Adolf Theuer (sometimes given as Teuer; ) was a Sudeten German SS-Unterscharführer and gas chamber mass murderer at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. He was executed after the war as a war criminal.
Life Previously a bricklayer by trade, Theuer's SS career began when he enlisted in the Waffen-SS in 1938 after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. He was deployed to Auschwitz in 1940 at the rank of SS-Rottenführer. On 1 August 1941 he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer.Frei (2000), p. 61 He served as an SDG or Sanitätsdienstgefreiter; a medical orderly as part of the Sanitätswesen, one of the five concentration camp departments involved in running such a facility. He was also a member of the Desinfektionskommando (disinfection command), the unit of SS medics involved in the mass gassing of prisoners. One of Theuer's responsibilities was inserting the Zyklon B into the gas chamber, a task shared by other SS orderlies such as SS-Unterscharführer Hans Koch and SS-Oberscharführer Josef Klehr. During the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, Klehr, the chief of the Desinfektionskommando, testified that Theuer explained to him that he would insert the gas when ordered to do so by the accompanying SS doctor.Langbein (1995), p. 569
SS-Unterscharführer Oswald Kaduk recalled an incident when Theuer, his fellow Upper Silesian countryman, was reluctant to insert the gas. Kaduk stated that:
During the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials in the 1960s, Edward Pys, a survivor of Auschwitz, also recounted a gassing done by Theuer:
Theuer remained at the camp until its evacuation in January 1945, when he was subsequently deployed in Ohrdruf concentration camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. He was tasked with murdering sick prisoners.Andrea Rudorff (Bearb.): Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933–1945 (Quellensammlung) Band 16: Das KZ Auschwitz 1942–1945 und die Zeit der Todesmärsche 1944/45. Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-036503-0, S. 475 Fn. 24.
Post-war Although Theuer did not torture prisoners, he was still known in the camp as a butcher.Piper et al (1996), pg. 52 After the war he was put on trial along with Sofie Hanel (SS-Hilfsaufseherin, SS-Aufseherin, SS-Blockfuhrer) in Prague; both were sentenced to death.Piper et al (1996), pg. 311 Theuer was hanged in Opava (Czechoslovakia) on 23 April 1947. Hanel was hanged on 12 January 1948.Hanel (married Nitsche), Sofie-Birthplace: Freiwaldau, Sudetenland (Jeseník, Olomouc Region, Czech Republic) Camp Service: Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Unknown SS Positions: SS-Hilfsaufseherin, SS-Aufseherin, SS-Blockfuhrer Notes: The name 'HANEL, Sofie,' appeared as an 'SS woman Overseer,' in a file of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) dated March 20, 1947, 'Personnel of the Concentration Camp in Oswiecim-Auschwitz;' she was tried by a Czech court for war crimes at an unknown sub-camp, as well as on a death march at the closing of the war, and sentenced during the 'Prague Wardens' trial to death for murder and maltreatment of camp prisoners on October 7, 1948; she was hanged on January 12, 1948 in the Pankrac Prison in Prague.
References
Bibliography Dębski, Jerzy (1995). Death books from Auschwitz: remnants. Volume 1. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Frei, Norbert (2000). Darstellungen und Quellen zur Geschichte von Auschwitz. Volume 1. K. G. Saur Verlag. Langbein, Hermann (1995). Der Auschwitz-Prozess: eine Dokumentation. Volume 2. Verlag Neue Kritik. Piper, Franciszek; Świebocka, Teresa; Czech, Danuta (1996). Auschwitz: Nazi death camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.