Josef Kramer

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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. 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. He joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and the 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. His promotion was rapid, obtaining senior posts at Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen concentration camps. Kramer became assistant to Rudolf Höss, the Commandant at 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."

Kramer was named Commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in April 1941. As commandant, he personally carried out the gassings of 80 Jewish men and women, part of a group of 87 selected at Auschwitz to become anatomical specimens in a proposed Jewish skull collection. The deaths of 86 of these inmates were, in the words of August Hirt, "induced" in an improvised gassing facility, 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. In May 1944, Kramer was transferred to become the Lagerführer in charge of operations at Auschwitz II-Birkenau from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944. He was brought to Auschwitz to manage the gassings of new transports. Witnesses said he took an active part in selection parades, loading people into trucks and beating them when they resisted. In December 1944, he was transferred to Bergen Belsen. Although it had no gas chambers, Kramer's rule was so harsh that he became known as the "Beast of Belsen." As Nazi Germany collapsed, administration broke down, but Kramer remained devoted to bureaucracy. On 1 March 1945, he filed a report stating that of the 42,000 inmates, 250–300 died each day from typhus. Kramer remained even when the British arrived to liberate the camp, and took them on a tour to inspect the "scenes."

Reader's Guide

Josef Kramer's significance lies in his direct role as a commandant at two of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps during the final years of the war. At Auschwitz II-Birkenau, from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944, he managed the gassings of new transports. According to the Prosecution Judge Advocate at his war crimes tribunal, he was responsible for the deaths committed at Auschwitz. Witnesses testified that he took an active part in selection parades, loading people into trucks and beating them when they resisted. Dr. Franz Lucas, a defendant at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, testified that Kramer ordered him to the ramp for selections, threatening: "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."

At Bergen Belsen, from December 1944 to its liberation on 15 April 1945, Kramer's harsh rule earned him the nickname "Beast of Belsen." Although the camp had no gas chambers, conditions were catastrophic. On 1 March 1945, Kramer filed a report stating that of 42,000 inmates, 250–300 died each day from typhus. By 19 March, the number of inmates rose to 60,000 as camps were evacuated. With administration collapsing and guards fleeing, roll calls stopped and inmates were left to their own devices. Corpses rotted everywhere, and rats attacked the living too weak to fight them off. Kramer remained when the British arrived and took them on a tour to inspect the "scenes"—piles of corpses, mass graves filled in, and huts filled with prisoners in every stage of emaciation and disease. Kramer was tried in the Belsen Trial by a British military court at Lüneburg, alongside 44 other camp staff. During the trial, Anita Lasker testified that Kramer had taken part in selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz. He was sentenced to death on 17 November 1945 for crimes at both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and was hanged at Hamelin Prison by Albert Pierrepoint on 13 December 1945, aged 39.

Did You Know?

• Kramer was an only child, raised as a strict Roman Catholic by his parents Theodore and Maria Kramer.
• He personally carried out the gassings of 80 Jewish men and women at Natzweiler-Struthof for a proposed anatomical skull collection.
• One male victim at Natzweiler-Struthof was shot as he fought to keep from being gassed.
• On 1 March 1945, Kramer filed a report stating that 250–300 inmates died each day from typhus at Bergen-Belsen.
• Kramer was hanged at Hamelin Prison by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint on 13 December 1945, aged 39.