Johann Niemann (4 August 1913 – 14 October 1943) was a German
SS officer and
Holocaust perpetrator who was deputy commandant of
Sobibor extermination camp during
Operation Reinhard. He also served as a ''Leichenverbrenner'' (corpse cremator) at
Grafeneck,
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
, and
Bernburg during the
Aktion T4, the SS "euthanasia" program. Niemann was killed during the
Sobibor prisoner uprising in 1943.
SS career
Niemann joined 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 ...
in 1931 as member number 753,836 and the SS in 1934 as member number 270,600. He first served at
Bełżec extermination camp, where he commanded Camp II, the extermination area. He then was transferred to
Sobibor extermination camp. Niemann was deputy commander of Sobibor on various occasions in 1942 before being given the position permanently in early 1943. After
Heinrich Himmler's visit to Sobibor on 12 February 1943, Niemann was promoted to ''
SS-Untersturmführer''.
[Sobibor Interviews: Biographies of SS-men]
sobiborinterviews.nl; accessed 23 December 2014.
Karl Frenzel, also a commandant at Sobibor, recalled how Niemann handled a particular threat of prisoner revolt within the camp:
[Karl Frenzel interview]
On 14 October 1943, a
prisoner uprising took place at the Sobibor extermination camp. Niemann was the highest-ranking SS officer who was on duty that day, and so he was the first person targeted to be assassinated by the prisoners. During an appointment to be fitted for a leather jacket taken from a murdered Jew, Niemann was killed in the tailor's barracks with an axe to his head by Alexander Shubayev, a Jewish Red Army soldier imprisoned at Sobibor.
In 2020, Niemann's wartime photo album was made public by his descendants. The collection of photographs is known as the
Sobibor perpetrator album.
Niemann was played by Henry Stolow in the 1987 English film ''
Escape from Sobibor'', and by Maximilian Dirr in the 2018 Russian film ''
Sobibor''.
Niemann's Awards/Decorations and ranks in the SS and NSDAP (or Nazi Party) were as follows:
Ranks: SS-Unterscharführer, SS-Scharführer, SS-Oberscharführer, SS-Hauptscharführer, Niemann's last promotion to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer by SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler on February 12, 1943.
Awards: DRL-Sports Badge in Bronze, War Merit Cross 2nd Class With Swords, Sudetenland Medal, Heer Long Service Medal.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Niemann, Johann
1913 births
1943 deaths
Holocaust perpetrators in Poland
Belzec extermination camp personnel
SS-Untersturmführer
Axe murder
People from Leer (district)
Sobibor personnel killed during the Sobibor uprising