Ferdinand Hugo aus der Fünten (17 December 1909 – 19 April 1989), widely known as Fünten, was an '' SS-

Hauptsturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...

'' and head of the

Central Office for Jewish Emigration Central Office for Jewish Emigration () was a designation of Nazi institutions in Vienna, Prague and Amsterdam. Their head office, the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration ('), was based in Berlin. Their purpose was to expel Jews from Nazi-c ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was responsible for the deportation of Jews from the Netherlands to the German concentration camps and was convicted as a

war criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

Life

A native of

Mülheim Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr (, ; ; ) and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is ho ...

in the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

, in the early years of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

Fünten was employed in the Jewish section of the

Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...

, under the command of

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

. After the occupation of the Netherlands by German troops, Fünten became head of the

. In this capacity, he was subordinate to the commander of the ''

Sicherheitspolizei The often abbreviated as SiPo, is a German term meaning "security police". In the Nazi Germany, Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agency, security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of ...

'' and the SD in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. As head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, he organized the registration and arrest of

Dutch Jews The history of the Jews in the Netherlands largely dates to the late 16th century and 17th century, when Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain began to settle in Amsterdam and a few other Dutch cities, because the Netherlands was an unusual ...

. Those arrested were taken to the

Westerbork transit camp Camp Westerbork (, , Drents: ''Börker Kamp; Kamp Westerbörk''), also known as Westerbork transit camp, was a Nazi transit camp in the province of Drenthe in the Northeastern Netherlands, during World War II. It was located in the municipality ...

and deported to concentration and

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

s in

German-occupied Poland German-occupied Poland can refer to: * General Government * Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany * Occupation of Poland (1939–1945) * Prussian Partition The Prussian Partition (), or Prussian Poland, is the former territories of the Polish� ...

. Among those deported were sick and insane Jews from Amsterdam and

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

. Fünten threatened Jews who had married non-Jews with deportation, in order to force their sterilization. He held the rank of ''

'' in the SS in 1941. After the war, Fünten was brought to trial for war crimes and on 12 July 1950 was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

by the Netherlands. His sentence was commuted to life in prison on 4 January 1951 due to Queen Juliana's refusal to sign his death warrant. He was imprisoned at Breda Prison with Willy Lages, Joseph Kotalla, and as one of " The Breda Four", the only German war criminals of the Second World War to be imprisoned in the Netherlands. Lages was released in 1966 due to serious illness, although he lived for another five years, Kotälla died in prison. During the 1960s, discussions started about whether the remaining prisoners should be set free, since the "Breda Four" were the only German war criminals still in captivity in the Netherlands. Politicians who favoured releasing them were met with staunch opposition from the people of the Netherlands. In 1988, the Dutch government under Prime Minister

Ruud Lubbers Rudolphus Franciscus Marie "Ruud" Lubbers (; 7 May 1939 – 14 February 2018) was a Dutch politician, diplomat and businessman who served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1982 to 1994, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Refug ...

decided to release Fischer and Fünten. The news led to mass demonstrations against the decision and to emotional debates. However, the two men were released on 27 January 1989 and deported to Germany. On 19 April 1989, shortly after his release, Ferdinand aus der Fünten died at

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

.''This article incorporates information from the corresponding article in the

German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia () is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on 16 March 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia edition (after the English Wikipedia). It has articles, ma ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuenten, Ferdinand aus der 1909 births 1989 deaths Holocaust perpetrators in the Netherlands German people imprisoned abroad German prisoners sentenced to death Nazis convicted of war crimes People from Mülheim People paroled from life sentence Prisoners sentenced to death by the Netherlands Reich Security Main Office personnel SS-Hauptsturmführer