Defendant Anton Kaindl (right) stands in the dock at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp war crimes trial in Berlin.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 33630

Overview

Caption: Defendant Anton Kaindl (right) stands in the dock at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp war crimes trial in Berlin.
Date: 1947 October 23 - 1947 November 01
Locale: Berlin, [Berlin] Germany
Variant Locale: Berlin-Buckow
Berlin-Mariendorf
Berlin-Ploetzensee
Berlin-Reinickendorf
Berlin-Tempelhof
Berlin-Wannsee
Berlin-Schlachtensee
Berlin-Duppel
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Central Archive of the Federal Security Service
Event History: On October 23, 1947 fifteen former Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel and one former prisoner were brought to trial before a Soviet Military Tribunal in Berlin. Among the defendants were Anton Kaindl, the former commandant, and Paul Sakowski, a kapo who had served as an executioner. The findings were announced on November 1, 1947 after only a brief trial. All sixteen were found guilty. Fifteen of the defendants were sentenced to life in prison with forced labor and one, to fifteen years in prison with forced labor.

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007776.

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Central Archive of the Federal Security Service

Source Record ID: Collections: RG-06.025*26

Second Record ID: KGB Archives: N-19092, Appendix - - file 2294

Keyword: COMMANDANTS COURTS/COURTROOMS DEFENDANTS INTERIORS JUDGES/TRIBUNALS KAINDL, ANTON LAWYERS/PROSECUTORS/DEFENSE ATTORNEYS MILITARY OFFICERS RUSSIANS/SOVIETS SS (SCHUTZSTAFFELN) TRIALS TRIALS (SACHSENHAUSEN) WAR CRIMINALS/TRIALS
Photo Designation: PURSUIT OF JUSTICE -- Concentration Camp/Atrocity Trials -- Polish/Soviet Trials -- Sachsenhausen -- Trial

Biography: Anton Kaindl was born in Munich in 1902 and joined the Waffen-SS in 1935, serving in the SS-Totenkopf Brigade (later the Totenkopf Division). He later joined the Nazi Party in 1937. In the fall of 1941 he served as an SS inspector in concentration camps, and from 1942 until 1945 he served as the commandant at Sachsenhausen. There, he oversaw the extermination of Soviet POWs and civilians of other German-occupied nations by hanging, shooting, gassing, and lethal injections. He subjected prisoners to forced labor and starvation, and organized the transfer of fifteen thousand prisoners to Auschwitz, Majdanek, and other camps to be exterminated. In the fall of 1943 he ordered the gas chambers to be built and authorized scientific experiments on prisoners. In February 1945 he was ordered to exterminate all prisoners, and as a result, by the end of the month, he had transferred eleven thousand prisoners to Bergen-Belsen. Finally, on 21 April, he ordered the killing of the rest of the prisoners by shooting or by death march. Following his trial by a Soviet Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to life in prison with forced labor.