Josef Kaspar Oberhauser (20 September 1915 – 22 November 1979) was a low-ranking German SS commander during the

Nazi era Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. He participated in

Action T4 (German, ) was a campaign of Homicide#By state actors, mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted Disability, people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-WWII, war trials against d ...

and

Operation Reinhard Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...

. Oberhauser was the only person to be successfully convicted of crimes committed at the

Belzec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: , approximately ) was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major p ...

. He was charged with 450,000 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to 4.5 years imprisonment during the Belzec Trial of 1964.Sentence by the First Munich District Court (Belzec-Prozess - Urteil, ''LG München I'')

SS career

Oberhauser was born in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After finishing ''

Volksschule The German term ''Volksschule'' () generally refers to compulsory education, denoting an educational institution every person (i.e. the people, ''Volk'') is required to attend. In Germany and Switzerland it is equivalent to a combined primar ...

'', he found employment on his uncle's farm in Markt Schwaben. In 1934, Oberhauser enlisted for 18 months in the

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' (; ) was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first two years of Nazi Germany. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...

and was posted to Munich. He joined the SS in November 1935, specifically joining the '' SS-Wachverbände'' (SS member no. 288,121). In April 1937, he was stationed at

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

. He was a member of the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. Oberhauser served in the "SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler".

Action T4

In 1939, Oberhauser was assigned to ''Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Heil- und Pflegeanstalten'', part of the office for

and one of several

front organization A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy ...

s of Hitler's Chancellery, in November 1939. This organization was responsible for the killing of approximately 100,000 mentally ill and disabled people during

. At the killing centers of

Grafeneck Grafeneck is a small rural village in the Germany, German municipality of Gomadingen, south of Stuttgart. World War II history Grafeneck Castle, which had previously been an asylum for crippled people, was turned by the Nazism, Nazis into an e ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

and

Bernburg Bernburg (Saale) () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance castle. Geography The town centre is situated in the fertile Magdeb ...

, where these people were murdered en masse by gas (

carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...

), Oberhauser was a ''Brenner'' (burner), or ''Leichenbrenner'' (corpse burner): he was responsible for the burning of the bodies in the specially installed crematory ovens.

Operation Reinhard

After finishing Action T4 in August 1941, in November Oberhauser was transferred to the staff of the

SS and Police Leader The title of SS and Police Leader (') designated a senior Nazi Party official who commanded various components of the SS and the German uniformed police (''Ordnungspolizei''), before and during World War II in the German Reich proper and in the o ...

(SSPF) for the

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

district, SS-''

Brigadeführer ''Brigadeführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that was used between 1932 and 1945. It was mainly known for its use as an SS rank. As an SA rank, it was used after briefly being known as '' Untergruppenführer'' in ...

Odilo Globocnik Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globocnik (21 April 1904 – 31 May 1945) was a Nazi Party official from Austria and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. A high-ranking member of the SS, Globocnik was the leader of Operation Reinhard, the organized murder of ar ...

, to take part in

, the extermination of Poland's three million Jews. From November 1941 until 1 August 1942, Oberhauser was posted to Bełżec extermination camp as the leader of a guard platoon. He first visited Bełżec in the fall of 1941, before the extermination camp existed, to remove military equipment at the site. He was responsible for the development of the camp. In December 1941, Oberhauser returned to Bełżec with construction materials and a team of Ukrainian

Trawnikis During World War II, Trawniki men (; ) were Eastern European Nazi collaborators, consisting of either volunteers or recruits from prisoner-of-war camps set up by Nazi Germany for Soviet Red Army soldiers captured in the border regions during Ope ...

. He was under the command of camp commandant

Christian Wirth Christian Wirth (; 24 November 1885 – 26 May 1944) was a German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) officer and leading Holocaust perpetrator who was one of the primary architects of the program to exterminate the Jewish people of Poland, known as Opera ...

, and he also served as Wirth's liaison to Globocnik.

Christopher Browning Christopher Robert Browning (born May 22, 1944) is an American historian and is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). A specialist on the Holocaust, Browning is known for his work documenting the ...

. ''The Origins of the Final Solution : The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942'' (With contributions by

Jürgen Matthäus Jürgen Matthäus (born 1959) is a German historian and head of the research department of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He is an author and editor of multiple works on the history of World War II and the Holocaust. Matthäus was ...

), Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2004. pp. 419-420 For his work in the implementation of Operation Reinhard, Oberhauser was promoted from SS-''

Hauptscharführer __NOTOC__ ''Hauptscharführer'' ( ) was a Nazi paramilitary rank which was used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank was the highest enlisted rank of the SS, with the exception of the special Waffen-SS ran ...

'' to SS-''

Untersturmführer (, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of '' Sturmführer'', which had existed since the founding of the SA in 192 ...

'', effective 20 April 1943, reaching officer rank in the SS. Previously, the ''

Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest Uniforms and insignia of the Schut ...

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

had made a personal visit to the Operation Reinhard camps, including

Bełżec Belzec (English: or , Polish: , approximately ) was a Nazi German extermination camp in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to ...

, on 12 February 1943, and had decided to promote Oberhauser. In the 21 January 1965 judgment of the Munich District Court I (Case No. 110 Ks 3/64), his work at Belzec is described as follows (translated to English):

Transfer to Italy

After the completion of Operation Reinhard, Oberhauser, along with many of his colleagues, was sent to northern Italy in the group '' Sonderabteilung Einsatz R'' to participate in anti-partisan warfare and the deportation and killing of Jews there. He was promoted to the rank of SS-''

Obersturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary ranks, Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, National Socialist Motor Corps, NSKK and the ...

'' on 30 January 1945. Purportedly, Oberhauser was commandant of Risiera di San Sabba until its closure in late April 1945 (3,000 to 5,000 people died there). He then went to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

with his unit, and was arrested by the British authorities in May 1945 in

Bad Gastein Bad Gastein ( is a spa town in the St. Johann im Pongau District. Picturesquely situated in a high valley of the Hohe Tauern mountain range, it is known for the Gastein waterfall and a variety of grand hotel buildings. Geography Bad Gastein i ...

Arrest and trial

After his release, Oberhauser was employed as a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

worker in Bevensen. On 13 April 1948, he was arrested during a stay in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

. On 24 September 1948, he was convicted by the

Soviet Military Administration in Germany The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (; ''Sovyetskaya Voyennaya Administratsiya v Germanii'', SVAG; , SMAD) was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin- Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone in German ...

of violating "Control Council Law No. 10" of 20 December 1945 (which also served as a basis at the

Nuremberg Trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

), by his membership in a criminal organization (the SS) and his killing of victims in Grafeneck, Brandenburg and Bernburg. Oberhauser was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 10 years deprivation of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

. He was granted an amnesty on 28 April 1956, and released after only 8 years. Following his release, Oberhauser served as a casual labourer, bartender and waiter in Munich. In 1963 the Bełżec trial began and Oberhauser was one of 8 defendants charged with war crimes committed at the extermination camp. On 30 January 1964, all of the defendants but Oberhauser were acquitted due to the collapse of the prosecution case but re-arrested shortly thereafter. Oberhauser appeared before the court again in January 1965. He was found guilty of a number of charges, namely: * Accessory to 300,000 cases (charged with 450,000) of collective

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

; *Five other crimes of aiding and abetting collective murder in each of 150 cases. Oberhauser was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison with hard labor. He was released after serving half of his sentence. Oberhauser was sentenced to life imprisonment ''in absentia'' for his crimes committed in Italy, but the Italian extradition request failed. Oberhauser died on 22 November 1979 in Munich. Oberhauser was unwillingly filmed for Claude Lanzmann's documentary ''

Shoah The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

'', released in 1985.

Notes and references

Jewish Virtual Library

Bibliography

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was conce ...

: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich''. Fischer, Frankfurt, 2007. . (updated 2nd edition) * Ernst Klee : ''Was sie taten – Was sie wurden.'' Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt, 1986, * Ernst Klee, Willi Dreßen, Volker Rieß: ''"Schöne Zeiten."'' S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt, 1988, * Claude Lanzmann: ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Oberhauser, Josef 1915 births 1979 deaths German people convicted of crimes against humanity Holocaust perpetrators in Poland SS-Obersturmführer Belzec extermination camp personnel Aktion T4 personnel People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Italy Nazis convicted in absentia Nazi concentration camp commandants Military personnel from Munich Waffen-SS personnel Sonderabteilung Einsatz R personnel People convicted in the Nazi concentration camp trials Prisoners and detainees of East Germany Prisoners and detainees of Germany