Editing Josef Kramer

{{short description|German SS officer}}
{{redirect|Joseph Kramer}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Josef Kramer
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|df=y|1906|11|10}}
| birth_place       = [[Munich]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=y|1945|12|13|1906|11|10}}
| death_place       = [[Hamelin Prison]], [[Hamelin]], [[Allied-occupied Germany]]
| other_names       = The Beast of Belsen
| motive            = [[Nazism]]
| conviction        = [[War crimes]]
| image_name        = Portrait of Josef Kramer, August 1945 BU9711 (3x4 cropped).jpg
| image_caption     = Kramer in 1945
| conviction_penalty = [[Capital punishment|Death]]
| criminal_status   = [[Executed]]
| death_cause       = [[Execution by hanging]]
| awards            = 
| trial             = Belsen trial
}}
'''Josef Kramer''' (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945) was a {{lang|de|[[Hauptsturmführer]]}} in the [[SS]] and the [[Commandant]] of [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]] (from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944) and [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen Belsen]] (from December 1944 to its liberation on 15 April 1945)  [[concentration camps]]. Dubbed ''The Beast of Belsen'' by camp inmates, he was a German [[Nazi war criminal]], directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. He was detained by the [[British Army]] after the [[Second World War]], convicted of [[war crime]]s, and [[Hanging|hanged]] on the [[gallows]] in the prison at [[Hamelin]] by British executioner [[Albert Pierrepoint]].

==Early life==
Josef Kramer, an only child, was born and raised in [[Munich]] in a middle-class family. His parents, Theodore and Maria Kramer, brought him up as a strict [[Roman Catholic]].<ref>Tom Segev: ''Die Soldaten des Bösen. Zur Geschichte der KZ-Kommandanten''. Reinbek bei Hamburg 1995, S. 63</ref> In 1915, the family moved from Munich to [[Augsburg]], where Josef Kramer attended school. He began an apprenticeship as an electrician in 1920. From 1925 to 1933, except for working in a department store and as an accountant, he was mostly unemployed.

==Career==
He joined the [[Nazi Party]] in 1931 and the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] in 1932. His SS training led him into work as a prison guard and, after the outbreak of war, as a concentration camp guard.

In 1934, Kramer was assigned as a guard at [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]]. His promotion was rapid, obtaining senior posts at [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]] and [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp|Mauthausen]] concentration camps. Kramer became assistant to [[Rudolf Höss]], the Commandant at [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] in 1940. He accompanied Höss to inspect Auschwitz as a possible site for a new synthetic oil and rubber plant, "a vital industry given Germany's shortage of oil.".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bartrop |first1=Paul E. |last2=Grimm |first2=Eve E. |date=2019 |title=Perpetrating the Holocaust: Leaders, Enablers, and Collaborators |location=Santa Barbara |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=175 |isbn=978-1-4408-5896-3}}</ref>

===Natzweiler-Struthof===
Kramer was named Commandant of [[Natzweiler-Struthof]] concentration camp in April 1941. Natzweiler-Struthof was the only concentration camp established by the Nazis on present-day [[France|French]] territory, though there were French-run transit camps, such as the one at [[Drancy deportation camp|Drancy]]. At the time, the area in [[Alsace-Lorraine]] in which it was established had been annexed by [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Whatmore-Thomson |first=Helen J. |date=2020 |title=Nazi Camps and Their Neighbouring Communities: History, Memory, and Memorialization |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=18 |isbn=978-0-19-878977-2 |quote=Alsace and the Moselle (part of Lorraine) - the former eastern frontier provinces of France - had been subjected to Nazi annexation for almost a year.}}</ref>

As commandant at Natzweiler-Struthof, Kramer personally carried out the gassings of 80 Jewish men and women,<ref>{{cite news|title=Kramer Persists In Denying Guilt|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/10/10/issue.html|access-date=19 September 2015|work=The New York Times|volume=XCV|issue=32,036|date=10 October 1945|page=8}}</ref><ref name=Tribunal/> part of a group of 87 selected at Auschwitz to become anatomical specimens in a proposed [[Jewish skull collection]] to be housed at the Anatomy Institute at the [[Reichsuniversität Straßburg|Reich University of Strasbourg]] under the direction of [[August Hirt]].{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}

Ultimately, the 87 inmates were transported to Natzweiler-Struthof; 46 of these individuals were originally from [[Thessaloniki]], Greece. The deaths of 86 of these inmates were, in the words of Hirt, "induced" in an improvised gassing facility at Natzweiler-Struthof, and their corpses, 57 men and 29 women, were sent to Strasbourg. One male victim was shot as he fought to keep from being gassed.

===Auschwitz===
Kramer was promoted to the rank of ''[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' (Captain) in 1942 and, in May 1944, was transferred to become the ''[[Lagerführer]]'' (camp commander) in charge of operations at [[Auschwitz concentration camp#Auschwitz II-Birkenau|Auschwitz II-Birkenau]], the main centre used to kill inmates within the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944.<ref>{{cite web|title=Auschwitz Concentration Camp – Chain of Command|url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/chainofcommand.html|website= holocaustresearchproject.org| publisher=Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team|access-date=19 October 2015}}</ref> He was brought to Auschwitz to manage the gassings of new transports in May 1944, according to the Prosecution Judge Advocate at the War Crimes tribunal that convicted him of being responsible for the deaths committed at Auschwitz. There were a number of witnesses who said that he took an active part in the selection parades in that, for instance, he loaded people into the trucks and beat them when they resisted.<ref name=Tribunal>{{cite book|last1=Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals|first1=Vol. II|title=The Belsen Trial| year= 1947| publisher=The United Nations War Crimes Commission|location=London |page=112 et. seq| url= https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Law-Reports_Vol-2.pdf|access-date= 16 July 2019}}</ref>
At Auschwitz, Kramer soon became known among his subordinates as a harsh taskmaster. One of the defendants at the [[Frankfurt Auschwitz trials|Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial]], Dr. [[Franz Lucas]], testified that he tried to avoid assignments given to him by Kramer by pleading stomach and intestinal disorders. When Lucas saw that his name had been added to the list of selecting physicians for a large group of inmates transferred from [[Hungary]], he objected strenuously. Kramer reacted sharply: "I know you are being investigated for favouring prisoners. I am now ordering you to go to the ramp, and if you fail to obey an order, I shall have you arrested on the spot."<ref>{{cite book |last=Wynn |first=Stephen |date=2020 |title=Holocaust: The Nazis' Wartime Jewish Atrocities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AwI2EAAAQBAJ |location=Yorkshire |publisher=Penn & Sword Books |isbn=978-1-52672-822-7 |access-date=13 January 2025}}</ref>

===Belsen===
[[File:Bergen Belsen Liberation 01.jpg|thumb|Former guards at [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp|Bergen-Belsen]] are made to load the bodies of dead prisoners onto a truck for burial, 17–18 April 1945]]
In December 1944, ''[[SS-Hauptsturmführer]]'' Kramer was transferred from [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Birkenau]] to [[Bergen Belsen]], near the village of Bergen. Belsen had originally served as a temporary camp for those leaving Germany, but during the war it had been expanded to serve as a convalescent depot for the ill and displaced people from across north-west Europe. Although it had no gas chambers, Kramer's rule was so harsh that he became known as the "Beast of Belsen".<ref>{{cite book|last=Celinscak|first=Mark|title=Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Concentration Camp|year=2015|publisher=University of Toronto Press| location= Toronto| isbn= 9781442615700}}</ref>

As Nazi Germany collapsed, administration of the camp broke down, but Kramer remained devoted to bureaucracy. On 1 March 1945, he filed a report asking for help and resources, stating that of the 42,000 inmates in his camp, 250–300 died each day from [[Epidemic typhus|typhus]]. On 19 March, the number of inmates rose to 60,000 as the Germans continued to evacuate camps that were soon to be liberated by the Allies. As late as the week of 13 April, some 28,000 additional prisoners were brought in.<ref>{{cite book |last=Naggar |first=Carole |date=2003 |title=Goegre Rodger: An Adventure in Photography, 1908-1995 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=136 |isbn=978-0-815-60762-5}}</ref>

With the collapse of administration and many guards fleeing to escape retribution, roll calls were stopped, and the inmates were left to their own devices. Corpses rotted everywhere, and [[rat]]s attacked the living too weak to fight them off. Kramer remained even when the British, led by Major [[Brian Urquhart]], arrived to liberate the camp, and took them on a tour of the camp to inspect the "scenes". Piles of corpses lay all over the camp, mass graves were filled in, and the huts were filled with prisoners in every stage of emaciation and disease.<ref name=Kemp1997>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_jvBBB22IlIC&q=kemp&pg=PA141|title=Belsen in History and Memory|last=Kemp|first=Paul|date=1997|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=07146-43238|editor-last=Reilly|editor-first=Jo|pages=134–148|language=en|chapter=The British Army and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen 1945|editor-last2=Cesarani|editor-first2=David|editor-last3=Kushner|editor-first3=Tony|editor-last4=Richmond|editor-first4=Colin}}</ref>

===Ranks and promotions in the [[German SS|Schutzstaffel (SS)]]===
[[Image:BU 003749.jpeg|thumb|right|SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer, photographed in [[legcuffs]] at Belsen before being removed to the POW cage at Celle, 17 April 1945.]]
[[File:The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp 1945- Portraits of Belsen Guards at Celle Awaiting Trial, August 1945 BU9745.jpg|thumb|right|Former [[Aufseherin]] [[Irma Grese]] and former [[SS-Hauptsturmführer]] Josef Kramer in prison in [[Celle]] in August 1945]]
{| class="wikitable float-right"
|- bgcolor="silver"
!colspan = "2"|Kramer's SS-ranks in the [[Schutzstaffel]]
|- bgcolor="silver"
!Date 
!SS Rank 
|-
|5 December 1933
|SS-[[Unterscharführer]]
|-
|19 September 1934
|SS-[[Scharführer]]
|-
|27 April 1935
|SS-[[Hauptscharführer]]
|-
|Spring 1937
|SS-[[Untersturmführer]]
|-
|30 January 1939
|SS-[[Obersturmführer]]
|-
|1 June 1942
|SS-[[Hauptsturmführer]]
|}

==Trial and execution==
{{main|Belsen Trial}}
Kramer was imprisoned at the prison in [[Hamelin]]. Along with 44 other camp staff, Kramer was tried in the [[Belsen Trial]] by a British military court at [[Lüneburg]]. The trial lasted several weeks from September to November 1945. During the trial [[Anita Lasker-Wallfisch|Anita Lasker]] testified that Kramer had taken part in [[Selection (Holocaust)|selections]] for the gas chamber at Auschwitz.<ref name=witness>{{cite book|publisher=[[United Nations War Crimes Commission]]|location=London|title=Law reports of trials of war criminals, selected and prepared by the United Nations War Crimes Commission – Volume II, The Belsen Trial| year=1947|page=21f|url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/Law-Reports_Vol-2.pdf |quote= Anita Lasker, who lived in Breslau before her arrest, was sent to Auschwitz in December, 1943. She was transferred to Belsen in November, 1944. She claimed that she saw Kramer, Hoessler and Dr. Klein take part in selections for the gas chamber. |access-date= 16 July 2019}}</ref>

Kramer was sentenced to death on 17 November 1945, for crimes both at Auschwitz and at Bergen-Belsen, and was hanged at [[Hamelin Prison]] by [[Albert Pierrepoint]] on 13 December 1945, aged 39.<ref>{{cite news |title=Belsen gang hanged |newspaper=The Times |issue=50326 |date=15 December 1945 |page=3|issn=0140-0460}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources and external links==
* Straubenzee V. A. (2005). [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/1487534/The-gate-of-Hell.html The gate of Hell], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', retrieved on December 22, 2006.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110916192048/http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/recordoffice/usp.nsf/pws/70F36086E5A0756380256F1D0030DFB6?opendocument What Was Belsen? Josef Kramer], ''Durham County Record Office The Learning Zone'', retrieved on December 23, 2006.
* {{cite web| url = http://www.lenomdes86.fr/indexenglish.html | title = The Names of the 86 | first1= Emmanuel |last1= Heyd |first2= Raphael |last2=Toledano | publisher = Dora Films, 2014 | language = fr, de, en}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kramer, Josef}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1945 deaths]]
[[Category:Auschwitz concentration camp personnel]]
[[Category:Belsen trial executions]]
[[Category:Executed German mass murderers]]
[[Category:Executed Nazi concentration camp commandants]]
[[Category:Executed people from Bavaria]]
[[Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Poland]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Munich]]
[[Category:Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp personnel]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria]]
[[Category:Schutzhaftlagerführer]]
[[Category:SS-Hauptsturmführer]]
[[Category:Waffen-SS personnel]]