Johann Schwarzhuber

Johann Schwarzhuber
Schwarzhuber listens to his death sentence being read out at the Ravensbrück trial
Born	Johann Schwarzhuber 29 August 1904 Tutzing,Kingdom of Bavaria,German Empire
Died	3 May 1947(1947-05-03)(aged 42) Hamelin Prison,Hamelin,Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Criminal status	Executed
Conviction(s)	War crimes
Trial	Hamburg Ravensbrück trials
Criminal penalty	Death
Military career
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel
Rank	SS-Obersturmführer
Commands held	Auschwitz-Birkenaumen's camp Ravensbrück concentration camp

Johann Schwarzhuber(29 August 1904 – 3 May 1947) was aNaziGermanSS-Obersturmführer,who was in charge of various concentrationsubcampsduringWorld War II.His positions included theSchutzhaftlagerführerof theAuschwitz-Birkenau men's camp,where he oversaw the selection process for the gassing of thousands of detainees. He was later transferred to theRavensbrück concentration camp,where he held the post of theLagerdirektor,second only to the overall camp commanderFritz Suhren.With Suhren on the run, Schwarzhuber was the highest-ranking defendant during the firstRavensbrück trial.In front of theBritishmilitary tribunal he was indicted forwar crimesfor his role inthe Holocaust,sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 1947.

Early life and early Nazi activities

Schwarzhuber was born on 29 August 1904 in Tutzing, at this time part of theKingdom of Bavariain theGerman Empire.He trained as aprinterand married his wife in 1936, with whom he fathered two children. As an early supporter during the rise ofNazismhe joined theNSDAPand theSSin 1933. By 1935 he was trained for the position asblock leaderin theDachau concentration camp.At the outbreak of World War II he was transferred to theSachsenhausen concentration camp,where he acted as commander of theKlinkerwerksub-camp.

Auschwitz

In September 1941 Schwarzhuber was again reassigned and moved to theAuschwitz-Birkenauconcentration camp.As aLagerführer,he was responsible for several inmate blocks and regularly mingled with the prisoners. He was regularly drunk at work and built up relationships with some of theKapos.Nevertheless, he fulfilled his job dutifully as overseer of parts of theextermination camp.In November 1943 he was promoted toSchutzhaftlagerführerand took over the command of the Auschwitz men's camp. In this position he was also responsible for the selection process, which determined who was sent to the work camps and which prisoners were sent to thegas chambers.Thousands of inmates who were chosen by Schwarzhuber during this process were immediately killed. However, there were also a few instances of him pulling out non-eligible groups of inmates from the 'gas-queue' and 'protecting' them by putting them into the regular men's prison camp.

In November 1944 he returned to Dachau, now in charge of several sub-camps of theKaufering concentration camp complex.This tenure did not last long, and he received his final deployment to theRavensbrück concentration campin January 1945.

Ravensbrück and trial

In Ravensbrück, Schwarzhuber was directly responsible for the women's camp. With almost all of the Ravensbrück inmates being women, Schwarzhuber effectively commanded the entire complex, second only to overall camp leaderFritz Suhren.The camp was overcrowded; sanitation and food supply were insufficient. Many people froze to death due to a lack of clothing and heating. To combat the overcrowding, daily executions of about 50 inmates were ordered at the start of 1945. The killings were so cruel, that several camp deputies refused to oversee the murders until Schwarzhuber took over and the executions proceeded uneventfully.Ravensbrück was initially not intended to be an extermination camp, but during the last months of the war, deaths spiked massively. Thousands of women were killed in a newly built provisional gas chamber, coinciding with Schwarzhuber's arrival in the camp.

The Ravensbrück camp was captured by theBritish Armyin April 1945 and Schwarzhuber was detained. The British launched aseries of trialsagainst the camp personnel starting in December 1945. With the main camp leader Fritz Suhren having fled, Schwarzhuber was the highest-ranking official indicted during the trial. He pleaded 'not guilty' and claimed to have attended only one mass execution in the camp, when 150 women were gassed at once in the chamber. It is not clear who gave the order to start mass executions in Ravensbrück—whether it was Suhren as overall commander or evenHeinrich Himmlerpersonally—but with Schwarzhuber in charge of the women's camp, significant responsibility nevertheless fell on him as deputy commander.Schwarzhuber was found guilty and subsequently sentenced to death. Although Schwarzhuber filed a petition for pardon, the execution was carried out on 3 May 1947.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Blatman, Daniel(2011).The Death Marches.Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0674050495.
• Langbein, Hermann (2005).People in Auschwitz.University of North Carolina Press.ISBN978-0807863633.
• Rudorff, Andrea (2018).Das KZ Auschwitz 1942–1945 und die Zeit der Todesmärsche 1944/45[The Auschwitz Concentration Camp 1942-1945 and the time of the death marches 1944/45] (in German).Walter de Gruyter.ISBN978-3110573787.
• Strebel, Bernhard (2003).Das KZ Ravensbrück: Geschichte eines Lagerkomplexes[KZ Ravensbrück: History of a concentration camp complex] (in German).Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh.ISBN978-3506701237.

Further reading

• Klee, Ernst (2018).Auschwitz – Täter, Gehilfen, Opfer und was aus ihnen wurde: Ein Personenlexikon (Die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus)[Auschwitz - Culprits, Helper, Victims and what happened to them: A person dictionary (The time of National Socialism)] (in German).S. Fischer Verlag.ISBN978-3596197859.