The Administration of the Concentration Camp in Dachau and the Administration of Justice in Babaria during the Third Reich

Marco Roncagliolo

The State of Bavaria

The generations of the Hohenzollerns and the Wittelsbachs battle for power and territory, after the German unification in 1871, Bavaria retained its own railway station, its own postal service, its own monarchy, and its own military. All until the Nationalist Socialist win with more than 40 percent of the electorate, Hitler moved to break the Bavarian independence. 62-70

The government of Bavaria consisted of ministers like: Adolf Wagner, minister of interior; Hans Frank, the minister of justice; Ernest Röhm, minister without porfolio; Hermann Esser, in charge of tourism and intimate associate of Hitler; Han Schemm, founder of the National Socialist Teachers' League, was minister of culture; Ludwig Siebert, Nazi mayor of Lindau and as minister of finance; Himmler, chief of police; and Reinhard Heydrich, the new head of Department IV, the state police's security service, and working partnership between the Gestapo, the criminal police, and the Nazy Party intelligence unit under the direction of the Reichführer SS. 62-70

Concentration Camp in Dachau

In the eighteen paragraph set of “Special Regulations”, in which the concentration camp in Dachau is under martial law, this is what the paragraphs say: Paragraph 1, "The Collecting Camp Dachau falls under the rule of martial law"; Paragraph 2, inviolability of its borders; and infractions included "intentionally lying", "defying the camp regulations", "offending or slandering", "collecting signatures for a collective complaint", and "being in contact with or trying to contact someone outside of the camp".129 

The 2nd of April, Himmler transferred responsibility of Dachau from the state police to the SS. Commandant Hilmar Wäckerle, who joined the Freikorps Oberland to crush the Bavarian soviet mini-state; in 1922, Wäckerle joined the Nazi movement and participated in early struggles like the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch; in 1931, managed farms in Thürigen, Upper Bavaria, and Allgäu for eight years; and was joined with seventy SS guards to Dachau Concentration Camp in place of Captain Schlemmer.88-89

The administration of the camp in Dachau was administered by the SS men, like Erspenmüller, deputy commandant in the SS liutenant, was a police and lost his job for associated with the Nazi; Josef Mutzbauer, office administrator; Otto Franck, designer of the camp registration system; 89-90 The guards of the camp included Hans Kantschuster, served in the French Foreign Legion and a heavy drinker; Karl Kicklmayr a student of Philosophy in Munich, a fervent communist and later a joined the Nazi movement. 90 And Hans Steinbrenner, a twentiy-eight-year-old SS man joined the Nazi in February after Hitler's appointment, who he headed the Schlägergruppe, the camp team and was fascinated by the latent potential in those eight inches of turgid leather for inflicting pain.

The eighteen paragraph, a set of “Special Regulations”, established the concentration camp in Dachau was under martial law. On 2nd of April, Himmler transferred responsibility of Dachau from the state police to the SS. Commandant Hilmar Wäckerle. The administration of camp included: Erpenmüller, was a police who lost his job for association with the Nazi; Josef Mutzbauer, office administrator; Otto Frank, designer of the camps registration system; and Hans Steinbrenner, who headed the concentration camp and known for inflicting pain.

Administration of Justice in Bavaria

The administration of justice in Bavaria, it was in charge of Hans Frank, the minister of justice; Himmler the chief of police; and Reinhard Heydrich, the new head of Department IV, the state police's security service, and working partnership between the Gestapo, the criminal police, and the Nazy Party intelligence unit under the direction of the Reichführer SS. 62-70 

The first rumors of the Nazi atrocity began to proliferate in the Baltic Port of Köninsberg, a Jewish merchant name Max Neumann was set up by local storm troopers and pummeled to the verge of death. 73 Three suspicions of the shooting of four young Jews: Albert Andersch, said "The cracking sound hit us while we were sitting on planks between barracks eating soup”.73 Albert Andersch, remembered, "It silenced our conversation...but we continued eating our soup…"73 Josef Götz, a communist delegate to the Bavarian state parliament, commented "That is fascism in its purest form". 73 

The prosecutor to see the investigation was Joseph Hartinger. Born in rural Bavaria in the age of the monarchy and devout Roman Catholic family rooted. In August 1914, twenty year old, abandoned university studies to go to war in the 10th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment. Then transfered to the 6th Field Artillery Regiment, and in February 1918, was promoted to the junior sergeant.106-107

The artillery units used poison gas, in particular "green cross" gas (95 percent chlorine with phosgene that scorched the eyes), they crossed the Somme at Chipilly and follow the assault near Hamel. 107 Following the armistice in November 1918, Hartinger returned to find Bavaria in a state of political chaos, he joined the Freikorps, but also as a student and was living in the first-floor aparment at Blütenstrasse 14 in Munich. He resigned from the Freikorps and enrolled in the deparment of law at the Ludwig Maximilian University. 109

He requested a form in the Office of the Indigent on May 14, 1921, and finally receive a secured 500-mark student subsidy. Shortly after, he secured a position in the Bavarian civil service and three months as prison assesor in Amberg. In March 1923, was promoted from assistant prosecutor in Munich I to deputy prosecutor in Munich II.109-110.

The recollection of evidence was led by Dr. Flamm along with Judge Meyer and Secretary Brückmeier to investigate the matter. A middle-age man with short dark blond hair was dangling by a pair of suspenders over a bench in the corner. The conduct of the autopsy, take the photographs of the lacerated back, and other procedures. The result was an report of the autopsy which said: Two SS men mercilesly lash a crippled war veteran into near unconsciouness, strangle him to death, tie his own prosthetic straps around the corpe's neck, hand the straps from a nail…, lash the man's wrist with a bread knife to feign suicide...177-178

On June 1, Hartinger met with Dr. Hermann Kiessner, the investigating judge for Munich II, and, in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code, informed him of the forthcoming indictments against Wäckerle, H., camp commandant, Dr. Nürnbergk, camp doctor, and Mutzbauer, office administrator for the offense of aiding and abetting acording the Reich's Criminal Code. 179-182

At the end, on April 12, Karl Wintersberger, Hartinger’s direct superior and well known for his prosecution of Nazi, closed the investigation of the shooting of the four Jews in Dachau which required disregarding the eyewitness testimony of Erwin Kahn and affirming the SS account. 193 The same day he met with Himmler on june 1, 193 Adolf Hitler, who intervened personally in the matter, ordered the proceedings to be quashed. 193-194 Eicke, middle-aged, became the camp commandant; 195 within months, he turned junior officers into officers. Hans Lippert, SS liutenant, was assigned deputy commandant. 195 

Good-Faith Agreements: On May 30, the Dachau Concentration Camp was transferred into SS authority under the auspices of Captain Winker; SS colonel Theodor Eicke in protective custody by Josef Bürckel, the Gauleiter in Ludwingshafen, and wrote Himmler to realease Eicke there appeared no mental illness or tendencies. 183-189

The Conviction of the Dachau Administrators

In 1945, when President Harry S. Truman first approached Supreme Court Justice, Robert Jackson, he envisioned Adolf Hitler and several of his liutenants. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, followed a day later by Goebbles. Himmler popped a cyanide acid in his mouth inmediately after being detained by British intelligence officers. Bormann vanished, leaving only Göring among the senior Nazis. 201-202

Warren Farr, the assistant trial counsel, calculated a second tier of Nazi leaders included 1,000 potential criminal suspects, Gauleiters and their staffs, numbering 4,000, with another 21,000 local officials, and 2,000 more "group leaders", a total of 463,048 potential criminal suspects. 202 One of the second tier was Josef Mutzbauer, office administrator, weary of the "swindled" perpetrated in Dachau, was arrested and placed in the Arrest Bunker, the next day was found hanged. 

Another included Hilmar Wäckerle, married a local beauty, Elfriede Rupp. During the war as Waffen SS Viking Division, participated in the invasion of Poland, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union, committing act of atrocity and heroism with equal conviction, he died two years in the invasion of the Soviet Union, shot in the head by a Russian soldier. 206 

A third case was Hans Steinbrenner, captured by American soldiers in May 1945 on the Austrian border with Bavaria, escaped and sought refuge with his wife. His wife turned him over to the police and filed for divorce. Steinbrenner was subjected to severe interrogation by the Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) and the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), he later admitted that Benario, Goldmann, and the two Kahns had been murdered. 207 On March 10, 1952, Steinbrenner was acquited in Schloss's murder, but charged with the "crime of bodily harm in the performance of duty" for ten years. 206,207,208 

Fuentes:

Ryback, T. W. (2015) “Hitler’s First Victims and One Man’s Race for Justice”. Bodley Head.