NR Nazi ReportSeven Circles of Responsibility

V Circle V of VII

Operational commanders

Commanders who directed camps, killing units, police formations and other operations in which persecution and mass violence were carried out.

Responsibility at this level rests on operational orders, deployment, supervision and documented personal conduct. It must remain distinct from both senior policy-making and the acts of every subordinate in a formation.

How the circles work. The seven circles classify a person’s documented place in the chain of decision, coordination, administration and execution. They do not rank suffering, notoriety or numbers of victims. Placement is based on function, formal authority, decision-making power, operational control and proven individual conduct. Roles sometimes overlapped, and a person’s position could change over time; each profile therefore explains the evidence and the limits of attribution.

95 profiles

Profiles are ordered alphabetically by surname. Placement reflects documented function and agency, never a ranking by numbers of victims.

Circle V of VII

Wilhelm Altenloh

commander of the Security Police and SD (KdS) in the Białystok District

convicted in West Germany; died in 1985

Circle V of VII

Herbert Andorfer

commandant of the Sajmište camp and commander of Sonderkommando Andorfer in Italy

sentenced in 1969 to two years and six months; released after pretrial detention was credited

Circle V of VII

Klaus Barbie

head of a Gestapo section in Lyon, responsible for repression, interrogations and deportations

sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987; died in prison in 1991

Circle V of VII

Rudolf Batz

commander of Einsatzkommando 2, subsequently KdS in Kraków and commander of the Security Police in Dortmund

arrested and investigated; died by suicide in custody before trial

Circle V of VII

Lothar Beutel

commander of Einsatzgruppe IV during the German invasion of Poland

interned and questioned after the war but never finally convicted for Einsatzgruppe IV's operations in Poland

Circle V of VII

Ernst Biberstein

commander of Einsatzkommando 6 in occupied Ukraine

death sentence commuted; released in 1958

Circle V of VII

Hans Biebow

head of the German administration of the Łódź ghetto

convicted in Poland and executed in 1947

Circle V of VII

Helmut Bischoff

commander of Einsatzkommando 1/IV and head of the Gestapo in Poznań

no final conviction

Circle V of VII

Paul Blobel

commander of Sonderkommando 4a and organiser of Aktion 1005

convicted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial and executed in 1951

Circle V of VII

Walter Blume

commander of Sonderkommando 7a in 1941 and commander of the Security Police and SD in occupied Greece in 1943–1944

sentenced to death in the Einsatzgruppen Trial; sentence commuted and released in 1955

Circle V of VII

Kurt Bode

presiding judge of the field court in the trials of the Polish Post Office defenders, later general prosecutor of the Reich District of Danzig–West Prussia

never convicted; pursued a postwar judicial career in West Germany; died in 1979

Circle V of VII

Hans-Joachim Böhme

head of the Gestapo in Tilsit and commander of Einsatzkommando Tilsit

sentenced to 15 years; released on health grounds shortly before his death in 1968

Circle V of VII

Hans Bothmann

second commandant of the Chełmno killing centre

died by suicide in captivity in 1946

Circle V of VII

Herbert Böttcher

SS and Police Leader in the Radom District

extradited to Poland, sentenced to death and executed in 1950

Circle V of VII

Otto Bradfisch

head of the Łódź Gestapo office and former commander of Einsatzkommando 8

convicted; released in 1969

Circle V of VII

Werner Braune

commander of Sonderkommando 11b of Einsatzgruppe D

sentenced to death in the Einsatzgruppen Trial and executed at Landsberg in 1951

Circle V of VII

Heinz Brückner

head of Office VI in the Main Office of the Ethnic German Liaison Office, jointly responsible for child abductions, Germanisation, displacement and forced labour

sentenced to 15 years; sentence reduced to time served on 31 January 1951, then released

Circle V of VII

Anton Brunner

head of ‘commissioning’ in Vienna's assembly camps and employee of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, known as ‘Brunner II’

sentenced to death by the Vienna People's Court; executed on 24 May 1946

Circle V of VII

Carl Clauberg

gynaecologist who conducted mass-sterilisation experiments on prisoners

convicted in the Soviet Union; released in 1955 and died in West German custody in 1957

Circle V of VII

Ernst Damzog

commander of Einsatzgruppe V and later inspector of the Security Police and SD in Poznań

died in 1945 and was never tried for his work in occupied Poland

Circle V of VII

Oskar Dirlewanger

commander of the SS penal formation known as the Dirlewanger unit

never tried; died in detention in June 1945 under uncertain circumstances

Circle V of VII

Irmfried Eberl

Aktion T4 physician and first commandant of the Treblinka II killing centre

died by suicide in custody in 1948 before trial

Circle V of VII

Erich Engels

head of the Jewish Affairs Section of the Gestapo under the KdS Lemberg

sentenced to death in Poland on 13 March 1950; executed in 1951

Circle V of VII

Heinz Errelis

head of the Gestapo field office in Grodno, subordinate to KdS Białystok

sentenced in West Germany to 6 years and 6 months for aiding deportations; acquitted in a separate case

Circle V of VII

Martin Fellenz

chief of staff to the SS and Police Leader in the Kraków District, directing the field organisation of deportations

sentenced to seven years; released after credit for approximately five years in pretrial detention

Circle V of VII

Gerhard Flesch

commander of Einsatzkommando 2/VI and first head of the Gestapo in Łódź, later KdS in Bergen and Trondheim

sentenced to death in Norway and shot on 28 February 1948

Circle V of VII

Kurt Franz

deputy commandant and final commandant of the Treblinka II extermination camp

sentenced to life imprisonment in the first Treblinka trial; released on health grounds in 1993

Circle V of VII

Max Frauendorfer

head of the Main Labour Department of the General Government

interned but not convicted for organising forced labour in the General Government; later resumed his career

Circle V of VII

Karl Gebhardt

chief SS and police surgeon and organiser of experiments at Ravensbrück

convicted in the Doctors' Trial and executed in 1948

Circle V of VII

Amon Göth

commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów camp and SS officer in the Kraków district

convicted in Poland and executed in 1946

Circle V of VII

Maximilian Grabner

head of the Gestapo Political Department at Auschwitz concentration camp

executed in 1948

Circle V of VII

Max Grosskopf

commander of the Security Police and SD in the Kraków district

died by suicide in 1945; never tried

Circle V of VII

Wilhelm Haase

chief of staff to the SS and Police Leader in the Kraków District, involved in planning and commanding deportation operations

sentenced to death in Poland; executed on 23 May 1952

Circle V of VII

Ludwig Hahn

commander of the Security Police and SD in the Kraków district and later in the Warsaw district

convicted in West Germany but not fully held to account

Circle V of VII

Heinrich Hamann

head of the Grenzpolizeikommissariat, a Security Police and SD branch office, in Nowy Sącz

sentenced to life imprisonment; released on health grounds

Circle V of VII

Lothar Heimbach

head of Department IV (Gestapo) at KdS Białystok

sentenced to nine years; released after credit for approximately four years in pretrial detention; died in 1968

Circle V of VII

Gottlieb Hering

commandant of the German Bełżec killing centre

died in 1945 before criminal proceedings

Circle V of VII

Werner Heyde

medical director and first chief medical assessor of Aktion T4

died by suicide in custody in 1964 before trial

Circle V of VII

Herbert Hübner

head of the labour and resettlement staffs at the Poznań RKFDV office, involved in expelling Poles and forcibly retaining them as labour

sentenced to 15 years; reduced to ten years; released in 1951

Circle V of VII

Karl Jäger

commander of Einsatzkommando 3 and author of the Jäger Report

died by suicide in West German custody in 1959 before trial

Circle V of VII

Heinz Jost

head of RSHA Office VI and, from March to September 1942, commander of Einsatzgruppe A

convicted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment; released in 1951 after commutation

Circle V of VII

Bronislav Kaminski

commander of the RONA brigade used to suppress the Warsaw Uprising

killed by German authorities in August 1944; accounts of the circumstances differ

Circle V of VII

Herbert Kappler

commander of the Sipo and SD in occupied Rome

sentenced to life imprisonment; escaped to West Germany in 1977 and died in 1978

Circle V of VII

Karl-Otto Koch

first commandant of Buchenwald and Majdanek, after earlier service as commandant of Sachsenhausen

convicted by an SS court and executed by an SS firing squad in Buchenwald in April 1945

Circle V of VII

Josef Kramer

commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof, Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen

convicted by a British military court and executed in 1945

Circle V of VII

Hans Krüger

head of the Security Police office in Stanisławów

life sentence; released in 1986

Circle V of VII

Hermann Krumey

head of a Łódź Central Resettlement Office branch responsible for operational aspects of the Zamość expulsions

ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment in West Germany for the deportation of Hungarian Jews, not for the Zamość expulsions

Circle V of VII

Franz Kutschera

SS and Police Leader for the Warsaw District

killed by the Polish underground in 1944 and never tried

Circle V of VII

Herbert Lange

commander of Sonderkommando Lange and first commandant of the Chełmno killing centre

killed in 1945; never tried

Circle V of VII

Rudolf Lange

commander of Einsatzkommando 2 and commander of the Security Police and SD in Latvia

never tried; died in Poznań in 1945, probably by suicide, although a combat death cannot be excluded

Circle V of VII

Peter Leideritz

head of the Security Police and SD field office in Kołomyja

sentenced to death in Poland; executed on 22 February 1949

Circle V of VII

Arthur Liebehenschel

commandant of Auschwitz I and commander of the Auschwitz garrison, later commandant of Lublin-Majdanek concentration camp

sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal; executed in 1948

Circle V of VII

Fritz Liphardt

commander of Einsatzkommando 2/III in 1939, then commander of the Security Police and SD (KdS) in the Radom District

died in a Polish prison before trial in 1947; suicide was the officially reported cause

Circle V of VII

Franz Magill

commander of a mounted detachment of the 2nd SS Cavalry Regiment during mass executions in Polesia

sentenced in 1964 to five years' penal servitude

Circle V of VII

Maria Mandl

senior overseer and head of the women's camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau

convicted in Poland and executed in 1948

Circle V of VII

Josef Meisinger

commander of the Security Police and SD in the Warsaw district

executed in 1947

Circle V of VII

Josef Mengele

SS physician at Auschwitz-Birkenau who conducted selections and criminal experiments

never tried; escaped to South America and died in 1979

Circle V of VII

Friedrich Mennecke

director of the Eichberg institution, T4 medical assessor and travelling physician who selected prisoners under Aktion 14f13

sentenced to death in a judgment that did not become final; died in prison before his appeal was heard

Circle V of VII

Georg Michalsen

Operation Reinhard staff officer involved in deportations from Warsaw and Białystok

twelve years’ imprisonment; released in 1979

Circle V of VII

Rudolf Mildner

head of the Gestapo in Katowice and presiding officer of the police summary court at Auschwitz

never tried; later fate unresolved

Circle V of VII

Max Montua

Commander of the Order Police in Warsaw, later commander of Police Regiment Centre

died by suicide in April 1945; never tried

Circle V of VII

Kajetan Mühlmann

special commissioner for the seizure of works of art in the General Government

questioned by the Allies and escaped internment; never tried for the plunder carried out in Poland

Circle V of VII

Erich Naumann

commander of Einsatzgruppe B and earlier commander of Einsatzgruppe VI

convicted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial and executed in 1951

Circle V of VII

Arthur Nebe

chief of the Criminal Police and commander of Einsatzgruppe B in 1941

executed by the Nazi regime in 1945 for involvement in the 20 July plot

Circle V of VII

Otto Ohlendorf

commander of Einsatzgruppe D and head of the RSHA domestic SD office

convicted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial and executed in 1951

Circle V of VII

Paul Otto Geibel

SS and Police Leader in the Warsaw district

sentenced to life imprisonment; died in prison in 1966

Circle V of VII

Max Pauly

commandant of Stutthof concentration camp, subsequently Neuengamme concentration camp and its satellite-camp network

sentenced to death by a British military court and executed on 8 October 1946

Circle V of VII

Karl Pütz

commander of the Security Police and SD in Rivne, subsequently in Lublin

never tried; died by suicide on 6 May 1945

Circle V of VII

Otto Rasch

commander of Einsatzgruppe C during the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union

indicted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial, but proceedings were discontinued for illness; died in 1948 without judgment

Circle V of VII

Walter Reder

commander of the reconnaissance battalion of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS

sentenced to life imprisonment in 1951; released on parole in 1985

Circle V of VII

Franz Reichleitner

commandant of the Sobibór killing centre after Franz Stangl

killed by partisans in 1944 and never tried

Circle V of VII

Heinz Reinefarth

commander of a combat group during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising

not extradited or convicted

Circle V of VII

Martin Sandberger

commander of Sonderkommando 1a and Security Police and SD commander in Estonia

sentenced to death in the Einsatzgruppen Trial; sentence commuted and released in 1958

Circle V of VII

Emanuel Schäfer

commander of Einsatzgruppe II during the invasion of Poland

convicted in West Germany for security-police crimes in Serbia, not separately for Einsatzgruppe II's work in Poland

Circle V of VII

Robert Schefe

commander of Einsatzkommando 2/V in 1939, later head of the Gestapo in Łódź

missing at the end of the war; later declared dead with 1945 recorded as the date of death; not tried

Circle V of VII

Julian Scherner

SS and Police Leader in the Kraków District

killed near the end of the war and never tried

Circle V of VII

Robert Scholz

head of the Fine Arts Special Staff in the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg and organiser of the selection and exchange of looted artworks

sentenced in absentia in France to ten years; never served the sentence

Circle V of VII

Fritz Schwalm

chief RuSHA representative at the Central Immigration Office in Łódź, later chief of staff of RuSHA

sentenced to 10 years; released early in 1951

Circle V of VII

Willi Seibert

de facto deputy commander of Einsatzgruppe D and officer linking command with the reporting of executions

sentenced to death in 1948; sentence commuted to fifteen years, released in 1954

Circle V of VII

Franz Walter Stahlecker

commander of Einsatzgruppe A and later commander of the Security Police and SD in Ostland

died from wounds in March 1942 and was never tried

Circle V of VII

Walter Stamm

inspector of the Security Police and SD in Warsaw and superior of the prison and execution apparatus

no final conviction was handed down for his activity in Warsaw

Circle V of VII

Franz Stangl

commandant of the Sobibór and Treblinka killing centres

sentenced to life imprisonment; died in prison in 1971

Circle V of VII

Eugen Steimle

commander of Sonderkommando 7a and later Sonderkommando 4a

death sentence commuted; released in 1954

Circle V of VII

Eduard Strauch

commander of Einsatzkommando 2 and commander of the Security Police and SD in occupied Belarus

twice sentenced to death; died in custody in 1955

Circle V of VII

Karl Streibel

commandant of the SS training camp in Trawniki

acquitted in Hamburg in 1976; died in 1986

Circle V of VII

Jürgen Stroop

commander of the German forces that liquidated the Warsaw ghetto

convicted in Poland and executed in 1952

Circle V of VII

Helmut Tanzmann

head of the Gestapo in Gdańsk, then commander of the Security Police and SD (KdS) in Lwów

died by suicide in British internment on 6 March 1946; never tried

Circle V of VII

Johannes Thümmler

commander of the Security Police in Katowice and presiding judge of the police summary court operating at Auschwitz concentration camp

subject to multiple investigations but never finally convicted; died in 2002

Circle V of VII

Rudolf Tröger

commander of Einsatzkommando 16 and head of the Gestapo in Danzig

killed while serving with the Wehrmacht in France in 1940; never tried

Circle V of VII

Kurt von Behr

head of the ERR structures in Western Europe, subsequently of Dienststelle Westen and the Möbel-Aktion

never tried; died by suicide in April 1945

Circle V of VII

Richard von Hegener

official of the Chancellery of the Führer and deputy head of the Reich Committee responsible for the administrative organisation of the murder of children and patients

sentenced to life imprisonment; released under an amnesty in 1956

Circle V of VII

Eberhard von Künsberg

diplomat and commander of Sonderkommando Künsberg who organised the supraregional seizure of archives, libraries, works of art and economic records

never tried; missing since April 1945; date of death undetermined

Circle V of VII

Gustav Wagner

deputy commandant and quartermaster of the Sobibór killing centre

never tried; died in Brazil in 1980 in a death officially classified as suicide

Circle V of VII

Paul Werner Hoppe

commandant of Stutthof concentration camp from September 1942 to spring 1945

finally sentenced in West Germany to 9 years' imprisonment; died in 1974

Circle V of VII

Franz Ziereis

commandant of the Mauthausen concentration-camp complex

not tried; fatally shot during capture in May 1945