Hermann Hackmann (October 11, 1913 – August 20, 1994) was a German war criminal, Nazi SS captain in two

extermination camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

during World War II. He was a roll call officer at KL

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 su ...

, and lead guard in charge of the so-called protective custody at

Majdanek concentration camp Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had seven gas chambers, two wooden gallows, a ...

in German-occupied

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Described as a brutal man with a cynical sense of humour, Hackmann was tried three times. The first time, he was prosecuted for murder and embezzlement and sentenced to death by SS Judge

Georg Konrad Morgen Georg Konrad Morgen (8 June 1909 – 4 February 1982) was an SS judge and lawyer who investigated crimes committed in Nazi concentration camps. He rose to the rank of SS-''Sturmbannführer'' (major). After the war, Morgen served as witness at s ...

in connection with the Koch trial. However, Hackmann's sentence was later commuted to a prison term. He spent at least five months as a regular prisoner in

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

before being transferred to a

penal battalion Penal military units, including penal battalions, penal companies, etc., are military formations consisting of convicts mobilized for military service. Such formations may contain soldiers convicted of offenses under military law, persons enrolled ...

.David A. Hackett, ''The Buchenwald Report'', , .

Trials

Hackmann came from

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

. At the age of 24 he first assumed the post of SS officer at Buchenwald. After the war, Hackmann was prosecuted this time by the U.S. government at the Buchenwald Trial of 1947. He was one of twenty-two Nazis

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for his role in the

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

committed at

, though the sentence was commuted to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

in 1948. Details of his activities in Buchenwald that surfaced during the trial portray him as a man who was greatly feared by the prisoners and prone to violence and using creative ways to torture prisoners. Inmates were frequently beaten, kicked and whipped by Hackmann with sticks and whips. He was also known to make prisoners kneel so he could kick them in the scrotum. There was a rule against spitting on the camp road and when Hackmann saw some spit on the ground he forced the nearest inmate to lick it up. One witness testified that he had two block leaders bend a birch tree where he made a Jewish man hold onto it. When the block leaders released the tree, the man was flung into the air into a stone quarry. In 1950, Hackmann's sentence was further reduced to 25 years. He was paroled in 1955. During the

Third Majdanek Trial The Majdanek trials were a series of consecutive war-crime trials held in Poland and in Germany during and after World War II, constituting the overall longest Nazi war crimes trial in history spanning over 30 years. The first judicial trial of ...

between 1975 and 1981, he was sentenced to an additional ten years imprisonment for two counts of serving as joint accessory to murder of at least 141 prisoners at KL Lublin / Majdanek concentration camp.''Landgericht Düsseldorf spricht Urteile im Majdanek-Prozeß''
''Landtag Intern'' vom 26. Juni 2001 (Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hackmann, Hermann 1913 births 1994 deaths Buchenwald concentration camp personnel Majdanek concentration camp personnel Nazi Party officials SS-Hauptsturmführer People convicted in the Dachau trials People convicted in the Majdanek trials People convicted of murder by Germany Waffen-SS personnel Military personnel from Osnabrück Prisoners sentenced to death by the United States military Prisoners sentenced to death by Germany