Execution of Erich Muhsfeldt
- Nazi War Criminal in Auschwitz & Majdanek Concentration Camps - WW2
31 March 2022
Category: High Ranking Nazi Representatives
Erich Muhsfeldt was born on February 18, 1913 and he joined the SA in 1933 and in 1939 he joined the Nazi Party. On January 15, 1940 he joined the SS and in July 1940 he came into Auschwitz concentration camp where he worked as the head of the prisoner commandos and block leader. In November 1941, he was transferred to Majdanek concentration camp where he served as the head of a crematorium and a commando unit that burned the bodies of murdered prisoners. Erich Muhsfeldt was one of those responsible for carrying out an action code-named “ Operation Harvest Festival “.
In May 1944, Muhsfeldt returned to Auschwitz, where he supervised the crematoria in Birkenau during the liquidation of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews. Miklós Nyiszli, Hungarian Jewish prisoner and doctor at Auschwitz said that once after Erich Musfeldt shot 80 prisoners in the back of the head, Musfeldt came to him for a check-up and had high blood pressure. When Nyiszli asked him if it was because had had shot 80 prisoners, Musfeldt angrily replied that it made no difference to him if he killed 1 or 80 inmates and added that if his blood pressure was high, it was because he drank too much.
Awarded with War Merit Cross Second Class
For all his atrocities, the Third Reich awarded Erich Muhsfeldt with War Merit Cross Second Class. After the end of the war, Erich Muhsfeldt was captured by the allies and the US military court sentenced Musfeldt to life imprisonment on January 22, 1947. However, soon after he was extradited to Poland where he was retried at the Auschwitz Trial which began on November 24, 1947 and lasted one month. The Polish Supreme National Tribunal in Krakow that found Musfeldt guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death by hanging. He was 34 years old when he was executed on the 24 January 1948.
For more information,
do not forget to check our video above.
