Arthur Liebehenschel
Arthur Liebehenschel (
listen (info • help); 25 November 1901 – 24 January 1948) was a main officer at the Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps in World War II. He was guilty of doing war crimes during the war. He was executed by the Polish government in 1948, after the war ended.
| Arthur Liebehenschel | |
|---|---|
 Liebehenschel in SS uniform | |
| Born | 25 November 1901 Posen, German Empire |
| Died | 24 January 1948 (aged 46) Kraków, Poland |
| Penalty | Death penalty |
| Children | 5 |
SS career
Liebehenschel was born in Posen, a city that was a part of the German Empire. He studied economics and politics when he was in school. Because he was too young to be a soldier in World War I, he joined the German volunteer military in 1919. He was a sergeant major in the German army afterwards. In 1932, he joined the Nazi Party, and in 1934 he joined the SS. In the SS, he was a member of the concentration camp branch, which controlled and regulated the death camps. Liebehenschel was an assistant at the Lichtenburg concentration camp, and two years later became an inspector of camps in Berlin. In 1942, he was put in command of the central office for concentration camps.
On 1 December 1943 Liebehenschel was made leader of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He continued mass killings, and "improved" the camp by removing prisoner cells for standing, and stopping regular prisoners from going to gas chambers.[1]
Criminal arrest
At end of the war, Liebehenschel was arrested by the U.S. Army and was given to Poland. After being found guilty of crimes against humanity at the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków, he was sentenced to death and was executed by hanging on 24 January 1948.[2]
References
- ↑ David Bankier; Dan Mikhman (2008). Holocaust Historiography in Context: Emergence, Challenges, Polemics and Achievements. Berghahn Books. pp. 560–. ISBN 978-965-308-326-4. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ Hermann Langbein (2013). "Auschwitz Trials (Cracow)". Auschwitz-Birkenau. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. Bibliography: Naumann, Auschwitz (Eng., 1966); H. Langbein, Der Auschwitz-Prozess: eine Documentation, 2 vols. (1965); Brand, in: Yad Vashem Bulletin, 15 (1964), 43–117.