RICHARD BAER. Commandant of Dora-Mittelbau from February 1, 1945, until the end of the war. Born 1911. Entered Nazi Party in 1931, the SS in 1932. Served in various capacities at Dachau, Oranienburg, Buchenwald, and Neuengamme, as well as on the Russian front, 1933–1942. Adjutant to Oswald Pohl, chief of the SS Business Administration Main Office, November 1942–May 1944. Commanded the Auschwitz I camp, May 1944 to February 1945. Went into hiding after the war. Captured near Hamburg, 1960; died while in custody, 1961.
HELMUT BISCHOFF. Counterintelligence and countersabotage officer for the V-2 rocket program, and SD commander. Born 1908. Entered Nazi Party in March 1930 and the SS in 1935; assigned to the Gestapo. Commanded various Staatspolizei units, 1935–1943; also led an Einsatzkommando in Poland in 1939. In December 1943 took over as the Armaments Ministry’s representative on Hans Kammler’s SS construction staff, in which he was responsible for counterintelligence and counter-sabotage within the V-2 production program. In February 1945 took over as commander of the Security Service (SD) within the Mittelbau reservation; responsible for spying on, torturing, and executing prisoners. Captured by the Soviets in 1946, held in Buchenwald, then sent to Siberia. Returned to Germany, 1955; arrested in 1967; declared unfit to stand trial and released in 1970.
WERNHER VON BRAUN. Rocket researcher, technical director of the Army Testing Facility at Peenemünde. Born 1912. During his studies became an employee of the Army Weapons Office, 1932. Became technical director at the rocket testing facility at Peenemünde and also joined the Nazi Party, 1937. Joined the SS, 1940. From August 1943 until the end of the war, worked closely within the project to manufacture V-2 rockets underground; promoted the use of prisoner labor. Taken to the United States, September 1945. Rose to senior rank in NASA. Died 1977, in Alexandria, Virginia.
ERHARD BRAUNY. Born 1913. A professional dyer, from September 1937 a member of camp SS in Buchenwald. Served in 1942–1943 with SS Construction Brigade III in Cologne and subsequently was for six months at Dachau. Became commander of the Buchenwald satellite camp Wernigerode and then returned as Rapportführer (in charge of daily reports) to Dora. From November 1944 to April 1945 led satellite camp Rottlebrode. After the Dachau Dora trial he was sentenced to life in prison. Died in prison in Landsberg in 1950.
ERWIN JULIUS BUSTA. Block leader in the tunnels and in the Dora camp. Born 1905. Entered Nazi Party in 1928 and the SS in 1930. Served in a variety of capacities in Dachau, Esterwegen, and Sachsenhausen. Transferred to Peenemünde in summer 1943, then to Mittelbau in the autumn. Was senior SS man within the tunnels and camp, where he developed a reputation for inventing cruelties and tortures. After the war, lived in Germany from 1952 on, under his real name. Arrested in 1968, sentenced in 1970 to eight years, six months in prison, but never began his sentence. Died 1982.
GERHARD DEGENKOLB. Engineer, head of the Special Committee A4 (V-2). Born 1892. Entered Nazi Party in 1930. Served in senior positions in various manufacturing firms and industrial committees, 1941–1945, including the Special Committee A4, which coordinated the process by which A4 (V-2) rockets were produced in series. He also served as chairman of the Mittelbau Advisory Council. Temporarily under arrest in 1947, then employed by various manufacturing firms. Died 1954.
WALTER DORNBERGER. Army rocket expert. Born 1895. Served in the Army Weapons Office from 1930 until the end of World War II; specialized in rockets and other special weapons. Named a member of the Mittelbau Advisory Council in September 1943. In British custody 1945–1947, while preparations were under way to prosecute him for V-2 attacks, but then resettled in the United States, where he worked for the U.S. air force. Later active in the American aircraft industry. Died 1980.
OTTO FÖRSCHNER. Commandant of Dora-Mittelbau from August 1943 until the end of January 1945. Born 1902. Transferred from the Reichswehr to the Waffen-SS in 1934. Served at the front for the first two years of the war, then transferred to Buchenwald. Transferred (apparently as a punishment) to command the Mittelbau camp in September 1943. Also named business manager of the Mittelwerk limited company in October 1943. Transferred to Kaufering, a subcamp of Dachau, February 1945. In December 1945 the Americans sentenced him to death for his role in Kaufering. Executed May 28, 1946.
FRANZ HÖSSLER. Born 1916. SS member from early 1933 and at the end was Obersturmführer; had a long career in camp administration. He trained first at Dachau in summer 1933. In June 1940 transferred to Auschwitz; by 1941 was on temporary assignments in the Waffen-SS. After his return to Dachau became commander of Auschwitz I and, as of February 1945, commander of Dora. Finally, in April 1945 became commandant of the Bergen-Belsen auxiliary camp (known as either “Nebenlager” or “Kasernenlager”). In consequence of the crimes he had committed there he was sentenced to death in the first Bergen-Belsen trial on November 17, 1945, and executed on December 13, 1945.
KARL KAHR. Born 1914 in Austria. From 1940 a member of the Waffen-SS. A medical doctor, in 1943 he was camp physician in Dachau, subsequently in Dora, especially Mittelbau. Early January 1945 transferred to Gross-Rosen, followed by several months in American custody, where he worked closely with U.S. investigation as witness for the prosecution in the Dachau Dora trial and in the Nürnberg Pohl trial. Later a physician in Graz.
HANS KAMMLER. Architect, chief of the SS construction office. Born 1901. Entered Nazi Party in 1931, SS in 1933. Served in a variety of administrative posts in the food and air ministries, 1933–1940, then joined Waffen-SS. Participated in the construction of the Majdanek camp, summer 1941. Named to head SS construction office, 1942; participated in planning and construction of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In August 1943, Heinrich Himmler and Albert Speer placed Kammler in charge of moving key production facilities underground. In August 1944, Himmler gave him responsibility for the deployment of the V-1 and V-2 weapons. Died May 1945, suspected suicide.
HANS MÖSER. Born 1906. Trained businessman, member of the Nazi Party from 1929, SS from 1931. In 1939 was a member of SS in camps Hinzert, Neuengamme, and Auschwitz. Transferred end of April 1944 as 2nd and later as 1st commandant of protective custody camp in Dora. Sentenced to death in 1947 Dachau Dora trial; executed in November 1948.
PAUL RASSINIER. Prisoner. Born 1906. Arrested by Gestapo for resistance activities, 1943, sent first to Buchenwald, then to Mittelbau. In the 1950s he began to publish works that questioned the existence of the Holocaust; in one work he asserted, for example, “with regard to gas chambers . . . never at any moment did the responsible authorities of the Third Reich intend to order—or in fact, order—the extermination of the Jews in this or any other manner” (from a collection of his writings, The Holocaust Story and the Lies of Ulysses [Costa Mesa, Calif., Institute for Historical Review, 1978], p. 270). He has been characterized as the father of the so-called revisionist school, whose representatives continue to refer to his works.
GEORG RICKHEY. Engineer, general director of the Mittelwerk limited company. Born 1898. Entered Nazi Party in 1931. Beginning in October 1942, occupied a senior position in the Ministry for Armaments and Munitions while also business manager for the DEMAG vehicle manufacturing works in Berlin-Falkensee. In autumn 1943 took over the firm that tested the V-2 rocket engines. In April 1944 named general director of the rocket works in the Mittelwerk limited company, in which role he was also responsible for the use of concentration camp prisoners as forced labor. Arrested by the U.S. army in May 1945, tried by a military court in 1947, but acquitted after placing the blame on the (already dead) V-2 production chief Albin Sawatzki. Died 1966.
ARTHUR RUDOLPH. Engineer, operations director for the Mittelwerk limited company. Born 1906. Entered Nazi Party in 1931. Hired by the Army Weapons Office, 1934. Entered into collaboration with Wernher von Braun at Peenemünde, 1937. By June 1944, responsible for assembly and quality control of V-2 rockets as well as the employment of civilian and concentration camp laborers. In 1945 taken to the United States along with von Braun and other rocket specialists, where he eventually occupied senior positions in the space program. Questioned by U.S. Department of Justice, 1982–1983; left the United States voluntarily, 1984, rather than face a deportation hearing. Reissued German citizenship. Died 1995 in Hamburg.
ERNST SANDER. Member of the Gestapo in Mittelwerk and in the Mittelbau Camp. Born 1916. Entered the SS, 1933. Joined the Gestapo, 1939, and served in a variety of secret police positions. In January 1944 assigned to counterintelligence and countersabotage in the Mittelwerk and in the Mittelbau camp. Participated in torture and murder of prisoners. Interned by American troops in May 1945 but released to a hospital because of appendicitis, then took a false identity. Identified and placed on trial in Essen, 1968. Sentenced in 1970 to seven years and six months in prison, but never began the sentence. Died 1990.
KARL-OTTO SAUR. Born 1902. Engineer. Entered Nazi Party in 1931. Employed by the Thyssen-Combine until 1937, then in the Todt Office. In 1942 became director of the Technical Office, Speer Ministry, and became Speer’s representative in the Jägerstab in 1944. Interned 1945–1948. Later technical adviser for sundry enterprises. Founder of publishing firm Dokumentation der Technik (now K.G. Saur Verlag). Died 1966.
ALBIN SAWATZKI. Engineer, V-2 production chief. Born 1909. Entered Nazi Party in 1933. In 1943 became director of the Henschel Works in Kassel, which produced Tiger tanks; he also became head of the “serial production” working committee under Special Committee A4. That year Albert Speer put him in charge of production; from September he was present in the camp. In February 1944 he became director of the planning department for Mittelwerk. Died May 1, 1945, as a result of injuries inflicted by former concentration camp prisoners.
WILHELM SIMON. Labor allocation manager in Mittelbau. Born 1900. Entered Nazi Party and SS in 1932. Held various bureaucratic posts, 1935–1941. Entered active SS duty as a guard at Buchenwald, 1941. Became an assistant to the labor allocation manager at Buchenwald, summer 1942. December 1, 1943, named labor allocation manager for Mittelbau. In May 1945 transferred to a Wehrmacht unit. Within days he was captured, then either released or escaped. In 1947 the Americans tried him for his crimes and sentenced him to life in prison, but he gained release in 1954.
EDUARD WIRTHS. Born 1909. April 1942 troop physician in Dachau and in July 1942 in Neuengamme. Later he was station physician in Auschwitz, and as of February 1945 in Mittelbau. He surrendered to British authorities in May 1945 and committed suicide in captivity.
Source: Jens-Christian Wagner, Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora: Katalog zur historischen Ausstellung in der KZ-Gedenkstätte Mittelbau-Dora. Herausgegeben im Auftrage der Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora (Göttingen, 2001).