Auschwitz trial
# Defendant Rank Function Sentence
1 Arthur Liebehenschel SS-Obersturmbannführer camp commandant death by hanging ( carried out )
2 Hans Aumeier SS-Sturmbannführer Schutzhaftlagerführer death by hanging ( carried out )
3 Maximilian Grabner SS - Untersturmführer camp Gestapo chief death by hanging ( carried out )
4 Karl Möckel SS-Obersturmbannführer manager of camp administration death by hanging ( carried out )
5 Maria Mandl SS - Oberaufseherin Birkenau female camp commandant death by hanging ( carried out )
6 Franz Xaver Kraus SS-Sturmbannführer information officer death by hanging ( carried out )
7 Ludwig Plagge SS - Oberscharführer Rapportführer death by hanging ( carried out )
8 Fritz Buntrock SS - Unterscharführer Rapportführer death by hanging ( carried out )
9 Wilhelm Gerhard Gehring SS - Hauptscharführer subcamp commandant death by hanging ( carried out )
10 Otto Lätsch SS-Unterscharführer subcamp vice commandant death by hanging ( carried out )
11 Heinrich Josten SS - Obersturmführer commander of the camp guard death by hanging ( carried out )
12 Josef Kollmer SS-Obersturmführer commander of the camp guard death by hanging ( carried out )
13 Erich Muhsfeldt SS-Oberscharführer Birkenau crematoria manager death by hanging ( carried out )
14 Hermann Kirschner SS-Unterscharführer camp administration death by hanging ( carried out )
15 Hans Schumacher SS-Unterscharführer manager of camp food supplies death by hanging ( carried out )
16 August Bogusch SS - Scharführer camp administration death by hanging ( carried out )
17 Therese Brandl SS-Aufseherin SS-Erstaufseherin death by hanging ( carried out )
18 Paul Szczurek SS-Unterscharführer Blockführer death by hanging ( carried out )
19 Paul Götze SS - Rottenführer Blockführer death by hanging ( carried out )
20 Herbert Paul Ludwig SS-Oberscharführer Blockführer death by hanging ( carried out )
Verdict of the Supreme National Tribunal in the first Auschwitz trial
.mw-parser-output .templatequote { overflow : hidden ; margin:1em 0 ; padding:0 40px } .mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite { line-height:1.5em ; text-align : left ; padding-left:1.6em ; margin-top:0 } Torturing of prisoners [ of Auschwitz ] already tormented to the extreme [ by extrajudicial means ] , is the evidence of inhuman savagery perpetrated by those defendants who as a result of the trial were sentenced to death . The listed violent crimes committed by named defendants , who all took smaller or larger part in the mass murder of prisoners , also reveal that the accused were involved in the acts of killing for pleasure , and not pursuant to orders of their superiors . If it were not for their expressed desire to kill , they would have otherwise displayed elements of sympathy for the victims , or at least show indifference to their plight , but not torture them to death.— Excerpt from the verdict [ 2 ]
The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Polish authorities (the 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 Mandel, head of the Auschwitz women's camps; and SS-doctor Johann Kremer. Thirty-eight other SS officers - thirty-four men and four women - who had served as guards or doctors in the camps were also tried.