Hermann Hackmann
Encyclopedia
SS
-Hauptsturmführer
(Captain) Heinrich Hackmann (October 11, 1913 - August 20, 1994) served as the lead guard in charge of protective custody at Majdanek concentration camp in German-occupied Poland
. Hackmann came from Osnabruck and held the post of roll call officer at Buchenwald before Majdanek, at the age of 26. At Buchenwald he was considered the most intelligent of the SS officers. Described as a brutal man with a "cynical humour," Hackmann's nickname at Buchenwald was "Jonny." Prosecuted for murder by SS
Judge Georg Konrad Morgen
in connection with the Koch trial, Hackmann was sentenced to death. He escaped punishment and was evacuated by the Gestapo.
After the war Hackmann was prosecuted by the U.S. government at the Buchenwald Trial of 1947. Hackmann was one of twenty-two Nazis sentenced to death
for his role in Buchenwald concentration camp
, though it was commuted to life imprisonment
. Details of his activities in Buchenwald that surfaced during the trial portray him as a man who was greatly feared by the prisoners and prone to violence and creative ways to put prisoners through more misery. Inmates were frequently beaten, kicked and whipped by Hackmann with sticks and whips. He was also known to make prisoners kneel where he would kick them in the scrotum. There was a rule against spitting on the street and when Hackmann saw some spit on the ground he forced the nearest inmate to lick it up. One witness testified that he had two block leaders bend a birch tree where he made a Jewish man hold onto it. When the block leaders released the tree, the Jewish man was flung into the air into a stone quarry.
During the Third Majdanek Trial between 1975–1981, he was sentenced to an additional ten years imprisonment for two counts of serving as joint accessory to murder of at least 141 people in Majdanek.
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Hauptsturmführer
Hauptsturmführer
Hauptsturmführer was a Nazi rank of the SS which was used between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank of Hauptsturmführer was a mid-grade company level officer and was the equivalent of a Captain in the German Army and also the equivalent of captain in foreign armies...
(Captain) Heinrich Hackmann (October 11, 1913 - August 20, 1994) served as the lead guard in charge of protective custody at Majdanek concentration camp in German-occupied Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Hackmann came from Osnabruck and held the post of roll call officer at Buchenwald before Majdanek, at the age of 26. At Buchenwald he was considered the most intelligent of the SS officers. Described as a brutal man with a "cynical humour," Hackmann's nickname at Buchenwald was "Jonny." Prosecuted for murder by SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
Judge Georg Konrad Morgen
Georg Konrad Morgen
Georg Konrad Morgen was an SS judge and lawyer who investigated crimes committed in Nazi concentration camps.-Life:...
in connection with the Koch trial, Hackmann was sentenced to death. He escaped punishment and was evacuated by the Gestapo.
After the war Hackmann was prosecuted by the U.S. government at the Buchenwald Trial of 1947. Hackmann was one of twenty-two Nazis sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
for his role in Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
, though it was commuted to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
. Details of his activities in Buchenwald that surfaced during the trial portray him as a man who was greatly feared by the prisoners and prone to violence and creative ways to put prisoners through more misery. Inmates were frequently beaten, kicked and whipped by Hackmann with sticks and whips. He was also known to make prisoners kneel where he would kick them in the scrotum. There was a rule against spitting on the street and when Hackmann saw some spit on the ground he forced the nearest inmate to lick it up. One witness testified that he had two block leaders bend a birch tree where he made a Jewish man hold onto it. When the block leaders released the tree, the Jewish man was flung into the air into a stone quarry.
During the Third Majdanek Trial between 1975–1981, he was sentenced to an additional ten years imprisonment for two counts of serving as joint accessory to murder of at least 141 people in Majdanek.