Michael Pellis, a former inmate at Dachau, identifies former SS-Obersturmfuehrer Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert

Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert (February 2, 1905 – May 28, 1946) was an SS-TV Obersturmbannführer (equivalent to Lt. Col.) in charge of executions at Dachau concentration camp; he was, along with others, responsible for the executions of captured British SOE agents Noor Inayat Khan, Madeleine Damerment, Eliane Plewman and

Yolande Beekman Yolande Elsa Maria Beekman (7 January 1911 – 13 September 1944) was a British spy in World War II who served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and the Special Operations Executive. She was a member of SOE's Musician circuit in occupied France ...

Concentration camps

Starting on April 11, 1933, Ruppert, married and the father of a child, was one of the first guards at Dachau concentration camp. He initially worked as a camp electrician. On 18 September 1942 he was transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin. There he was the technical director of the camp administration. Ruppert was a witness to

Operation Harvest Festival Operation Harvest Festival (german: Aktion Erntefest) was the murder of up to 43,000 Jews at the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki concentration camps by the SS, the Order Police battalions, and the Ukrainian ''Sonderdienst'' on 3–4 Nov ...

at Majdanek in November 1943, the mass murder of 43,000 Jews. In May 1944 Ruppert was a warehouse manager in the

Warsaw concentration camp The Warsaw concentration camp (; see other names) was a German concentration camp in occupied Poland during World War II, formed on the base of the now-nonexistent Gęsiówka prison, in what is today the Warsaw neighbourhood of Muranów. I ...

until its evacuation. He returned to the Dachau concentration camp on August 6, 1944, serving under camp commandant

Eduard Weiter Eduard Weiter (18 July 1889 – 2 May 1945) was a German bureaucrat who became a Schutzstaffel Obersturmbannführer and concentration camp commandant during World War II. Early life The son of a horsewhip maker, Weiter worked as a book salesman ...

. Ruppert was responsible for the operation of the camp. On April 23, 1945, he was replaced by . Ruppert accompanied the

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Conven ...

of the prisoners in April 1945. The march went over

Pasing Pasing is a district in the city of Munich, Germany, and part of the borough Pasing-Obermenzing. Overview Pasing is located west of the Munich city centre, at the north-western edge of the city's innermost traffic zone. The district is mainly res ...

Wolfratshausen Wolfratshausen () is a town of the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, located in Bavaria, Germany. The town had a population of 19,033 as of 31 December 2019. History The first mention of "Wolveradeshusun" appears in documents from the year ...

, Bad Tölz to

Tegernsee Tegernsee is a town in the Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the shore of Lake Tegernsee, which is 747 m (2,451 ft) above sea level. A spa town, it is surrounded by an alpine landscape of Upper Bavaria, and has an ...

and ended on 30 April. He was arrested by American troops in Tegernsee.

War crimes

Wilhelm Ruppert was tried for war crimes after the war. Multiple witnesses identified him at the trial and said he selected prisoners for execution. An eye-witness said that he executed

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

agent Noor Inayat Khan. Evidence show that he had presided over the executions of at least 90 Russian prisoners. Ruppert was called a man who had no empathy for his victims, whom he frequently whipped. Ruppert was convicted of war crimes, sentenced to death, and hanged at

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, af ...

on May 28, 1946.

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...

: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'', p. 515

Bibliography

* Holger Lessing: ''Der erste Dachauer Prozess (1945/46)''. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1993, . *

: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'' Nicol-Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co KG Hamburg, Hamburg 2021 (5th edition), . * Case No. 000-50-2 (US vs. Martin Gottfried Weiss et al.) Tried 13 Dec. 4
in eng. Sprache (pdf-datei; 40,9 MB)

References

1905 births 1946 deaths Holocaust perpetrators in Germany Dachau concentration camp personnel Executed people from Rhineland-Palatinate People from Frankenthal Waffen-SS personnel Warsaw concentration camp personnel Schutzhaftlagerführer {{World-War-II-bio-stub Dachau trials executions Executed mass murderers