Josef Franz Leo Schwammberger (14 February 1912 – 3 December 2004) was a member of the SS (''

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe duri ...

'') during the Nazi era.

Biography

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Schwammberger was a commander of various SS

Arbeitslager ''Arbeitslager'' () is a German language word which means labor camp. Under Nazism, the German government (and its private-sector, Axis, and collaborator partners) used forced labor extensively, starting in the 1930s but most especially durin ...

(forced-labor camps) in the

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 ...

district (late August 1942 until spring 1944). He was arrested in Innsbruck, Austria, in the French occupation zone after the war on 19 July 1945, but escaped in January 1948 and within months was able to enter Argentina, where he lived under his own name and obtained citizenship. West German authorities sought his extradition beginning in 1973, and Argentine officials tracked him down on 13 November 1987. After two years of fighting extradition, he was returned to West Germany in May 1990 for trial. His capture cost the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

just under 500,000

Deutschmark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...

. At his trial, which lasted nearly a year (1991 until 1992), Schwammberger denied being guilty of the crimes of which he was charged; he simply admitted that "Ghetto A" was taken to the Przemyśl camp. On 18 May 1992 he was sentenced by the Stuttgart regional court (''Landgericht'') to life imprisonment, which he was to serve in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

. He was found guilty of seven counts of murder and 32 counts of being an accessory to murder. In August 2002, the Mannheim regional court declined a parole request due to the unusual cruelty of his offences; he had been found guilty of carrying out arbitrary murders based on

racial hatred Ethnic hatred, inter-ethnic hatred, racial hatred, or ethnic tension refers to notions and acts of prejudice and hostility towards an ethnic group in varying degrees. There are multiple origins for ethnic hatred and the resulting ethnic conflic ...

against

Jewish people Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

. His wife Käthe Schwammberger died in 2003 at the age of 87 in Argentina before Schwammberger himself died in prison on 3 December 2004, aged 92. The

Simon Wiesenthal Center The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier. The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating anti-Semitism, tolerance educat ...

was instrumental in bringing him to justice. Also contributing to the case against Schwammberger, including his extradition from Argentina, was

Elliot Welles Elliot Welles (birth name Kurt Sauerquell; 18 September 1927 – 28 November 2006) was a Holocaust survivor who for more than two decades until his retirement in 2003, directed the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League's task force on Nazi war crimin ...

and Anna Unger Weinberg.

References

;Other sources * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwammberger, Josef 1912 births 2004 deaths People from Brixen SS non-commissioned officers German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany Nazis who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in German detention People convicted of murder by Germany German people convicted of murder People extradited from Argentina People extradited to Germany Nazi concentration camp commandants Holocaust perpetrators in Poland