At the end of the Second World War, there were a number of executions that were carried
out to punish those men and women who worked as ss guards inside of the concentration camps.
Some executions including those of the guards of Stutthof concentration camp took place
in public in front of a crowd of 200,000 on a huge set of gallows.
But there were many more SS men and women who were sentenced to death and they were
executed inside of the execution chambers in various prisons in Germany.
Executioner’s such as Albert Pierrepoint and John C Woods would execute the most notorious
and evil war criminals, but one man who was executed inside of a British controlled prison
was Johann Schwarzhuber, a man who was during the Second World War working as one of the
most senior figures inside of the all female concentration camp, Ravensbruck.
This camp held women from many different countries, but the conditions there were very tough and
brutal.
But Schwarzhuber was later condemned for his crimes, as he was overseeing all of the women
prisoners there.
Join us today as we look at the execution of the commandant of the female concentration
camp, and as always to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Johann Schwarzhuber was born on the 29th August 1904 inside of a Bavarian town.
He would have a rather normal upbringing and then would train as a printer before he got
married at the age of 32.
He had two children, but at the time there was a growing Nazi movement which was emerging
and Hitler would then become the Chancellor and with this Schwarzhuber joined the Nazi
Party and the SS in 1933.
He would not necessarily have a role in the Second World War as it broke out, but he was
a man who would find work inside of the concentration camps system.
He first went to Dachau, the earliest nazi concentration camp and he would work here
as a block leader and it was at Dachau where he received his training alongside other SS
men.
Following a short stint at Dachau, Schwarzhuber then was transferred at the outbreak of the
Second World War to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
This was a huge site, where over 200,000 people were imprisoned, and it’s believed that
at least 50,000 people died at Sachsenhausen.
There were a large number of sub camps that served the main camp, and Johann Schwarzhuber
then worked at the commander of the klinkerwerk sub camp, and he would preside over a number
of prisoners each day.
He was known for being a brutal man, but he would then as September 1941 came around be
transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the main extermination element of the largest and deadliest
concentration camp.
Schwarzhuber was responsible there as a lagerfuhrer for many different blocks of prisoners and
he would on a daily basis beat and hit some of the inmates.
He was known for being a man who was often drunk at Auschwitz, and he would also work
alongside some of the Kapos to carry out the deadly operations of Auschwitz.
But He was a guard who would also get involved in the selections of prisoners who were sent
to the gas chambers.
He was in November 1943 promoted to become a Schutzhaftlagerfuhrer and because of this
he was in control and charge of the whole of the men’s camp, meaning that it was he
who would decided who was sent to the work camp, and who was sent to their deaths.
Inmates would get off the trains at Auschwitz in the yards, and they would then be separated
into those who would go into the camp and work, and those who would not.
Schwarzhuber’s decisions would send thousands to their deaths when they were loaded onto
a number of trucks which then drove these inmates straight to the gas chambers for their
deaths.
He was a man who would be responsible for hundreds and thousands of executions and exterminations,
but he was a man who was also known to have been bribed or swayed in his decision making.
There were a number of examples of Johann Schwarzhuber taking prisoners out of the line
from the gassing queue to have them then placed into the regular mens prison camp, giving
them in a sense a form of protection.
It’s not known why he did this on several occasions, but he was known for having a number
of female mistresses at the camp.
One of these it’s believed was Cilka Klein a woman who was 16 when she arrived at Auschwitz
Birkenau, but Schwarzhuber picked her to become his mistress, and her story would later become
the inspiration for the book the Tattooist of Auschwitz.
But he continued to work at Auschwitz, and it’s clear that Heinrich Himmler thought
a lot of Schwarzhuber, and he was then in November 1944 sent to Dachau where he was
the commandant of a number of sub camps, but in January 1945 after being at the top of
his own camps for some time, he was transferred to a final job at Ravensbruck Concentration
Camp.
This was an all female concentration camp which became known for it’s brutality and
horror.
Around 130,000 women would be imprisoned at the camp, and it’s believed that between
30,000 to 90,000 women prisoners were killed inside of the barbed wire fences.
The conditions at the camp got significant worse as the war went on, and all of the women
were forced to conduct back breaking hard labour, and the women were not fed much at
all.
There was a shortage of food, and also disease spread quickly around Ravensbruck, but one
inmate described the camp saying, ‘They didn't shoot the women.
We were to die of misery, hunger and exhaustion...when we arrived at Ravensbrück, it was the worst.
The first thing I saw was a cart with all the dead piled on it.
Their arms and legs hanging out, and mouths and eyes wide open.
They reduced us to nothing.
We didn't even feel like we had the value of cattle.
You worked and you died.’
The women suffered a lot at Ravensbruck, and they were subjected to assault, and also sick
medical experiments at the hands of the evil SS guards and the doctors.
But whilst here Johann Schwarzhuber became the guard who was in charge for the women’s
camp.
This meant that as almost all of the inmates were women, that Schwarzhuber was in command
of the entire camp complex, and he was only answerable to the actual Commandant Fritz
Suhren.
He was the second most senior figure, and the one that the prisoners would mostly see
on a daily basis.
But when he got to Ravensbruck, it was a camp in a poor state and it was very overcrowded
and food rations were very limited to begin with.
In the winter of 1945, many of the prisoners had frozen to death due to the poor clothing
and heating in the barracks, and because of this, Schwarzhuber took brutal steps to try
to prevent further overcrowding.
Each day he would carry out the executions of around 50 women which began when he arrived
there.
Many of the former guards refused to oversee these executions, and Schwarzhuber took over
in this.
Ravensbruck would see a huge influx in deaths during his short time there, and thousands
of women were also being gassed and killed inside of a new gas chamber that was made
when Schwarzhuber arrived.
He continued to be a brutal executioner inside of the female camp, but in April 1945, Ravsnebruck
was captured by the British Army and he was then arrested and was held by the British.
Following the end of the war, there were a number of war crimes trials that occurred
that sought to punish those SS guards who worked inside of the concentration camps.
One that took place was the Hamburg Ravensbruck trials, and defendant number 1 in the first
set of trials was Johann Schwarzhuber.
At the time, the main commandant Fritz Suhren had fled, and Schwarzhuber was the most senior
official who was indicted at the trial.
He would plead not guilty to crimes against humanity, and said that the only killing he
saw was one mass execution that occurred at Ravsnerbruck.
He said he had looked on as 150 women were sent into the gas chamber and were killed
inside of it.
But it was clear that he was sent to Ravsnebruck to carry out mass executions, and he claimed
that his bosses had told him to carry out any executions and he was following orders.
But Schwarzhuber was in charge of the women’s camp and for this he was seen as a man responsible
for the deaths of thousands and he was found guilty and was sentenced to death.
He was sent to Hamelin Prison to await his execution, and it would be notorious executioner
Albert Pierrepoint who would take his life.
He was on the 3rd May 1947 brought out of his prison cell, as the day before Pierrepoint
had met with Schwarzhuber and had taken his height and weight, to calculate the drop needed
to snap his neck instantly.
He was then brought into the execution chamber where a simulataneous gallows was found, and
he was led up the stairs of gallows and then a cap was placed over his head.
Pierrepoint checked his arms and legs and that they were secured, before the noose was
placed over his head and he was shuffled over a chalk x on the trapdoor.
Pierrepoint then released the trap, and Schwarzhuber plunged to his death.
Johann Schwarzhuber was a man who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, and
inside of ravenrbsurck he was an executioner and an assassin.
He was responsible for the torture and evil treatment of different camps where he worked.
But at the age of 42, the longstanding member of the SS and Nazi party supporter would be
executed by a British executioner inside of a German prison.
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