Richard Baer (9 September 1911 – 17 June 1963) was a German
SS officer who, among other assignments, was the commandant of
Auschwitz I concentration camp from May 1944 to January 1945, and right after, from February to April 1945, commandant of
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour fr ...
. Following the war, Baer lived under an assumed name to avoid prosecution but was recognized and arrested in December 1960. He died in detention before he could stand trial.
Life
Born in
Floss
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
in 1911, Baer grew up in a Protestant family. In 1925, he moved to
Weiden in der Oberpfalz
Weiden in der Oberpfalz (official name: Weiden i.d.OPf.; Northern Bavarian: ''Weidn in da Owapfalz'') is a district-free city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located east of Nuremberg and west of the Czech border. A branch of the German Army is locat ...
, where he performed a three-year apprenticeship to become a pastry chef. After completing his vocational training, Baer toured Bavaria for several years as a journeyman. Eventually, in winter of 1932, he returned to the pastry company of his apprenticeship and worked there until he resigned in March 1933.
Baer signed on with the
Nazi Party
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 ...
in 1930, and on 1 July 1932 he became a member of the
General SS
The ''Allgemeine SS'' (; "General SS") was a major branch of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (''SS-Hauptamt''). The ''Allgemeine SS'' was officially established in the autu ...
.
In the local SS post in Weiden, he met the future concentration camp commandant
Martin Gottfried Weiss
Martin Gottfried Weiss, alternatively spelled Weiß ( – 29 May 1946), was the commandant of the Dachau concentration camp in 1945 at the time of his arrest. He also served from April 1940 until September 1942 as the commandant of Neuengamme ...
. Under the direction of Weiss, a small SS gang offered protection to speakers at weekend public meetings of the Nazi Party in the surrounding villages.
Baer later stated that he had joined the General SS because he liked the "soldier discipline" and the "joy of playing soldiers".
[
After the Nazis came to power, most of the SS men in Weiden served as auxiliary police officers locally and, as early as mid-April 1933, they were assigned as guards to the Dachau concentration camp, where Baer was subject to military drills, ]Nazi
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 ...
ideological indoctrination, and hard training in systematic techniques for the terrorisation of prisoners. His teacher was Theodor Eicke
Theodor Eicke (17 October 1892 – 26 February 1943) was a senior SS functionary and Waffen SS divisional commander during the Nazi era. He was one of the key figures in the development of Nazi concentration camps. Eicke served as the seco ...
, the camp commandant since June 1933 and shaper of the so-called "Dachau Model" of the Nazi concentration camp system. Baer described the training for guard duty in Dachau as being "very strict" and "sharply polished": "The more we were polished, the more proud we were of it".[During interrogations after his arrest, quoted in ]
From December 1934 to end-March 1935, Baer performed guard duty at the infamous Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
prison ''Columbia-Haus
Columbia concentration camp (also known as Columbia-Haus) was a Nazi concentration camp situated in the Tempelhof area of Berlin. It was one of the first such institutions established by the regime.
Development
Originally called ''Strafgefängn ...
'' in Berlin. He was later assigned to the SS-Death's Head (SS-TV) 2nd regiment ''Brandenburg'', which in 1936 was involved in the build up of 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 ...
.[ After taking a platoon commander course in ]Oranienburg concentration camp
Oranienburg was an early Nazi concentration camp, one of the first detention facilities established by the Nazis in the state of Prussia when they gained power in 1933. It held the political opponents of Nazi Party from the Berlin region, most ...
, Baer served from March to September 1938 with the SS-TV 3rd regiment ''Thuringen'' in Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
. In September 1938, Baer was promoted to SS-second lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
(''Untersturmführer
(, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of ''Sturmführer'' which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921. ...
'') and, at the end of the same year, he headed the first group of guards in the newly established Neuengamme concentration camp
Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...
, then still a sub-camp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In September 1940, he became a commando overseer.[
At the end of 1940, Baer asked to join the front line and, after completing a course to become a company commander, he was sent to the Eastern front. In December 1941, as a result of a wound, he was transferred back to Neuengamme concentration camp.][
In 1942, Baer was appointed adjutant to the commandant of the Neuengamme concentration camp. At Neuengamme, he participated in the killing of Soviet prisoners-of-war in a special ]gas chamber
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.
Histor ...
and in the selection of prisoners for the so-called Operation 14f13 in the T4 Euthanasia Program.
From November 1942 to May 1944, Baer was adjutant to Oswald Pohl
Oswald Ludwig Pohl (; 30 June 1892 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. As the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office and the head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps, he was a key figure in ...
, then chief of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office
The SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (german: SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt; SS-WVHA) was a Nazi organization responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects of the (a main branch of the ; SS). It ...
. In November 1943, he took over the office DI (Central Office) in the Department D "Concentration camps Inspectorate". He succeeded Arthur Liebehenschel
Arthur Liebehenschel (; 25 November 1901 – 24 January 1948) was a commandant at the Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps during the Holocaust. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes by the Polish government and executed in 1948.
...
, considered by 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 ...
to be too "soft" with the prisoners, as the third and final commandant of Auschwitz
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 ...
I from 11 May 1944, until the final dissolution of the camp in early 1945.
From November 1943 until the end of 1944, Fritz Hartjenstein
Friedrich Hartjenstein (3 July 1905 – 20 October 1954) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. A member of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, he served at various Nazi concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen. After the S ...
and Josef Kramer
Josef Kramer (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945) was Hauptsturmführer and the Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau (from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944) and of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (from December 1944 to its liberation on 15 Ap ...
were responsible for the extermination camp in Auschwitz II-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 ...
, so Baer was only Commandant of that part of the camp from the end of 1944 until February 1945. Near the end of the war, having replaced Otto Förschner as commandant of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour fr ...
in Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to:
* Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany
** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district
**Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city
* Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen)
* Narost ...
, Baer was responsible for the mass execution of Soviet prisoners by hanging. His final rank was SS Major.
Post war
Baer returned to his home county end of the war and eventually settled near Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, living as Karl Egon Neumann, a forestry worker. In the course of investigation during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials
The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, known in German as ''der Auschwitz-Prozess'', or ''der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess,'' (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, charging 22 defendants unde ...
a warrant for his arrest was issued in October 1960 and his photograph was printed in newspapers.
The story of Baer's arrest is vividly recounted by Devin Pendas in his book ''The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial''. After seeing a wanted picture in the tabloid newspaper
A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format.
Etymology
The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs We ...
''Bild-Zeitung
''Bild'' (or ''Bild-Zeitung'', ; ) is a German tabloid newspaper published by Axel Springer SE. The paper is published from Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, its sister paper ''Bild am Sonntag'' ("''Bild on Sunday''") is published instead, which ...
'', a co-worker on Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
's estate reported that Baer was working as a forester there. When officials confronted "Neumann" on the early morning of 20 December 1960, he at first denied everything. Having already addressed Baer as her "husband", the woman in the house subsequently gave her name as "Frau Baer", but still claimed that Baer was named "Neumann". Baer, however, finally admitted his true identity. On the advice of his lawyer, he refused to testify. He died of a heart attack while in pre-trial detention in 1963.
See also
* Höcker Album
The Höcker Album (or Hoecker Album) is a collection of photographs believed to have been collected by Karl-Friedrich Höcker, an officer in the Schutzstaffel, SS during the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime in Germany. It contains over one hundred images ...
Notes
References
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External links
Richard Baer
on the Jewish Virtual Library
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
*
''Picturing Auschwitz''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baer, Richard
1911 births
1963 deaths
People from Neustadt an der Waldnaab (district)
Auschwitz concentration camp personnel
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp personnel
Neuengamme concentration camp personnel
SS-Sturmbannführer
Nazi concentration camp commandants
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
German people who died in prison custody
Prisoners who died in German detention