suhren
Fritz Suhren (10 June 1908 – 12 June 1950) was a German SS officer and Nazi concentration camp commandant.
Early years
Suhren joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and the Sturmabteilung at the same time. Tom Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil'', Berkley Boo ...
. With Suhren on the run, Schwarzhuber was the highest-ranking defendant during the first
Ravensbrück trial. In front of the British military tribunal he was indicted for war crimes, sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 1947.
Early life and career
Schwarzhuber was born on 29 August 1904 in Tutzing, at this time part of the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
in the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
. He trained as a
printer
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* James ...
and married his wife in 1936, with whom he fathered two children. As an early supporter during the rise of
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
he joined the
NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
and the
SS in 1933. By 1935 he was trained for the position as
block leader in the
Dachau concentration camp
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
. At the outbreak of World War II he was transferred to the
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
, where he acted as commander of the ''
Klinkerwerk'' sub-camp.
Auschwitz
In September 1941 Schwarzhuber was again reassigned and moved to the
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
concentration camp. As a ''
Lagerführer
''Lagerführer'' (Camp Leader) was a paramilitary title of the SS, specific to the '' Totenkopfverbände'' (Concentration Camp Service). A ''Lagerführer'' was the head SS officer assigned to a particular concentration camp
Internment is t ...
'', he was responsible for several inmate blocks and regularly mingled with the prisoners. He was regularly drunk at work and built up relationships with some of the
Kapos. Nevertheless, he fulfilled his job dutifully as overseer of parts of the
extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
. In November 1943 he was promoted to ''
Schutzhaftlagerführer
''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' (head of the "preventive detention camp") was a paramilitary title of the SS, specific to the concentration and extermination camps '' Totenkopfverbande'' ("Death's-Head units"). A ''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' was in ch ...
'' and took over the command of the Auschwitz men's camp. In this position he was also responsible for the selection process, which determined who was sent to the work camps and which prisoners were sent to the
gas chambers
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide.
History ...
. Thousands of inmates who were chosen by Schwarzhuber during this process were immediately killed. However, there were also a few instances of him pulling out non-eligible groups of inmates from the 'gas-queue' and 'protecting' them by putting them into the regular men's prison camp.
In November 1944 he returned to Dachau, now in charge of several sub-camps of the
Kaufering concentration camp complex
Kaufering was the common name of a system of eleven subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp which operated between 18 June 1944 and 27 April 1945 and which were located around the towns of Landsberg am Lech and Kaufering in Bavaria.
Previou ...
. This tenure did not last long, and he received his final deployment to the
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück () was a German concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure o ...
in January 1945.
Ravensbrück and trial
In Ravensbrück, Schwarzhuber was directly responsible for the women's camp. With almost all of the Ravensbrück inmates being women, Schwarzhuber effectively commanded the entire complex, second only to overall camp leader
Fritz Suhren
Fritz Suhren (10 June 1908 – 12 June 1950) was a German SS officer and Nazi concentration camp commandant.
Early years
Suhren joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and the Sturmabteilung at the same time. Tom Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil'', Berkley Boo ...
. The camp was overcrowded; sanitation and food supply were insufficient. Many people froze to death due a lack of clothing and heating. To combat the overcrowding, daily executions of about 50 inmates were ordered at the start of 1945. The killings were so cruel, that several camp deputies refused to oversee the murders until Schwarzhuber took over and the executions proceeded uneventfully. Ravensbrück was initially not intended to be an extermination camp, but during the last months of the war, deaths spiked massively. Thousands of women were killed in a newly built provisional gas chamber, coinciding with Schwarzhuber's arrival in the camp.
The Ravensbrück camp was captured by the British Army in April 1945 and Schwarzhuber was detained. The British launched a
series of trials against the camp personnel starting in December 1945. With the main camp leader Fritz Suhren having fled, Schwarzhuber was the highest-ranking official indicted during the trial. He pleaded 'not guilty' and claimed to have attended only one mass execution in the camp, when 150 women were gassed at once in the chamber. It is not clear who gave the order to start mass executions in Ravensbrück—whether it was Suhren as overall commander or even
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
personally—but with Schwarzhuber in charge of the women's camp, significant responsibility nevertheless fell on him as deputy commander. Schwarzhuber was found guilty and subsequently sentenced to death. The execution was carried out on 3 May 1947.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarzhuber, Johann
1904 births
1947 deaths
Auschwitz concentration camp personnel
Dachau concentration camp personnel
Executed German mass murderers
Executed Nazi concentration camp commandants
Hamburg Ravensbrück trials executions
Holocaust perpetrators in Germany
Holocaust perpetrators in Poland
People from Starnberg (district)
Ravensbrück concentration camp personnel
Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel