Defendant Fritz Ficker at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp war crimes trial in Berlin.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 33878

Overview

Caption: Defendant Fritz Ficker 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: CLOSE-UPS COURTS/COURTROOMS DEFENDANTS FICKER, FRITZ INTERIORS SS (SCHUTZSTAFFELN) TRIALS TRIALS (SACHSENHAUSEN) WAR CRIMINALS/TRIALS
Photo Designation: PURSUIT OF JUSTICE -- Concentration Camp/Atrocity Trials -- Polish/Soviet Trials -- Sachsenhausen -- Trial

Biography: Fritz Ficker was born in Hohndorf, Germany in 1913. He joined the Wehrmacht in 1934, and two years later volunteered for the Waffen-SS. He was placed in the SS Standart "Elbe" in the SS-Totenkopf Division. He joined the Nazi Party in 1937. Later that year he was sent to Weimar to serve as a bodyguard to Fritz Sauckel. From May 1939 until September 1941, he was the Blockfuehrer of Isolation Block 12 in Sachsenhausen. In this capacity he tortured prisoners, including those in his "Stehkommando," who were made to stand with outstretched arms without food for long periods of time. In the fall of 1941 he took part in four hangings and eight shootings, and was later assigned to the Klinkerwerk, where he shot prisoners incapable of working. From October 1941 until April 1945, he was stationed in various sub-camps, where he was said to have killed hundreds of prisoners. Following his trial by a Soviet Military Tribunal, he was sentenced to life in prison with forced labor.