Hermann Pister (21 February 1885 – 28 September 1948) was an SS-''

Oberführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberführer'' (short: ''Oberf'', , ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dating back to 1921. An ''Oberführer'' was typically an NSDAP member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geograph ...

'' (senior colonel) and commandant of

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...

from 21 January 1942 until April 1945.

Early life

Pister was the son of a financial secretary in

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

. He joined the German Imperial Navy in 1916 and served until the end of the war. In 1918 he began an apprenticeship as an auto mechanic and went on to become an automobile salesman and manager. He joined the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

party (no. 918391) and the SS (No. 29892), being assigned to the SS Motor Echelon in 1932. In 1933 he was assigned to SS Motor Regiment Nineteen and in 1936 to SS Motor Regiment One. In 1937 he was assigned to the motor pool of ''

Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest Uniforms and insignia of the Schut ...

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

Buchenwald

Pister was given the command of Hinzert concentration camp and served there from 9 October 1939 to 21 December 1941. On 1 January 1942 he replaced Karl Otto Koch as commandant of Buchenwald. The prisoners were ordered evacuated from Buchenwald in early April 1945 to prevent their liberation by Allied troops. Pister ordered the first group to leave on foot on 7 April 1945 to be sent to Dachau. This group was marched to the railroad station and placed in open boxcars. This train came to be known as the "Death Train". It took until 27 April for the train to arrive at Dachau with many aboard dying of starvation and illness. There was also evidence that the train had been strafed. SS-''Obersturmführer'' Hans Merbach was placed in charge of the evacuation of Buchenwald and the train. Pister was arrested by the Americans in 1945; put on trial for war crimes by the American Military Tribunal at Dachau with 30 other defendants where he was charged with participation in a "common plan" to violate the Laws and Usages of war of the Hague Convention of 1907 and the third Geneva Convention of 1929, in regard to the rights of Prisoners of War. The trial began on 11 April 1947. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Pister died in

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a prison in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, after the ...

of an acute

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on 28 September 1948.Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937-1945 (A Guide to the Permanent Historical Exhibition)Publisher: Wallstein-Verlag GmbH Verlag und Werbung (2004)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pister, Hermann 1885 births 1948 deaths Buchenwald concentration camp personnel Hinzert concentration camp personnel Holocaust perpetrators in Germany German prisoners sentenced to death People convicted in the Dachau trials People convicted in the Buchenwald trials Military personnel from Lübeck SS-Oberführer Waffen-SS personnel Nazi concentration camp commandants who died in prison custody Imperial German Navy personnel of World War I Prisoners sentenced to death by the United States military Prisoners who died in United States military detention