Josef Kollmer (26 February 1901 – 24 January 1948) was a German
SS functionary during the
Nazi era
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
who committed mass murder at
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
. He was prosecuted at the
Auschwitz Trial.
Born in
Händlern,
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
, Kollmer was a farmer by trade. He became a member of the SS on 1 January 1935 after having previously spent several years in the German police force. He 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 May 1937. In October 1941 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 was assigned to Auschwitz, where he commanded various guard companies until October 1943. He then temporarily transferred to
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora) was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour f ...
, but returned to Auschwitz in May 1944. Initially he commanded the guard company at Auschwitz main camp, then later the one at
Monowitz concentration camp from August to October 1944.
During his time at Auschwitz, Kollmer participated in the mass murder of Jews in the Birkenau gas chambers, and carried out executions against the shooting wall between blocks 10 and 11 and at the Buna factory.
Kollmer was tried by the
Supreme National Tribunal 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 was sentenced to
death
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
. His sentence was carried out by hanging in
Montelupich Prison
The Montelupich Prison, named for the street on which it is located, the ''ulica Montelupich'' ("street of the Montelupi family"),Ulica Montelupich or "street of the Montelupis" itself is named after the Montelupi manor house (Kamienica (archite ...
, Kraków.
Bibliography
*Cyprian T., Sawicki J., ''Siedem wyroków Najwyższego Trybunału Narodowego'', Poznań 1962
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kollmer, Josef
1901 births
1948 deaths
Auschwitz trial executions
Executed German mass murderers
Executed people from Bavaria
Holocaust perpetrators in Poland
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp personnel
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
SS-Obersturmführer
Waffen-SS personnel
20th-century German farmers