After liberation
NS perpetrators on the run:
The cases of Richard Baer and Erna Wallisch
The process of coming to terms with the crimes of the Nazi regime began with liberation and the end of the war: the policy of denazification was launched, trials were prepared, documents secured and individuals identified for arrest. This was the first time that an international community of nations put the representatives of a state on trial. But not all Nazi perpetrators were held to account after the war. Many escaped justice and went on with their lives, unrecognized or unchallenged – including some who had held prominent positions in the Nazi regime. Richard Baer, the last commandant of Auschwitz, and Erna Wallisch, a brutal concentration camp guard, are the two such examples.
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.
Am 17. Juni 1963 stirbt Baer in Untersuchungshaft in Frankfurt am Main an Herz- und Kreislaufversagen – und entgeht damit der juristischen Aufarbeitung seiner Verbrechen.
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.
A long road to liberation
The liberation of Germany from the Nazi regime was more than just a single date – it was a long, dramatic process that lasted many months. It began with the landing of Allied troops in Normandy and continued with fierce battles, while a steady stream of reports revealed the horrors of the concentration camps. As the Allies advanced, the Nazis tried to cover up their crimes – they destroyed files, cleared camps, dispatched prisoners on death marches and committed the cruelest acts of violence right up to the very end. At the end of the war, there were around 11 million displaced persons in Germany, i.e. people who had been deported by the National Socialists from their home countries for forced labor or imprisonment in concentration camps. Criminal prosecution began in the midst of this scenario. Tens of thousands of accused war criminals were tried in international, national and military courts. At the same time, numerous perpetrators of the Nazi regime sought and found ways to evade accountability.
Perspectives on liberation
Our dossier marking 80 years of liberation presents a range of perspectives on the end of Nazi rule and its aftermath.
