Joseph Kramer

Josef Kramer (November 10th 1906, Munich – December 13rd 1945, Hamelin) was a Militaire Nazi which occupied the function of commander of the Concentration camp of Struthof, then of Bergen-Belsen between the December 2nd 1944 and the April 15th 1945, moment of the release of the camp by the Britannique S. It was recognized guilty of War crimes and was hung with the prison of Hamelin shortly after the fall of the IIIe Reich.

Biography

A career in the S

It joined NSDAP in 1931 and the Schutzstaffel (S) in 1932, where its functions lead it to work in the Prison S German then in the concentration camps.

In 1934, it was assigned like simple guard in the Concentration camp of Dachau but noted, it quickly climbs the levels for finally obtaining an important station within the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen. In 1940, he became the assistant of Rudolf Höß then the commander of camp of Auschwitz and one year later, ordering camp of Struthof in Alsace.

In 1942, Kramer was promoted with the row of Hauptsturmführer (either Capitaine).

Of May 1944 to December 1944, it was in load of the Gas chambers of the complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau before finally being transferred and promoted, on December 2nd, 1944, general commander of the Concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, until April 15th, 1945.

Called the " Animal of Belsen " by the deportees of the camp of Bergen-Belsen, it was one of the most known criminals Nazi S because it took an active part in dead several thousands of people.

The lawsuit and execution

Joseph Kramer and 44 other persons in charge Nazi S (of which 15 women) were put in charge at the lawsuit of Bergen-Belsen by the military court Britannique at Lüneburg. The lawsuit lasted a few weeks between September and November 1945. Kramer was condemned to died on November 17th, 1945 and hung to Hamelin by Albert Pierrepoint on December 13rd, 1945.

Its remarks

Deposition of Joseph Kramer recorded by the commander Jadin, military examining magistrate close the military tribunal of the 10th military region, in displacement with the prison of That, July 26th, 1945, about the gazage of 86 Jews in Struthof: At the beginning of August 1943, I received 80 internees intended to be removed (...), and I started by making lead in the gas chamber a certain evening, around 9 a.m., using a van, first once, about fifteen women approximately. I declared with these women that they were to pass in the room of disinfection and I hid to them that they were to be asphyxiated.
Assisté of some S, I completely made them be stripped and I pushed them in the gas chamber, whereas they all were naked. At the time when I closed the door, they are reflected to howl. I introduced, after having closed the door, a certain quantity of salts in a funnel placed above on the right the glance. Then, I closed the opening of the funnel using a tap which was adapted in the bottom of this funnel, prolonged itself by a metal tube. This metal tube led salt and water in the interior excavation of the room from which I come to speak to you. I lit the interior of the room using the switch placed close to the funnel and I observed by the glance what occurred inside the room.
I noted that these women continued to breathe one half-minute, then they fell to ground. When I opened the door after having made at the same time walk ventilation inside flue ventilating, I noted that these women were extended without life and that they had let escape their feces.
I charged two officers S male nurses with transporting these corpses in a van, the next morning, towards 5:30, so that they are led to the Institute of anatomy, as well as the professor Hirt had asked it to me.
A few days after, under the same conditions that know-indicated, I again led in the gas chamber a certain quantity of women who were asphyxiated in the same way, then still a few days afterwards, I made lead in the gas chamber, into two or three times, perhaps about fifty men approximately, perhaps fifty-five who were always removed using these salts that I held of Hirt.
Demande me presently, spoke You about the conditions under which you carried out the internees using asphyxiating gases. If the internees would not have been killed following the introduction of gases, made by you, them you would have completed using a ball?
I would have tried to again asphyxiate them by projecting in the room one second gas amount. I did not test any emotion by achieving these acts, because I had received the order to carry out way in which I indicated the 80 internees to you. I was high besides like cela.

External sources & Bonds

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