Werner Alfred Berger (22 February 1901 – 10 June 1964) was a German SS-

Oberscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberscharführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between 1932 and 1945. ''Oberscharführer'' was first used as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions ...

and served as a commander in the

KZ Buchenwald 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 sus ...

concentration camp.

Life

Berger worked as a banker and joined 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 ...

before the outbreak of

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 ...

. In April of 1940 he joined the

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

. From January 1941 until April 1945 Berger served on the staff at KZ Buchenwald.United States v. Werner Alfred Berger et al – Case No. 000-Buchenwald-50
(PDF; 4,8 MB) vom 20. Februar 1948 At Buchenwald, Berger was in charge of the effect chamber, where the personal possessions of prisoners were stored. He also belonged to the group "Kommando 99", which carried out executions at Buchenwald against predominantly Soviet prisoners of war. At the end of the war, Berger was arrested and on 25 November 1947, was accused, along with five other Buchenwald personnel, of committing war crimes while a part of Kommando 99 in the Dachau trials (which followed the Buchenwald Trial). On 3 December 1947, Berger was sentenced to life in prison for his roles at Buchenwald and Kommando 99. After the trial Berger was transferred to

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a penal facility in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, a ...

. Berger was also accused in the assassination of

Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...

while at Buchenwald. However, the events surrounding Thälmann's murder on 18 August 1944 were never explained. Former Buchenwald prisoner Marian Zgoda stated in the Buchenwald Trial that he witnessed Erich Gust, Wolfgang Otto, and Werner Berger all take part in the shooting of Thälmann. Otto had been accused and convicted of crimes against

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

personnel in the main Buchenwald trial. Gust had gone into hiding under an assumed name.Falco Werkentin: ''Politische Strafjustiz in der Ära Ulbricht.'' Berlin 1995, S. 203ff Due to Zagoda's testimony, on 13 November 1948 arrest warrants were made by the court of

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

against Otto, Berger, Gust and other implicated individuals. In 1950, after consultation with the GDR authorities, the Soviet Control Commission unsuccessfully applied to the responsible American authorities for the extradition of Berger and Otto in order to carry out a trial for Thälmann's murder. Berger was released early from the

for war criminals in 1954. He then found a job at a bank and finally rose to branch manager at the state central bank in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. In 1962, Thälmann's widow, Rosa Thälmann, filed a complaint against the alleged Thälmann murderers, Otto and Berger, with the help of the lawyer Friedrich Karl Kaul at the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

public prosecutor's office.René Börrnert: ''Wie Ernst Thälmann treu und kühn! Das Thälmann-Bild der SED im Erziehungsalltag der DDR.'' Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2004, , S.57 The investigation was ultimately unsuccessful. Berger died in June 1964.

Literature

* Falco Werkentin: ''Politische Strafjustiz in der Ära Ulbricht.'' Christoph Links-Verlag, Berlin 1995, . (in German)

References

Literature

* Falco Werkentin: ''Politische Strafjustiz in der Ära Ulbricht.'' Christoph Links-Verlag, Berlin 1995, .

External links

photo of Werner Berger

United States v. Werner Alfred Berger et al – Case No. 000-Buchenwald-50
(PDF; 4,8 MB) from 20. February 1948 {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Werner 1901 births 1964 deaths People convicted in the Dachau trials Holocaust perpetrators in Germany Buchenwald concentration camp personnel Waffen-SS personnel People from Konstanz SS non-commissioned officers German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States military