Defendants in the dock at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp war crimes trial in Berlin.
Overview
- Caption
- Defendants in the dock at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp war crimes trial in Berlin.
From left to right are: Menne Saathoff, Heinz (Heinrich Friedrich) Baumkoetter, Paul Sakowski, and Ludwig Rehn. - 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.
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Central Archive of the Federal Security ServiceSource Record ID: Collections: RG-06.025*26Second Record ID: KGB Archives: N-19092, Appendix - - file 2294
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Menne Saathoff was born in 1914 in Akelsberg, Germany near Hannover. In October of 1934, he volunteered for the Waffen-SS, was made a guard at Esterwegen, and later joined the Nazi Party in 1940. From July 1939 until January 1943, he was a Blockfuehrer and then a Zugfuehrer in the guard battalion at Sachsenhausen, during which time he took an active part in the mistreatment and execution of Soviet prisoners. From 1939 to 1940, he personally shot five prisoners who had been sent to Sachsenhausen by the Berlin Gestapo, and took part in the torture of at least one hundred and fifty more prisoners. Following his trial by a Soviet Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to life in prison with forced labor.
Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm (Heinz) Baumkoetter was born in 1912 in Burgsteinfurt. After joining the SS in 1935, he served in the Waffen-SS and later as a member of the "Das Reich" division. In November 1941 he returned to Germany and became a camp physician. After first serving briefly in Mauthausen, Natzweiler and Wewelsburg, in 1942 he became head doctor at Sachsenhausen where he remained until 1945. While there, he participated in the selection of prisoners and was engaged in medical experimentation. He also falsified the records of the number of prisoners killed and causes of death. Following his trial by a Soviet Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to life in prison with forced labor. In January 1956 he returned home from a work camp in Siberia. Then, in 1961/1962 he was retried in Muenster in a trial of Sachsenhausen physicians and sentenced to 8 1/2 years of prison for aiding and abetting murder. However, he did not serve additional time since this sentence was deducted from the time he had already served in Soviet prisons. Dr. Baumkoetter lost his medical license during a subsequent trial, and he worked in the pharmaceutical industry until his retirement. He died on April 22, 2001 in Muenster.
Paul Sakowski was born in Breslau in 1920. In 1939, while a prisoner in Sachsenhausen, he offered his services to the camp administration, eventually aiding in the extermination of people in the camp. From November 1939 until March 1941 he was a prisoner overseer, during which time he mistreated prisoners, whipped them, withheld food, threw cold water on them, and kept them outside during the winter, and took part in executions. In December 1940 he became the unofficial camp executioner and oversaw the hanging of 42 Soviets and Poles. In September 1941 while working in the crematoria, he oversaw the shooting of thirteen thousand, five hundred Soviet POWs, then supervised the transport of corpses to the morgue, their searching there, and transfer to the crematoria. On 15 May 1942, he took part in the shooting of two hundred fifty Jews. From September 1943 until April 1945 he was a policeman in the Heinkelwerke, where his mistreatment and abuse of prisoners continued. It is estimated that during his time in the crematoria, he oversaw the burning of twenty-five thousand corpses. Following his trial by a Soviet Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to life in prison with forced labor.
Ludwig Rehn joined the SS in 1935, the Nazi Party a year later, and joined the Berlin SS reserve Standarte in 1939. At the beginning of 1940 he was brought into the concentration camp system, serving in several camps in various positions, including a stint as a work leader in Sachsenhausen from August 1943 until April 1945. Rehn took part in the mass execution of Soviet POWs and civilians of German-occupied nations, and, on his own initiative, he selected prisoners who were unable to work for transfer to other concentration camps for extermination. He was also responsible for the mistreatment of prisoners by assigning punishment to those in the so-called "Schuhlaeuferkommando." Following his trial by a Soviet Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to life in prison with forced labor.
- Record last modified:
- 2007-10-29 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1099336
