The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Poland's Supreme National Tribunal tried forty former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947.
The best-known defendants were Arthur Liebehenschel, former commandant; Maria Mandl, head of the Auschwitz women's camps; and SS-doctor Johann Kremer. Thirty-seven other SS officers—thirty-three men and four women—who had served as guards or doctors in the camps were also tried.
Verdict of the Supreme National Tribunal in the first Auschwitz trial
#DefendantRankFunctionSentence1Arthur Liebehenschel Camp commandantDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)2Hans AumeierSS-SturmbannführerSchutzhaftlagerführerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)3Maximilian Grabner SS-UntersturmführerCamp Gestapo chief Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)4Karl Möckel SS-ObersturmbannführerManager of camp administration Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)5Maria Mandl SS-OberaufseherinBirkenau female camp commandantDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)6Franz Xaver KrausSS-SturmbannführerInformation officerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)7Ludwig Plagge SS-OberscharführerRapportführerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)8Fritz Buntrock SS-Unterscharführer RapportführerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)9SS-HauptscharführerSubcamp commandantDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)10Otto LätschSS-UnterscharführerSubcamp vice commandantDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)11Heinrich JostenSS-ObersturmführerCommander of the camp guard Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)12Josef KollmerSS-ObersturmführerCommander of the camp guardDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)13Erich MuhsfeldtSS-OberscharführerBirkenau crematoria manager Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)14Hermann KirschnerSS-UnterscharführerCamp administration Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)15Hans SchumacherSS-UnterscharführerManager of camp food supplies Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)16August BoguschSS-ScharführerCamp administration Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)17Therese BrandlSS-AufseherinSS-Erstaufseherin Death by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)18Paul SzczurekSS-UnterscharführerBlockführerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)19Paul GötzeSS-RottenführerBlockführerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)20Herbert Paul LudwigSS-OberscharführerBlockführerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)21Kurt Hugo MüllerSS-UnterscharführerBlockführerDeath by hanging (executed on 24 January 1948)22Johann KremerSS-ObersturmführerCamp doctorDeath by hanging (commuted to life imprisonment)23Arthur BreitwieserSS-UnterscharführerCamp administrationDeath by hanging (commuted to life imprisonment)24Detlef NebbeSS-SturmscharführerSergeant of the guard company Life imprisonment25Karl SeufertSS-HauptscharführerManager of prisoner blockLife imprisonment26Hans KochSS-UnterscharführerCamp disinfectionLife imprisonment27Luise DanzSS-AufseherinFemale guardLife imprisonment28Adolf MedefindSS-UnterscharführerGuardLife imprisonment29Anton LechnerSS-RottenführerGuardLife imprisonment30Franz RomeikatSS-UnterscharführerCamp administration15 years imprisonment31Hans HoffmannSS-RottenführerCamp Gestapo unit15 years imprisonment32Hildegard LächertSS-AufseherinFemale guard15 years imprisonment33Alice OrlowskiSS-AufseherinFemale guard15 years imprisonment34Johannes WeberSS-SturmmannCamp kitchen15 years imprisonment35Alexander BülowSS-SturmmannGuard15 years imprisonment36Eduard LorenzSS-UnterscharführerGuard15 years imprisonment37Richard SchröderSS-UnterscharführerCamp accounting10 years imprisonment38Erich DingesSS-SturmmannGuard5 years imprisonment39Karl JeschkeSS-OberscharführerGuard3 years imprisonment40Hans MünchSS-Untersturmführer Doctor in SS Hygiene InstituteAcquitted
Rudolf Höss, sentenced in a previous trial, was executed on April 16, 1947, in front of the crematorium at Auschwitz I. The trial of camp commandant Höss, which took place at the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw throughout March 1947, was the first trial held at Auschwitz, followed by the trials in Kraków several months later.
Summary The Supreme National Tribunal presiding in Kraków issued 23 death sentences, and 17 imprisonments ranging from life sentences to 3 years. All executions were carried out on January 24, 1948, at the Kraków Montelupich Prison, "one of the most terrible Nazi prisons in occupied Poland" used by Gestapo throughout World War II.Adam Bajcar, Poland: A Guidebook, translated by S. Tarnowski, Interpress Publishers, Warsaw 1972. Maria Mandl and Therese Brandl were the first to be executed. One person was acquitted: Sergeant Major Hans Münch, who refused to participate in the selection process and made futile, although confirmed, requests for more food to the inmates.
Liebehenschel, Mandel and Kremer were condemned to death, as were Hans Aumeier, August Bogusch, Therese Brandl, Arthur Breitwieser, Fritz Buntrock, Wilhelm Gehring, Paul Götze, Maximilian Grabner, Heinrich Josten, Hermann Kirschner, Josef Kollmer, Franz Kraus, Herbert Ludwig, Karl Möckel, Kurt Mueller, Eric Muhsfeldt, Ludwig Plagge, Hans Schumacher and Paul Szczurek (Arthur Breitwieser and Johann Kremer had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment). Luise Danz, Hans Koch, Anton Lechner, Adolf Medefind, Detlef Nebbe, and Karl Seufert received life sentences. Alexander Bülow, Hans Hoffmann, Hildegard Lächert, Eduard Lorenz, Alice Orlowski, Franz Romeikat, and Johannes Weber were sentenced to 15 years. Richard Schroeder received 10 years, Erich Dinges five years, and Karl Jeschke three years. Hans Münch was acquitted.
See also Belzec trial before the 1st Munich District Court in the mid-1960s, eight SS-men of the Belzec extermination camp tried, seven acquitted Chełmno trials of the Chełmno extermination camp personnel, held in Poland and in Germany. The cases were decided almost twenty years apart Dachau trials held within the walls of the former Dachau concentration camp, 1945–1948 Majdanek trials, the longest Nazi war crimes trial in history, spanning over 30 years Nuremberg trials of the 24 most important leaders of the Third Reich, 1945–1946 Sobibor trial held in Hagen, Germany in 1965, concerning the Sobibor extermination camp
Notes and references
Cyprian T., Sawicki J., Siedem wyroków Najwyższego Trybunału Narodowego, Poznań, 1962 G. Álvarez, Mónica. "Guardianas Nazis. El lado femenino del mal". Madrid: Grupo Edaf, 2012.