Arnold Büscher

Arnold Büscher

Arnold Büscher (16 December 1899, Bad Oeynhausen – 2 August 1949) was a German SS officer. At the rank of SS-Obersturmführer, he was the second and last commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, succeeding Amon Goeth, from September 1944 until about January 1945.

Büscher was a member of the SS since 1931. After the outbreak of the Second World War, he worked at various concentration camps: Flossenbürg, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme.

Büscher succeeded Amon Goeth as the commandant of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp after Goeth was arrested on 13 September 1944. Büscher resisted Oskar Schindler's efforts to include 300 Jewish women on his list of Schindlerjuden for work at Schindler's new factory in Brünnlitz, instead sending them with other Jews of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp to Auschwitz I. Furthermore, Büscher, perhaps out of spite of Schindler, requested of Auschwitz I commandant Richard Baer that 300 different Jewish women be sent to Schindler's factory. Ultimately, Schindler was able to pay Baer to send him his 300 female Schindlerjuden.^[1]

On 23 January 1948, Büscher was sentenced to death in Poland for his deeds at Płaszów.^[2] He was executed by hanging on August 2, 1949.

References

1. Crowe, David M. Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List. Westview Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004, 0-465-00253-5, pp. 357–358.
2. Benz, Wolfgang. Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. (The Place of Terror. History of Nazi Concentration Camps.). C.H. Beck, Munich, 2005, 3-406-57237-1, p. 272.