Maximilian Grabner (2 October 1905 – 24 January 1948) was an
Austrian Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...
chief in
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
. At Auschwitz he was in command of the
torture chamber
A torture chamber is a room equipped, and sometimes specially constructed, for the infliction of torture. Block 11, where he gained a reputation of brutality. He was executed for
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
in 1948.
Early life
Born in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Grabner joined the Austrian police force in 1930 and became a member of the then-illegal
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
in 1933. After the
Anschluß of Austria in 1938, he joined the
SS and became a member of the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...
. He arrived at
Katowice
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
at the outbreak of
World War II
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 transferred to
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
less than one year later where he became Chief of the ''
Politische Abteilung'' ("Political Department").
Career at Auschwitz
As Gestapo chief, Grabner was responsible, among other things, for the fight against the resistance movement in the camp, as well as for the prevention of escapes and all contact with the outside world. These tasks were carried out with horrendous cruelties against the prisoners and a large number of
incarceration
Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...
s in the bunker in Block 11. Grabner's staff members, such as
Wilhelm Boger, who was only brought to justice in the early 1960s, carried out so-called ''sharpened interrogations'', during which the victims were systematically
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
d.
Grabner, together with the commander of the ''
Schutzhaftlager'', initiated, on a regular basis, clearings of the bunker: the inmates were examined and many of them were sent directly to the inner courtyard between Block 10 and Block 11, where they were shot. He once ordered
SS-
Untersturmführer Hans Stark to drop
Zyklon B into a gas chamber.
[ Rees, Laurence: ''Auschwitz - the Nazis and the 'Final Solution'' - BBC Books - 2005 - IBN 0-563-52117-1 (page 96)] Along with Stark, Grabner personally took part in the shooting of Russian
Commissar
Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...
s.
Trial and conviction
In 1943, Grabner was arrested for
theft, graft and corruption and was put on trial in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...
a year later. He was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison. After the trial, he returned to
Katowice
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
. It is not known if he served any time in prison. Grabner was then arrested by the Allies in 1945 and turned over to
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
in 1947. In the
Auschwitz Trial he was found guilty of
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
and sentenced to death. Grabner was
hanged on 24 January 1948.
Bibliography
*
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 conce ...
: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945''. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005;
*
Hermann Langbein: ''Menschen in Auschwitz.'' Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980;
* Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Hrsg.): ''Auschwitz in den Augen der SS.'' Oswiecim 1998;
* Wacław Długoborski,
Franciszek Piper (Hrsg.): ''
Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studien zur Geschichte des Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz'', Verlag Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oswiecim 1999, 5 Bände: I. Aufbau und Struktur des Lagers. II. Die Häftlinge - Existentzbedingungen, Arbeit und Tod. III. Vernichtung. IV. Widerstand. V. Epilog; .
* Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Hrsg): ''Auschwitz in den Augen der SS.'' Oswiecim 1998; .
*
Laurence Rees: ''Auschwitz - the Nazis and the 'Final Solution London: BBC Books,(2005); .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grabner, Maximilian
1905 births
1948 deaths
Auschwitz trial executions
Austrian Nazis executed for war crimes
Austrian police officers convicted of crimes against humanity
Austrian people executed abroad
Austrian Waffen-SS personnel
Executed Austrian mass murderers
German police chiefs
Gestapo personnel
Military personnel from Vienna
Police officers executed for crimes against humanity
SS-Untersturmführer
People convicted of torture