Martin Gottfried Weiss

Martin Gottfried Weiss
SS-Obersturmbannführer Weiss in custody
Born	3 June 1905 Weiden in der Oberpfalz
Died	29 May 1946 (aged 40) Dachau Trials execution
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel
Years of service	until 1945
Rank	SS-Obersturmbannführer

SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Martin Gottfried Weiss alternatively spelled Weiß (3 June 1905 – 29 May 1946) was the Commandant of Dachau concentration camp in 1945 at the time of his arrest. He also served from April 1940 until September 1942 as the commandant of Neuengamme concentration camp,^[1] and later, from November 1943 until May 1944, as the fourth commandant of Majdanek death camp.^[2]

Life

Weiss was born in Weiden in der Oberpfalz. He was appointed commandant of Majdanek after his predecessor Hermann Florstedt was charged with wholesale stealing from the Third Reich to become rich. Weiss was captured at Munich on 29 April 1945 by corporal Henry Senger of the US Army 292nd Field Artillery Observation Battalion,^[3][4] and was tried during the Dachau Trials beginning 13 November 1945. After being found guilty of "violating the laws and usages of war," Weiss was executed by hanging at Landsberg prison on 29 May 1946.^[5]

The main gate at Dachau concentration camp, marked with the slogan Arbeit macht frei  Reconnaissance photograph of the Majdanek concentration camp (1944)

References

1. Zámečník, Stanislav (2002), Das war Dachau, Luxemburg: Comité International de Dachau, pp. 254–255
2. Chris Webb, Carmelo Lisciotto (2007). "Majdanek Concentration Camp (a.k.a. KL Lublin)". H.E.A.R.T, Holocaust Research Project.org. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
3. "How a teenage corporal nabbed commandant of Dachau". ucsb.edu.
4. Henry C. Senger. "The Capture of SS Colonel Commandant Martin Gottfried Weiss, The Last Commandant of Dachau Concentration Camp". ucsb.edu.
5. Tomaz Jardim, The Mauthausen Trial - American Military Justice in Germany (Harvard, 2012) 46.