Walter Konrad Quakernack (9 July 1907 – 11 October 1946) was a German Oberscharführer in the SS during the

Nazi era Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. His SS membership number was 125266. He was tried for war crimes at the second Belsen Trial and executed. Quakernack is mentioned several times in the account of Filip Müller, who worked in a

Sonderkommando ''Sonderkommandos'' (, ''special unit'') were work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber vict ...

at Auschwitz and was an eyewitness.

SS career

Quakernack was born in Bielefeld, Germany. He served as a secretary in the

Politische Abteilung The ''Politische Abteilung'' ("Political Department"), also called the "concentration camp Gestapo," was one of the five departments of a Nazi concentration camp set up by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) to operate the camps. An outpos ...

Auschwitz concentration camp 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 ...

beginning in June 1940, where he participated in mass murders using the
Genickschuss
' method of firing one bullet into the back of the neck, established by SS-

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. ...

Maximilian Grabner Maximilian Grabner (2 October 1905 – 24 January 1948) was an Austrian Gestapo chief in Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, the infamous torture chamber Block 11 was Grabner's own empire. He was executed for crimes against humanity. Early life Born ...

. Quakernack worked as a team leader in the crematorium at Auschwitz and participated in the gassing of

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

s at the end of 1941. In September 1942, he was promoted to Oberscharführer and awarded the ''Kriegsverdienstkreuz'' (

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Merit ...

), in September 1943. He was further promoted camp commandant in April 1944 at ''Arbeitslager'' Laurahütte, a subcamp of Auschwitz in Siemianowice Śląskie."Laurahütte"
Holocaust website. Retrieved May 17, 2010 He also worked at Auschwitz III, known as

Monowitz Monowitz (also known as Monowitz-Buna, Buna and Auschwitz III) was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp (''Arbeitslager'') run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and the Holocaust. For most of its existe ...

.Timeline of Quackernack's life
Retrieved May 17, 2010 During his time in Auschwitz, he was known to personally kill prisoners by having them led to a big warehouse, which Quackernack would then also enter under the influence of alcohol. He would then use an MP-40 machine pistol and fire at the prisoners until they were all dead. Former member of a Sonderkommando unit, who were tasked with removing the bodies on trucks and taking them to the crematorium, recalled that Quackernack stood in the middle of the warehouse, surrounded by dead bodies, holding a smoking gun, with his uniform entirely red from blood and laughing loudly. Quackernack was often drunk, which led to numerous outbursts of anger. On 23 January 1945 he accompanied a death march of 500 prisoners from Auschwitz to the arriving around 3 February 1945. On 8 April 1945 he was part of a death march evacuation from Mühlenberg to Bergen-Belsen.

Trial and execution

Quakernack was arrested by Allied forces and held at

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

and Lüneburg. He was sentenced to death at the second Belsen Trial in June 1946. He was hanged on 11 October 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quakernack, Walter 1907 births 1946 deaths Auschwitz concentration camp personnel Belsen trial executions SS non-commissioned officers Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Waffen-SS personnel Military personnel from Bielefeld Executed mass murderers