Anton Thernes (8 February 1892 – 3 December 1944) was a Nazi German war criminal, deputy commandant of administration at the notorious Majdanek concentration camp on the outskirts of

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

, Poland in World War II. He was tried at the

Majdanek Trials The Majdanek trials were a series of consecutive war-crime trials held in Poland and in Germany during and after World War II, constituting the overall longest Nazi war crimes trial in history spanning over 30 years. The first judicial trial of ...

and executed on 3 December 1944, along with five other war criminals, near the gas chambers and the Majdanek

crematorium A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also be ...

War crimes

Thernes was married with six children in

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

before the Nazi German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

. A member of the SS, Thernes served as the last administrative chief of KL Lublin / Majdanek. He was also in charge of food and slave labour administration, starvation rationing, and the maintenance of camp structures including the storage depot for property and valuables stolen from the

Holocaust victims Holocaust victims were people targeted by the government of Nazi Germany based on their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, or sexual orientation. The institutionalized practice by the Nazis of singling out and persecuting people resulte ...

at the killing centers in Belzec,

Sobibor Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ...

, and

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...

.. Thernes was given the task of destroying the evidence of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

and genocide, but ran out of time due to his ineptitude and lethargy. He was unable to destroy the chimneys and torch the camp before Soviet forces arrived at the camp outskirts. Thernes was caught by the Soviets and tried at the

together with his assistant ''SS-Hauptsturmführer''

Wilhelm Gerstenmeier ''SS-Hauptsturmführer'' Wilhelm Gerstenmeier (17 January 1908 – 3 December 1944) was a German member of the SS (member number 13300) during World War II. He was convicted of atrocities committed at the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied ...

. He denied knowing anything, but the proceedings were swamped with testimonial proofs offered by eyewitnesses. During his trial, Thernes said "The people here were mostly Jews, they were not real prisoners of war. I am not a sadist!" He was executed on 3 December 1944 along with five other war criminals, close to the gas chambers and the Majdanek crematorium.

Harvest Festival

During the mere 34 months of camp operation, more than 79,000 people were murdered at the main camp alone (59,000 of them

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lo ...

). Some 18,000 Jews were killed at Majdanek on 3 November 1943 during the largest single-day, single-camp massacre of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, named

Harvest Festival A harvest festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times at different places. ...

(totalling 43,000 with subcamps).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thernes, Anton 1892 births 1944 deaths Majdanek concentration camp personnel Holocaust perpetrators in Poland SS-Obersturmführer Majdanek trials executions Executed mass murderers