Roland Puhr (January 21, 1914 – April 15, 1964) was an SS-Unterscharführer who committed numerous atrocities at Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. After the war, he settled down in East Germany using forged papers. Puhr was exposed as a war criminal in 1963, and executed the following year.

Early life

Puhr was born in

Staré Křečany Staré Křečany (german: Alt Ehrenberg) is a municipality and village in Děčín District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,200 inhabitants. Administrative parts The villages of Brtníky, Kopec, Nové Křečany ...

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

in 1914. He joined the Sudeten German Party in 1936.

Wartime activities

In the 1930s, Puhr joined the

Czechoslovakian , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

military. In 1938, he deserted to join the Wehrmacht. In 1939, Puhr joined the Nazi Party. He was then assigned to the

SS-Totenkopfverbände ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV; ) was the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany, among similar duties. While the ''Totenkopf'' was the univer ...

and sent to work as a guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. During his time, Puhr participated in the shootings of multiple Soviet POWs at the camp's execution site. He personally murdered approximately 30 to 40 prisoners. One of them was Austrian prosecutor Karl Tuppy, who initiated the prosecution of

Otto Planetta Otto Planetta (2 August 1899 – 31 July 1934) was an Austrian National Socialist who assassinated the Chancellor of Austria, Engelbert Dollfuß, in 1934. Biography Planetta was born into a Catholic family in Wischau, Austria-Hungary (now Vy ...

for the murder of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. Puhr was suspected of additional targeted killings at an SS construction brigade near Düsseldorf. Puhr was also the first commandant of the

Lager Sylt Lager Sylt was a Nazi concentration camp on Alderney in the British Crown Dependency in the Channel Islands. Built in 1942, along with three other labour camps by the Organisation Todt, the control of ''Lager Sylt'' changed from March 1943 to June ...

camp in the Channel Islands.

Exposure, trial, and execution

After war ended, Puhr went into hiding using forged papers. He started a new life in

Schönhausen Schönhausen (Low Saxon: ''Schöönhusen'') is a municipality in the district of Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Elbe-Havel-Land. Geography The village is situated on a ...

. However, in June 1963, Puhr was exposed and arrested by East German authorities. He was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. On December 16, 1963, Puhr was found guilty by a court in Neubrandenburg and sentenced to death. His appeal was rejected, and Chairman of the State Council Walter Ulbricht rejected his petition for clemency. Puhr was

guillotined A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at the ...

Leipzig Prison Leipzig Prison (, later ) was a prison in Leipzig, Germany. Built together with an adjacent court building in 1906, it was used as a prison until 2003. During East German rule, a secret part of the prison was used as the central execution site of ...

on April 15, 1964. His remains were then cremated, and he was buried in an unmarked grave in an undisclosed location.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puhr, Roland 1914 births 1964 deaths Executed German mass murderers Executed Nazi concentration camp commandants German people convicted of crimes against humanity Holocaust perpetrators in Germany Nazis executed by East Germany by guillotine People executed for crimes against humanity Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel SS non-commissioned officers Sudeten German people