After Liberation. NS perpetrators on the run

Richard Baer – the commandant who worked in the woods

While other Nazi criminals fled to South America via various escape routes, Richard Baer remained in Germany. Born in 1911 as the son of a grocer and farmer, he initially completed an apprenticeship as a confectioner, joined the NSDAP in 1930 and became a member of the SS in 1932. He started his career as a guard in early concentration camps such as Dachau, Oranienburg and Sachsenhausen.

During the war, Baer rose in the hierarchy of the camp SS: He remained part of the concentration camp system for as long as the regime held on to power and gradually worked his way up the ladder. Still a lowly guard in 1933, he became a platoon leader and instructor in 1937/38. He was promoted to adjutant and deputy commandant in Neuengamme in 1942. Finally, he was appointed commandant of the Auschwitz main camp in 1944. His duties involved selecting prisoners and mass murders. He organized the evacuation of Auschwitz in January 1945, forced tens of thousands of prisoners on death marches and then became commandant of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where prisoners had to perform forced labor under inhumane conditions.

After the end of the war, Baer used a forged discharge certificate from Soviet captivity to change his name to Karl Neumann. He found a job as a forestry worker with the Fürstlich-Bismarck Forestry Administration near Hamburg and live very close to his wife’s family. He even bought his own house under a false name. Baer remained undiscovered for over 15 years. It is yet to be established whether the von Bismarck family was aware of his true identity. But it is worth mentioning that the former SS Senior Squad Leader Johann Mirbeth – who, like Baer, worked in Auschwitz and Mittelbau-Dora – also found work as a gardener on the von Bismarck estates.

Arrest and death in custody

Richard Baer was not arrested until December 1960, when the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office offered a reward of 10,000 German marks for information about his whereabouts during preparations for the Auschwitz trial. After his transfer to Frankfurt, he declined to comment on the crimes of which he was accused. His personal history was noted down in preparation for the trial.

Baer died of heart and circulatory failure in pre-trial detention in Frankfurt am Main on June 17, 1963 – evading legal accountability for his crimes.

Erna Wallisch – the unpunished concentration camp guard

Erna Wallisch, née Pfannstiel, was born in Thuringia in 1922. Little is known about her early life. She joined the SS at the outbreak of the Second World War and belonged to the “SS-Gefolge” – the term for the group of female civilian employees of the SS. In 1941, aged 19, she started working as a guard in the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp. By 1942, she had found employment at the Majdanek extermination camp near Lublin in German-occupied Poland. It was there that she met Georg Wallisch, her future husband. She became pregnant during her time at the camp. The couple married in Lublin in March 1944, despite Georg Wallisch being put on trial and sentenced to three years in prison for theft. Erna Wallisch ended her service in January 1944, gave birth to her daughter in April and then moved to Vienna.

As a guard at Majdanek, Wallisch mistreated prisoners and was known for her coldness and brutality. Survivors described how she beat an imprisoned boy to death with a truncheon – although she herself was pregnant at the time.

Decades of impunity

While other high-ranking female concentration camp guards such as Maria Mandl and Elisabeth Volkenrath were convicted, Wallisch lived a quiet life in Vienna for decades. The first proceedings against her were initiated in Graz in the mid-1960s, but the case was closed in 1965. A second trial was then held in Vienna in the 1970s. The public prosecutor’s office dropped this case as well – citing the legal situation at the time. Since Wallisch was only accused of being an “accessory to murder,” her crime was considered time-barred under Austrian law. The authorities also argued that there was insufficient evidence of her direct involvement in murders. Survivors of Majdanek vehemently disagreed and demanded that Wallisch be held accountable. But she remained unpunished.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and late attention

Erna Wallisch did not return to the headlines until 2007: The Simon Wiesenthal Center placed her on the list of the ten most wanted Nazi perpetrators. In January 2008, five witnesses from Poland were found who were willing to testify about Wallisch’s conduct in Majdanek. Discussions about a possible extradition gained momentum. The Austrian public prosecutor’s office launched investigations to examine whether the new witness statements could be used in court. But Wallisch died on February 16, 2008 The investigations were closed.

Two among many

Erna Wallisch and Richard Baer are just two of many Nazi perpetrators who adopted respectable middle-class identities after 1945 to evade prosecution. Their biographies stand as examples for those who benefited from the turmoil of the post-war period – some even using forged papers like Baer. But many of these deceptions would hardly have been possible without support, whether from family members, employers or neighbors: the structures and networks of the Nazi regime remained powerful, even beyond its demise. Often, supporters of National Socialism soon returned to key positions after the end of the war. The knock-on effects of these continuities included persistent discrimination against victims of Nazi persecution and the failure to prosecute those responsible for crimes.

Perspectives on liberation

Our dossier marking 80 years of liberation presents a range of perspectives on the end of Nazi rule and its aftermath.

Forgotten helpers: Displaced persons and their commitment to a critical appraisal of Nazi crimes:

After liberation, large numbers of displaced persons were not just survivors – they became witnesses, activists and organizers. Many campaigned for documentation, education and justice – often on their own initiative and almost always under extremely difficult circumstances.

Facing the guilt: The days of concentration camp liberation through the eyes of German neighbors

How did Germans perceive the suffering endured by concentration camp prisoners? Civilians – children and adults alike – were confronted with the horrors of the Nazi regime not only during its rule, but also in the days following liberation.

“It was a hunger march”

Coercion, violence and exhaustion: the death marches mark the last gruesome chapter of Nazi crimes. Petro Mischtuk survived 13 camps in total and was sent on grueling marches. He survived those as well. We summarize his story and provide a link to an interview with him as a contemporary witness.

Beyond imagination

What did the Allied soldiers find when they reached the camps and liberated the victims of Nazi terror? The soldiers were not prepared for the horrific scenes that awaited them, and the images haunted them for the rest of their lives.

Defeat, Liberation or Victory?

How was May 8, 1945 commemorated in the GDR, how is it remembered today in the FRG and in the countries that fought against the German Reich? How has the view of the end of the War changed and what does it look like today? These are a few of the questions we address in our digital learning module “Suspicious: A Landscape of Crime”.