Georg Lörner

Georg Lörner at the Nuremberg Trials

Georg Nikolaus Lörner (February 18, 1899 in München - April 21, 1959 in Rastatt) was an SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of the Waffen-SS, and Deputy Chief under Oswald Pohl, of the Wirtschaftsunternehmen im SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (Main SS Economic and Administrative Department, SS WVHA), chief of Amtsgruppe B, (Division B) of the WVHA, and deputy chief of Amtsgruppe W (Division W) of the WVHA.

Concentration camps

The WVHA was set up to manage the quartermaster and paymaster duties of the SS, including originally the Waffen SS, as well as handling the various financial enterprises of the Allgemeine-SS, and the concentration camps.^[1]

Amtsgruppe B, was responsible for the supply of food and clothing for concentration camp inmates, and for supplying food, uniforms, equipment and camp quarters for the concentration camp guards of the SS-Totenkopfverbände. Erwin Tschentscher was Lörner's deputy

Oswald Pohl was chief of Amtsgruppe W and Lörner was his deputy. Amt W was responsible for the operation and maintenance of various industrial, manufacturing, and service enterprises throughout Germany and the occupied countries, as well as providing clothing for concentration camp inmates.

Trial

Loerner was a defendant along with his brother Hans Lörner (b. 1893, Office 1, Office Group A) in U.S.A. v. Pohl et al. He was found guilty on counts 2 (war crimes), 3 (crimes against humanity), 4 (membership in a criminal organization), and was given the death penalty which was reduced to life in prison then commuted to 15 years. He was released from Landsberg prison on March 31, 1954, his brother received ten years and was released in 1951.^[2]

References

1. Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen and Volke Riess (editors), "Those Were the Days": The Holocaust Through the Eyes of the Perpetrators and Bystanders, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1991; published in the USA under the title "The Good Old Days": The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders, Old Saybrook, CT, Konecky and Konecky, 1991 ISBN 1-56852-133-2
2. U.S.A. v. Pohl et al.