This article will talk about whose hands killed thousands of innocent people before and during World War II. This is Joseph Kramer, commandant of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , whom the prisoners nicknamed the "Belsen beast" for his fierceness. Moreover, he was personally responsible for the deaths of tens, or maybe hundreds of thousands of people.
Cramer Biography
Joseph was born on November 10, 1906, near Munich, Bavaria, the Weimar Republic. Already in 1931, as a 25-year-old guy, Kramer joined the NSDAP (National Socialist German Labor Party). Purebred German, in 1932 he also joined the ranks of the SS, after which he worked in prison guard, and then, when the Second World War began, he became a warder and commandant in various concentration camps.
It is important to note the fact that the boy was raised on the ideals of nationalism, therefore, in principle, it could not be different in terms of his attitude to people. And even without a special education, Joseph Kramer served in Hitler's secret service. For 11 years, he made a brilliant career, replacing a large number of concentration camps:
- 1934 - Dachau;
- 1934-1936 - Esterwegen;
- 1936-1937 - Dachau;
- 1937-1939 - Mauthausen;
- 1940 - Auschwitz;
- 1940-1944 - Nazweiler-Strutthof;
- 1944 - Auschwitz;
- 1944-1945 - Bergen-Belsen.
It was in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was located on the territory of modern Saxony, that the 21st Army Group of the Allied Forces of England and Canada arrested Kramer and several dozen of his “colleagues”. The "Belsen Beast" was charged with war crimes, for which a British military court sentenced him to capital punishment. The process took place on November 17, 1945. Kramer was hanged in mid-December 1945 in the Hameln prison.
Joseph Kramer: climbing the career ladder
Kramer achieved the greatest success with the advent of World War II. It was a ruthless, decisive, prudent and rude overseer who did not spare anyone. Hitler in his large army needed just such workers. He personally encouraged Kramer's deeds and tried his best to thank the young overseer for his faithful service. This happened with enviable regularity, because almost every day Hitler was informed about Cramer’s “rough” work. Joseph, meanwhile, was not afraid not to calculate his strength, he was not afraid to kill a person by accident: for him, to take the life of a Jew was the same as slamming a fly.
In each of the 6 concentration camps where he managed to visit, Josef Kramer left his mark. It was for his ruthlessness that he received one promotion after another. First in Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen, and then in Auschwitz.
Auschwitz and subsequent transfer to Bergen-Belsen
In 1940, Cramer was transferred to the concentration camp and the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. For about a year he works there as a warder under the leadership of Rudolf Hess, the local commandant. Soon, Joseph himself took a similar position in the Notsweiler-Strutthof. This increase made him even more cruel, as he felt stronger. At that time, at least 80 people were killed with his hands. And not just killed, but with particular cruelty. This figure is probably much larger. Josef Kramer ("Belsen beast") personally controlled all the gas death chambers and torture rooms. Mocking people was his favorite pastime.
After being transferred to Bergen-Belsen, Kramer commanded not only prisoners, but also overseers. In photographs preserved in the archives, you can often see Joseph next to a fair-haired young girl. This is Irma Grese, who at the time of serving in the concentration camp was only 20 years old. She is credited with numerous novels with the protection of a concentration camp, including with Kramer himself. It is difficult to make comparisons here, but the girl was perhaps no less cruel than the "Belsen beast." Perhaps that is why they agreed? The imprisoned women called her the "angel of death", she could spend hours mocking the girls, oppressing them both physically and morally.
Personal characteristics
Kramer Josef (commandant of the concentration camp) was so imbued with the idea of nationalism and hatred of other nations that it was very easy for him to work with prisoners. He was a decisive, cruel, rude and ruthless man who silently, without blinking an eye, could take the life of a child, a pregnant woman or an old woman, not to mention men. He possessed incredible imagination and easily invented increasingly sophisticated methods of torture. And he was so cold-blooded and fearless in front of the enemy that he silently met the allied forces in the midst of a mountain of corpses of prisoners.
The arrest of Kramer and other warders
In 1945, the Anglo-Canadian compound reached the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. As already mentioned above, Joseph Kramer (photo below) met the “guests”, while all the rest rushed in all directions. Then 44 guards were arrested. In November, they were tried, and on December 13, many of the detainees were hanged in the cells of the Hameln prison. But there were also such warders who received only a couple of years of imprisonment, served their sentence, and then went out into the wild with a calm soul.
Joseph Kramer: diary
Many are trying to find personal records of the "Belsen beast." However, there is no information about the existence of the diary. In general, many overseers, commandants, and other “employees” of the concentration camps kept records, for example, namesake Kramer-Josef Mengele. He was a doctor at Auschwitz, famous for conducting experiments on prisoners. But Kramer, apparently, did not want to leave documentary evidence of his inhuman acts.