NR Nazi ReportSeven Circles of Responsibility

VII Circle VII of VII

Inciters and local perpetrators

Propagandists and local perpetrators who incited persecution or exercised coercion and violence at the point of implementation.

This circle brings together forms of agency located outside the central command structure: public incitement, local authority and direct abuse. Each profile identifies the person’s own conduct and avoids generalising from reputation or institutional association.

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.

24 profiles

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

Circle VII of VII

Dorothea Binz

deputy senior female supervisor at Ravensbrück and trainer of camp guards

convicted in the first Ravensbrück Trial and executed in 1947

Circle VII of VII

Hermann Blache

commandant of the Jewish forced-labour camp in the Tarnów ghetto

finally sentenced to life imprisonment for 22 murders and an additional six years for aiding and abetting the murder of 4,000 people

Circle VII of VII

Josef Blösche

field officer of the Sipo in Warsaw who participated in deportations and executions in the Warsaw ghetto

sentenced to death in East Germany and executed on 29 July 1969

Circle VII of VII

Hermine Braunsteiner

female guard at Ravensbrück and Majdanek known for direct brutality toward prisoners

extradited from the United States and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Düsseldorf Majdanek Trial

Circle VII of VII

Josef Bürger

officer of the Radzyń Gestapo field office responsible for matters concerning the Łuków ghetto

sentenced in West Germany to life imprisonment for ten murders; died in 1986

Circle VII of VII

Franz Bürkl

Security Police officer at Pawiak prison; sources describe him either as deputy commandant or as a shift leader

killed by the Polish Home Army in 1943; not tried after the war

Circle VII of VII

Otto Dietrich

Reich press chief and state secretary who issued daily directives controlling the German press

convicted in the Ministries Trial and sentenced to seven years; released in 1950

Circle VII of VII

Hartwig Gnade

commander of the 2nd Company of Reserve Police Battalion 101

subsequent fate unresolved; never tried

Circle VII of VII

Irma Grese

female guard and senior supervisor at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen

convicted in the Belsen Trial and executed in December 1945

Circle VII of VII

Hermann Hackmann

first Schutzhaftlagerführer at Lublin-Majdanek concentration camp, previously a member of the Buchenwald concentration camp command staff

convicted twice; death sentence commuted to life imprisonment and released in 1955; sentenced to ten years in 1981

Circle VII of VII

Otto Hantke

first commandant of the Budzyn Jewish labour camp, subsequently commandant of Poniatowa

sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974; died during a suspension of sentence in 1986

Circle VII of VII

Karl Heinrich Klaustermeyer

officer of the Jewish Affairs Section of the KdS Warsaw who conducted inspections and killings in the ghetto

sentenced to life imprisonment for nine murders; released in April 1976 when terminally ill

Circle VII of VII

Wolfgang Hoffmann

commander of the 3rd Company of Reserve Police Battalion 101

finally sentenced in West Germany to 4 years' imprisonment after a retrial; died in 1989

Circle VII of VII

Franz Josef Müller

head of the Kraków Julag camps and commandant of Julag I Płaszów

sentenced to life imprisonment in 1961; released on parole in 1970

Circle VII of VII

Ilse Koch

wife of the Buchenwald commandant, convicted for abuses against prisoners

sentenced to life imprisonment in West Germany; died by suicide in prison in 1967

Circle VII of VII

Erich Mußfeldt

head of the crematorium and corpse-disposal detail at Lublin-Majdanek concentration camp, later a crematoria supervisor at Auschwitz-Birkenau

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

Circle VII of VII

Herta Oberheuser

physician who participated in criminal medical experiments on prisoners at Ravensbrück

convicted in the Doctors' Trial and sentenced to twenty years; released in 1952

Circle VII of VII

Gerhard Riebel

commander of the 3rd Company of Police Battalion 322, later the 9th Company of Police Regiment Centre

finally acquitted in West Germany in 1963–1964; date of death unknown

Circle VII of VII

Paul Salitter

Schutzpolizei captain and commander of the escort for the Düsseldorf–Riga deportation transport in December 1941

never tried; dismissed from the police; died in 1972

Circle VII of VII

Josef Schwammberger

commandant of the Jewish forced-labour camps in Rozwadów and Przemyśl, also associated with the camp in Mielec

sentenced to life imprisonment in 1992; died in prison in December 2004

Circle VII of VII

Julius Streicher

publisher of Der Stürmer and former Gauleiter of Franconia

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle VII of VII

Wilhelm Trapp

commander of Reserve Police Battalion 101 during shootings and deportations in the Lublin district

convicted by a Polish court and executed in Siedlce in 1948

Circle VII of VII

Ernst Weis

commander of Police Battalion 309 during the attack on the Soviet Union and the Białystok massacre

investigated in West Germany; died in 1964 before an indictment was filed

Circle VII of VII

Julius Wohlauf

commander of the 1st Company and deputy commander of Reserve Police Battalion 101

sentenced in West Germany to 8 years' imprisonment; died in 2002