Adolf Theuer

Adolf Theuer
Adolf Theuer prison photo (1946)
Born	(1920-09-20)September 20, 1920 Henneberg-Bolatitz, First Czechoslovak Republic
Died	April 17, 1947(1947-04-17) (aged 26) Opava, Third Czechoslovak Republic
Occupation	SS-Unterscharführer
Political party	Nazi Party
Criminal status	Executed
Motive	Nazism
Conviction(s)	Crimes against humanity
Criminal penalty	Death

Adolf Theuer (sometimes given as Teuer; German: [ˈtɔʏɐ] ) was a Sudeten German SS-Unterscharführer and gas chamber mass murderer at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. He was executed after the war as a war criminal.

Life

Previously a bricklayer by trade, Theuer's SS career began when he enlisted in the Waffen-SS in 1938 after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. He was deployed to Auschwitz in 1940 at the rank of SS-Rottenführer. On 1 August 1941 he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer. He served as an SDG or Sanitätsdienstgefreiter; a medical orderly as part of the Sanitätswesen, one of the five concentration camp departments involved in running such a facility. He was also a member of the Desinfektionskommando (disinfection command), the unit of SS medics involved in the mass gassing of prisoners. One of Theuer's responsibilities was inserting the Zyklon B into the gas chamber, a task shared by other SS orderlies such as SS-Unterscharführer Hans Koch and SS-Oberscharführer Josef Klehr. During the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, Klehr, the chief of the Desinfektionskommando, testified that Theuer explained to him that he would insert the gas when ordered to do so by the accompanying SS doctor.

SS-Unterscharführer Oswald Kaduk recalled an incident when Theuer, his fellow Upper Silesian countryman, was reluctant to insert the gas. Kaduk stated that:

"...I have even seen SS men who were supposed to be involved in gassing operations cry. And to them, the then doctor, Dr. Mengele said, 'You have to do it'. He said... I can remember Theuer well. I knew him from... was my fellow countryman, been a young man. And he said, 'You have to do it.' He did it, with tears in his eyes. He inserted it and immediately shut the hatch. I was there."

— Oswald Kaduk, "Auschwitz, Stimmen."

Theuer remained at the camp until its evacuation in January 1945, when he was subsequently deployed in Ohrdruf concentration camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp.

Post-war

Although Theuer did not torture prisoners, he was still known in the camp as a butcher. After the war he was put on trial along with Sofie Hanel (SS-Hilfsaufseherin, SS-Aufseherin, SS-Blockfuhrer) in Prague; both were sentenced to death. Theuer was hanged in Opava (Czechoslovakia) on 23 April 1947. Hanel was hanged on 12 January 1948.

Bibliography

• Dębski, Jerzy (1995). Death books from Auschwitz: remnants. Volume 1. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ISBN 978-3-598-11262-1
• Frei, Norbert (2000). Darstellungen und Quellen zur Geschichte von Auschwitz. Volume 1. K. G. Saur Verlag. ISBN 978-3-598-24030-0
• Langbein, Hermann (1995). Der Auschwitz-Prozess: eine Dokumentation. Volume 2. Verlag Neue Kritik. ISBN 978-3-8015-0283-6
• Piper, Franciszek; Świebocka, Teresa; Czech, Danuta (1996). Auschwitz: Nazi death camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. ISBN 978-83-85047-56-8