During the Second World War, inside of the concentration camps there were thousands of
SS guards and workers who made the lives of prisoners a misery.
The SS were responsible for the running of the camps, and they would execute thousands
of inmates for minor infractions of the rules, and would treat people terribly.
One woman who was known for her evil treatment was Irma Grese, who was known as the Beautiful
Beast and she was just 22 when she was executed for her crimes which included murdering prisoners
with a pistol.
She was also known for selecting victims to go to their deaths inside of the gas chambers,
and the evidence against her was compelling but also disgusting.
People could not believe that a young 22 year old girl who had her whole life ahead of her
could stoop to such lows, and could be guilty of such harrowing behaviour.
But there was an SS officer who was rather senior who served inside of a number of different
camps and sites, but Johann Niemann would get a brutal comeuppance as he was brutally
killed during a prisoner uprising, as he was attacked by an axe.
Join us today as we look at the brutal execution of Johann Niemann, and remember to support
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Johann Niemann was born in August 1913, and it’s believed that he had a normal upbringing,
however his teenage years were dominated by the rise of the Nazi Party.
At the age of 18 he joined as a member of the Nazi party, and three years later at the
age of 21 he joined the SS, the paramilitary group run by Heinrich Himmler.
He was given training inside the SS, but as the Second World War began, he then was sent
to go and work at the Belzec extermination camp.
This site was built with the sole and only purpose as to kill as many Polish jews as
possible.
The camp operated from March 1942 o June 1943, and was found near to Lublin.
It’s believed that between 430,000 to 500,000 Jews were murdered at Belzec by the SS, and
this made it the third deadliest camp of the Second World War.
Shockingly only 7 people who were forced to perform slave labour would survive Belzec,
and there were a lack of witnesses due to the sheer amount of people who were killed.
Niemann was tasked with commanding Camp II, which was considered the extermination area
of the site.
Prisoners would be offloaded from the train stations, and then they were taken to camp
1 which was the unloading area.
There were two barracks here, where men and women would undress and they were then led
towards Camp 2 which was where the gas chambers were.
The two zones were screened from each other, and SS guards would drive people into the
gas chambers where they were beaten and even shot if they did not run as quickly as they
could to their deaths.
Johann Niemann was in charge of making sure that the extermination part of Belzec ran
as smoothly and as efficiently as possible, and he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds
of thousands.
Following his work there, he was then moved to Sobribor which was another extermination
camp which was set up.
This was found also within Poland, and the majority of prisoners who were sent to Sobribor
were killed within hours of their arrival.
In total up to 250,000 people were killed there, making it the fourth deadliest Nazi
camp.
There were roughly 600 inmates who were forced to help in the deadly running of the camp,
and these were killed also to make sure the true crimes off the site did not get out.
One element of the camp was Lager III in which a special unit of prisoners were forced to
help in the extermination process, and they would remove bodies, search them for valuables
and also scrub the gas chambers clean.
They were in charge of disposing of the remains, and it was incredibly hard physical work but
also it took a psychological toll on the workers.
None of the workers from this part of Sobribor ever survived.
Whilst at Sobribor Niemann was the deputy commander of the site, and he stepped up a
number of times before Heinrich Himmler gave him the position permanently.
He was running the killing operation on a daily basis, and he was promoted by Himmler
to become an SS Untersturm Fuhrer.
Niemann was known for being a brutal and barbaric commander of the site, who was obsessed with
ruthless efficiency and with executing as many people as he could inside of the gas
chambers.
Another commander of the site would state that there was talk of a prisoner revolt,
and when he heard of it Niemann dealt with it horrifically.
It was said, ‘A polish kappa told me that some Dutch Jews were organising an escape,
so I related it back to commandant Niemann, and he ordered the 72 Jews to be executed
immediately.’
But an uprising would take place at Sobribor and this would later lead to the closure of
the site, and Johann Niemann would be killed during it in brutal fashion.
The revolt began in the afternoon of the 14th October 1943, and it was planned for the prisoners
to lure SS officers to quiet locations and to kill them.
This would occur in the hour before roll call, and the second phase would see the prisoners
marching to freedom from the front gate.
At 4pm, Deputy Commandant Johann Niemann rode up in his horse to the Lager I’d tailor’s
barracks.
The head tailor at the site had arranged an appointment for him to be fitted for a leather
jacket which had been stolen from a Jew that had been killed.
But the conspirators had prioritised Neumann’s execution and killing.
He was acting as the commandant whilst the Commandant was on leave, and they wanted Niemann
dead, as they believed if the plan failed, the death of a senior SS officer would send
a clear message to the SS hierarchy and Himmler.
However as he entered the tailors, Niemann noticed that there was a Russian prisoner
inside of the shop armed with an axe.
Niemann asked what he was doing there, and the Russian explained that he was there to
repair a table inside the tailors.
Niemann was asked to remove his pistol holster and put the stolen jacket on, and he was then
asked to turn around to check if there were any alterations needed to be made.
However when he turned, he was set upon by two prisoners who smashed him to pieces with
their axes.
They battered him with the sharp instruments, and split his head wide open.
There was blood all over the floor of the tailor’s shop, and Niemann the ruthless
SS officer had been killed.
Riemann’s body was then shoved and hidden under a table, and the blood was covered up
with sawdust to conceal what had happened.
He had been brutally killed, and was one of the first victims of the Sobribor uprising,
however he deserved his fate.
Following his killing, other officers and SS members of staff were killed in various
areas of the site, and one was being killed every 6 minutes for the next hour.
But the Sobribor uprising caused a significant amount of damage to the site, and a group
of prisoners managed to flee the site, and most of them were killed by the SS and other
police organisations that pursued them.
At 8pm, four hours after he was killed Johann Niemann’s body was found in the tailor’s
barracks.
But days later Himmler ordered the camp to be closed, and they demolished the gas chambers
and most of the camps buildings.
But Johann Niemann was a brutal and savage SS guard who was known for his terrible treatment
of inmates and he drove thousands to their deaths.
He also had a past working in the Action T4 euthanasia sites across Germany, and would
force people to deal with the cleanup operation after the gas chambers had been turned on.
He was a brute of a man, and he would parade around the extermination camps on horseback,
but inside of Sobribor he was killed by two men that were armed with axes, and brought
a violent end to the life of a man who was responsible for the exterminations and executions
of thousands.
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