Maximilian Grabner (2 October 1905 – 24 January 1948) was an Austrian

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...

chief in Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, the infamous

torture chamber A torture chamber is a room where torture is inflicted.

Block 11 Block 11 was the name of a brick building in Auschwitz I, the ''Stammlager'' or main camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp network. This block was used for executions and torture. Between Block 10 and Block 11 stood the "Death Wall" (reconstr ...

was Grabner's own empire. He was executed for crimes against humanity.

Early life

Born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Grabner joined the Austrian police force in 1930 and became a member of the then-illegal

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in 1933. After the Anschluß of Austria in 1938, he joined the SS and became a member of the

. He arrived at

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most populo ...

at the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp less than one year later where he became Chief of the ''

Politische Abteilung The ''Politische Abteilung'' ("Political Department"), also called the "concentration camp Gestapo," was one of the five departments of a Nazi concentration camp set up by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) to operate the camps. An outpos ...

'' ("camp Gestapo").

Career at Auschwitz

As Gestapo chief, Grabner was responsible, among other things, for the fight against the resistance movement in the camp, as well as for the prevention of escapes and all contact with the outside world. These tasks were carried out with horrendous cruelties against the prisoners and a large number of

incarceration Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is " false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessar ...

s in the bunker in Block 11. Grabner's staff members, such as

Wilhelm Boger Wilhelm Friedrich Boger (19 December 1906 – 3 April 1977) known as "The Tiger of Auschwitz" was a German police commissioner and concentration camp overseer. He was infamous for the appalling crimes which he had committed at Auschwitz ...

, who was only brought to justice in the early 1960s, carried out so-called ''sharpened interrogations'', during which the victims were systematically

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

d. Grabner, together with the commander of the '' Schutzhaftlager'', initiated, on a regular basis, clearings of the bunker: the inmates were examined and many of them were sent directly to the inner courtyard between Block 10 and Block 11, where they were shot. He once ordered SS-

Untersturmführer (, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of '' Sturmführer'' which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921 ...

Hans Stark Hans Stark (14 June 1921 – 29 March 1991) was an SS-''Untersturmführer'' and head of the admissions detail at Auschwitz-II Birkenau of Auschwitz concentration camp. Life and SS career Stark attended the Volksschule in Darmstadt from 1927 un ...

to drop

Zyklon B Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such ...

into a gas chamber. Rees, Laurence: ''Auschwitz - the Nazis and the 'Final Solution'' - BBC Books - 2005 - IBN 0-563-52117-1 (page 96) Along with Stark, Grabner personally took part in the shooting of Russian

Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means ' commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and ...

Trial and conviction

In 1943, Grabner was arrested for theft, graft and corruption and was put on trial in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg an ...

a year later. He was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison. After the trial, he returned to

. It is not known if he served any time in prison. Grabner was then arrested by the Allies in 1945 and turned over to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

in 1947. 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 L ...

he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. Grabner was

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

on 24 January 1948.

Bibliography

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...

: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945''. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005; *

Hermann Langbein Hermann Langbein (18 May 1912 – 24 October 1995) was an Austrian communist resistance fighter and historian. He fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigades for the Spanish Republicans against the Nationalists under Francis ...

: ''Menschen in Auschwitz.'' Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980; * Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Hrsg.): ''Auschwitz in den Augen der SS.'' Oswiecim 1998; * Wacław Długoborski,

Franciszek Piper Franciszek Piper (born 1941) is a Polish scholar, historian and author. Most of his work concerns the Holocaust, especially the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Dr. Piper is credited as one of the historians who helped establish a m ...

(Hrsg.): '' Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studien zur Geschichte des Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz'', Verlag Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oswiecim 1999, 5 Bände: I. Aufbau und Struktur des Lagers. II. Die Häftlinge - Existentzbedingungen, Arbeit und Tod. III. Vernichtung. IV. Widerstand. V. Epilog; . * Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Hrsg): ''Auschwitz in den Augen der SS.'' Oswiecim 1998; . *

Laurence Rees Laurence Rees (born 1957) is an English historian. He is a BAFTA winning historical documentary filmmaker and a British Book Award winning author of several books about Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and the atrocities committed, especially by them, ...

: ''Auschwitz - the Nazis and the 'Final Solution London: BBC Books,(2005); .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grabner, Maximilian 1905 births 1948 deaths Auschwitz trial executions German police chiefs SS-Untersturmführer Austrian police officers convicted of murder Austrian people executed abroad People convicted of murder by Poland Police officers convicted of crimes against humanity Auschwitz concentration camp personnel Gestapo personnel Military personnel from Vienna Executed Austrian Nazis Austrian people convicted of crimes against humanity Reich Security Main Office personnel Waffen-SS personnel