Anton Lechner (18 November 1907 – 14 September 1975) was an SS-''

Rottenführer ''Rottenführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in the year 1932. The rank of ''Rottenführer'' was used by several Nazi paramilitary groups, among them the '' Sturmabteilung'' (SA), the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) a ...

'' and member of staff at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was prosecuted at the

Auschwitz Trial The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Poland's Supreme National Tribunal tried forty former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947. The best-known defendants were Arthur Lie ...

. Lechner was born in Buchers in the Sudetenland. He was a citizen of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

until 1938. He held German citizenship after the annexation of the Sudetenland by the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. After primary school he became a coach-driver. He joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

and the SS in December 1939. In February 1941 he was assigned to Auschwitz, where he initially served as a guard, and then as a reserve vehicle driver from 1943 to 5 December 1944. For his cruelty to prisoners on multiple occasions, Lechner was tried by the

Supreme National Tribunal The Supreme National Tribunal ( pl, Najwyższy Trybunał Narodowy TN}) was a war-crime tribunal active in communist-era Poland from 1946 to 1948. Its aims and purpose were defined by the State National Council in decrees of 22 January and 17 Oc ...

at the Auschwitz Trial in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 December 1947. Due to an amnesty, however, Lechner was released from prison on 19 December 1959. He died in September 1975.

References

Bibliography

* Cyprian T., Sawicki J., ''Siedem wyroków Najwyższego Trybunału Narodowego'', Poznań 1962 1907 births 1975 deaths German Bohemian people People convicted in the Auschwitz trial SS personnel {{Germany-mil-bio-stub German people convicted of crimes against humanity