Josef Kramer

Josef Kramer
Josef Kramer, in Celle awaiting trial (August 1945)
Born	(1906-11-10)10 November 1906 Munich, German Empire
Died	13 December 1945(1945-12-13) (aged 39) Hamelin Prison, Hamelin, Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of death	Execution by hanging
Other names	The Beast of Belsen
Criminal status	Executed
Motive	Nazism
Conviction(s)	War crimes
Trial	Belsen trial
Criminal penalty	Death

Josef Kramer (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945) was a Hauptsturmführer and the Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau (from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944) and of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (from December 1944 to its liberation on 15 April 1945). Dubbed The Beast of Belsen by camp inmates, he was a German Nazi war criminal, directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. He was detained by the British Army after the Second World War, convicted of war crimes, and hanged on the gallows in the prison at Hamelin by British executioner Albert Pierrepoint.