- Biography
- August Hoehn was born in 1904 in Lipporn-am-Rhein, Germany. He joined the SS and the Nazi Party in 1933. In September 1939 he was transferred to the Waffen-SS, joining the SS-Totenkopf Brigade (later the Totenkopf Division) during the Polish campaign. Later that year he entered the guard staff in Sachsenhausen, where, in 1943, he became a Lagerfuehrer. In that position, he oversaw the extermination of Soviet POWs and civilians through hangings, shootings and gassing, as well as the transfer of prisoners to Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, and Majdanek. From February to March 1945, on orders from commandant Kaindl, he oversaw the extermination of thousands of prisoners, and on 20 April 1945 he oversaw the evacuation of the camp by leading prisoners on death marches. Following his trial by a Soviet Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to life in prison with forced labor.
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.