Gustav Sorge
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Gustav Hermann Sorge (24 April 1911 – 3 October 1978), nicknamed "''Der eiserne Gustav''" ("Iron Gustav") for his brutality, was an SS senior NCO (''
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 ...
''). He was initially a guard at
Esterwegen Esterwegen is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Esterwegen lies in northwest Germany, less than from the Dutch border and about from the sea. Demographics In 2015 the population was 5,280. Government ...
concentration camp in the
Emsland Landkreis Emsland () is a districts of Germany, district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems (river), Ems. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Leer (district), Leer, Cloppenburg (district), Cloppenbur ...
region of Germany. Later on, he was assigned to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.


Career

Among the many people who were murdered at Sachsenhausen by Sorge was Leon Sternbach, a professor of classical philology at the
Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...
and the paternal uncle of famed chemist,
Leo Sternbach Leo Sternbach (May 7, 1908 – September 28, 2005) was a Polish American chemist who is credited with first synthesizing benzodiazepines, the main class of minor tranquilizers. Background and family Sternbach was born on May 7, 1908, in Opat ...
. Sorge became a prisoner of war of the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
after the war. He was tried as a war criminal by the Soviet Union in the Sachsenhausen trial held in the former city hall of Berlin-Pankow in 1947, along with Sachsenhausen commandant, Anton Kaindl, prison block director, Kurt Eccarius and others. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.


Retrial

Sorge was repatriated to
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
in 1956 on the condition that he continue to serve the life sentence imposed by the Soviets. He was put on trial with fellow SS guard, Wilhelm Schubert, in
Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
for the 1941 murders of over 13,000 Soviet prisoners of war, many of whom were invalided, at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The murders were carried out on a daily basis for six weeks. The retrial was ordered by the Federal Ministry of Justice of Germany to assuage public concern that the original verdicts in 1947 were indeed warranted. He was convicted of 67 individual
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 ...
s and numerous counts of
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
and re-sentenced to a life term. He was sent to Rheinbach prison near Bonn,The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922–1945 Publisher: Da Capo Press (21 March 1989) Language: English where he died in 1978.


See also

*
Martin Sommer Walter Gerhard Martin Sommer (8 February 1915 – 7 June 1988) was a German SS Hauptscharführer (master sergeant) who served as a guard at the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. Sommer, known as the "Hangman of Buchenwald", was con ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorge, Gustav 1911 births 1978 deaths Black Reichswehr personnel Holocaust perpetrators in Germany SS non-commissioned officers Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel People from Leszno County People from the Province of Posen Kaiserwald concentration camp personnel People convicted of murder by Germany German people convicted of murder German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the Soviet Union Prisoners who died in German detention Nazis who died in prison custody German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union People convicted in the Nazi concentration camp trials