Franz Murer (24 January 1912 – 5 January 1994) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n SS NCO (SS-''Oberscharführer''). Also known as the "Butcher of Vilnius", he created and ruled the

Vilna Ghetto The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania, at the time part of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland. During the approximat ...

until July 1943, shortly before its liquidation. Murer was born in Sankt Georgen ob Murau,

, in 1912, and joined the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

at the age of 26. He trained with the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

before being transferred to

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, where between 1941 and 1943 he was the deputy of Territorial Commissioner (''Gebietskommissar'')

Hans Christian Hingst Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

in charge of "Jewish affairs". He was known as a sadist who showed special cruelty towards the Jews. Vilnius, which was known as "the Jerusalem of Lithuania" before the war, had a Jewish population of about 80,000. After the war around 250 Jews were living there. The rest had been murdered by the SS and Murer was instrumental in organizing these killings. On July 1, 1943, Murer was replaced by

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 orga ...

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 ...

Bruno Kittel Bruno Kittel (born 1922 in Austria – disappeared 1945) was an Austrian Nazi functionary in the German SS and Holocaust perpetrator who oversaw the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in September 1943. Kittel became known for his cynical cruelty. He ...

, who was brought in to liquidate the ghetto. After the war, Murer moved to Steiermark in

. Near his residence in

Admont Admont is a town in the Austrian state of Styria. It is historically most notable for Admont Abbey, a monastery founded in 1074. Gesäuse National Park, in which Admont lies, is an area of outstanding beauty. The town is situated in the middle of ...

there was a camp for

displaced person Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...

s. In 1947 one of these DPs recognized Murer and British forces arrested Murer. In December 1948 he was deported to the

Soviet Union 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, ...

since Vilnius had been under Soviet jurisdiction. He was found guilty of having murdered Soviet citizens and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor. As a part of the

Austrian State Treaty The Austrian State Treaty (german: Österreichischer Staatsvertrag ) or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on 15 May 1955 in Vienna, at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying p ...

, he was released in 1955 and thus returned to

Simon Wiesenthal Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 190820 September 2005) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration ...

managed to get him prosecuted again in 1963. The trial that took place in Graz, Austria, lasted for a week and ended with the acquittal of Murer. The trial was the subject of the 2018 film ''Murer – Anatomie eines Prozesses'' (''Murer – Anatomy of a Trial''). Murer died in Gaishorn am See,

, in 1994.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murer, Franz 1912 births 1994 deaths Jewish Lithuanian history SS officers Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania Vilna Ghetto Austrian Nazis convicted of war crimes People acquitted of murder People from the Duchy of Styria Hitler Youth members