Franz Ziereis

Franz Ziereis ( born August 13, 1905 in Munich, † May 25, 1945 at Gusen ) was a German Nazi and a commander of the Mauthausen concentration camp with the rank of SS -Standartenführer leader.

Life

After Ziereis had in Munich attended a businessman school, he enlisted in 1924 for twelve years in the Reichswehr.

On September 30, 1936 Ziereis appeared as a training officer in the SS and was first as SS First Lieutenant of the 4th SS -Standarte " Oranienburg " assigned. In 1937 he took over the leadership of the 22 hundred in the SS Death's Head II Association ( "Brandenburg" ). In March 1938 he participated with mobile units of the SS Death's Head units to the occupation of Austria, on 1 July of the same year he was instructor of the SS-Totenkopf Standarte III ( "Thuringia" ).

On February 9, 1939 Ziereis took over the office as commandant of Mauthausen from its predecessor Albert Sauer. There he was promoted to SS -Hauptsturmführer and finally to SS- Standartenführer. In 1942 he was also Director of Manufacturing at Mauthausen granite works with work group management in St. Georgen an der Gusen.

On 3 May 1945, two days before the camp was liberated by the U.S. army, fled Ziereis and went to his hunting lodge at Phyrn.

According to a sworn statement by Hans Maršálek Ziereis was on 22 May 1945 after he was found by American soldiers and was shot while trying to escape, and from that in the presence of the commander of the eleventh American armed Division Seibel, the former prisoner and physician Dr. Koszeinski an unknown Polish citizen in the Gusen concentration camp questioned for several hours. He confessed during which the assassination of several thousands of prisoners, including by reference to criminal working companies and blasting in tunnels. In addition Ziereis reported that from tattooed skin lampshades, book covers and leather cases were made.

In a photo album of Oscar Roth, which was bequeathed to Yale University, there is a second, shorter version of this confession, but the matches in essential points with the declaration Maršáleks. On May 25, 1945 Ziereis succumbed to his injuries.