Execution of Heinrich Josten
- Auschwitz Guard & Commandant of Boelcke Kaserne Concentration Camp

8 April 2022

Category: High Ranking Nazi Representatives

Heinrich Josten joined the Nazi Party and the SS. He served briefly in Sachsenhausen concentration camp before he was sent to Auschwitz in June 1940 where he remained until camp’s evacuation in January 1945.

As the head of labor deployment office, Heinrich Josten was never happy with the prisoners. After the evacuation of Auschwitz, Heinrich Josten became camp commander of the Boelcke Barracks ( Boelcke Kaserne Concentration Camp ) which was a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp located in Germany. The camp was operated for only three months between January and April 1945. Out of 6000 prisoners who passed through the camp, 3000 died due to malnutrition, neglect and unsanitary conditions.

Finally face justice

Josten and other SS men fled to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early April 1945 only a few days before the Boelcke-Barracks was liberated by the US soldiers. After the end of the war, Heinrich Josten was arrested and had to finally face justice for the crimes he had committed during the war. He was tried at the Auschwitz Trial which began on November 24, 1947 and lasted one month. The Supreme National Tribunal in Polish Krakow sentenced Heinrich Josten to death by hanging. He was 54 years old when he was executed on 24 January 1948.

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