December 22, 1947, Krakow, Poland. The former staff of Auschwitz - the deadliest German Nazi
concentration camp – hears their sentences read. After a month of gruesome testimonies,
23 defendants out of the 41 are sentenced to death by hanging.
One of them is Herbert Ludwig one of the most sadistic Nazi guards.
Herbert Ludwig was born on October 16, 1904 in Greisbach, then part of the German Empire.
He was a factory worker by profession and in 1932 he joined the Nazi Party and the SS.
In 1940 Hebert Ludwig was trained to become a guard and soon after
he was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he committed his worst crimes.
At Auschwitz, Ludwig took active parts in selections on the rail ramp and actively
participated in taking prisoners – especially children and those who were sick - to the gas
chambers. While he was escorting the poor victims to the gas chambers,
Ludwig was seen beating and kicking them.
At Auschwitz, Herbert Ludwig also worked as a block leader.
He supervised the prisoners working outside and within the camp
and was infamous for beating the poor inmates without any reason until they were unconscious.
He beat the prisoners with a whip or stick that he always tucked behind his belt.
Herbert Ludwig had a reputation as an informer and for that reason every prisoner was wary of him. It
is believed that his daughter also belonged to the camp’s personnel and was spying on prisoners, too.
Ludwig was often seen searching not only for suspicious items, but also for food,
which he would then take from starving prisoners.
Herbert Ludwig stayed at Auschwitz until January 1945 when the SS evacuated around
58,000 prisoners from Auschwitz and its sub camps to concentration camps in Germany and Austria.
The Nazi regime needed the prisoners as slave labor and the Nazis wanted to
remove all the evidence of the horrors and brutality the poor inmates had experienced.
The forced transfers would become known as “ death marches “. Thousands of prisoners
died of starvation, and exhaustion. Those who could no longer walk, were killed.
Ludwig was one of the SS guards who led brutal death march from Auschwitz to Gusen concentration
camp in Austria. Gusen was located only 3 miles away from Mauthausen concentration camp.
Working in the stone quarries of Gusen was extremely exhausting. Irrespective of the
weather conditions and temperature, the prisoners had to break blocks of stone from the cliff
by hand or by using explosives. Then they had to hack them into smaller pieces and transport them
out of the quarry. In spite of a high accident rate, only minimal medical care was provided.
After the end of the war, Herbert Ludwig was to finally face justice and pay for his crimes. He
was captured by the Allies and handed over to Polish authorities.
Ludwig was tried at the Auschwitz Trial which began on November 24, 1947, and lasted one month.
On December 22, 1947, the Polish Supreme National Tribunal in Krakow
sentenced Herbert Ludwig to death by hanging. He was 43 years old when he was
executed on 24 January 1948, There were no tears shed for Herbert Ludwig.
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