Richard Baer Member of the NSDAP, SS Sturmbannführer, head of the Auschwitz concentration camps Date of Birth: 09.09.1911 Country: Germany

Biography of Richard Baer

Richard Baer, born on September 9, 1911, in the municipality of Floss, Bavaria, was a member of the NSDAP and an SS-Sturmbannführer. He started his career as a confectioner but lost his job in 1930. Seeking new opportunities, Baer joined the NSDAP in the same year and became a member of the SS in 1932.

In 1933, Baer became a guard at one of the first death camps in Germany, Dachau concentration camp. It was in Dachau where the SS division "Dead Head" was formed in 1939, and all the guards from Dachau were included in its ranks. The camp was temporarily cleared of prisoners to make room for the training of division fighters.

In 1942, Baer was appointed as an adjutant in the Neuengamme concentration camp, where he participated in the mass murder of Soviet prisoners of war, who were herded into gas chambers. He also played a role in the "T-4 Program," which advocated for the physical extermination of disabled, mentally ill, and intellectually disabled members of society.

From November 1942 to May 1944, Baer served as an adjutant for SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, who was then in charge of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Department. Meanwhile, in November 1943, Baer took over the management of Department DI, a subdivision of inspectors for concentration camps. He succeeded Arthur Liebehenschel, whom Himmler described as being "too soft" on prisoners. As a result, Richard Baer became the third and final commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, serving in this position from May 11, 1944, until the camp's cessation of operations in early 1945.

Towards the end of the war, while temporarily substituting for Otto Förschner, the commander of one of the Buchenwald-Dora-Mittelbau subcamps, Baer took responsibility for another mass execution - the hanging of Soviet prisoners.

After the war, Baer managed to escape and lived for a long time near Hamburg under the name Karl Egon Neumann, working in forestry. In October 1960, during the Auschwitz trials, a decision was made to arrest Richard Baer, and his photos appeared in many publications. Devin Pendas, in his book on Auschwitz, reported that after Baer's pictures were published, one source claimed that he worked as a forester on Otto von Bismarck's estate. When he was arrested on the morning of December 20, 1960, "Neumann" initially denied his true identity but eventually revealed it. Upon the advice of his lawyer, Baer refused to testify and died of a heart attack on June 17, 1963, before the trial, which was scheduled for the same year, could take place.