Ernst Franz Romeikat (7 October 1904 – ) is an SS-''

Unterscharführer ''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creati ...

'' and staff member at

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. He was prosecuted in 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 ...

. Romeikat was born in Iwenberg (then in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

). A watchmaker by trade, he became 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 ...

and the SS by 6 March 1933. In November 1940, he was drafted into the

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

and in February 1941 he was assigned to Auschwitz. At first he worked in the clothing section, then from November 1942 to October 1944 he worked in Department IV (Administration), dealing with prisoners' property. He was cruel to prisoners, sometimes beating them, and participated in the plundering of property from those killed in the Birkenau gas chambers. Romeikat was tried by the

Supreme National Tribunal The Supreme National Tribunal (; NTN) was a war crime, war-crime tribunal active in Polish People's Republic, 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 , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

and sentenced to 15 years in prison for his crimes. Due to an amnesty, he was released in the fifties.

References

Bibliography

* Cyprian T., Sawicki J., ''Siedem wyroków Najwyższego Trybunału Narodowego'', Poznań 1962 {{DEFAULTSORT:Romeikat, Franz 1904 births People convicted in the Auschwitz trial Year of death missing SS non-commissioned officers German watchmakers (people) People from East Prussia Waffen-SS personnel