22 Facts About Josef Oberhauser

Josef Kaspar Oberhauser was a low-ranking German SS commander during the Nazi era.

Josef Oberhauser was charged with 450,000 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to 4.5 years imprisonment during the Belzec Trial of 1964.

In 1934, Josef Oberhauser enlisted for 18 months in the Reichswehr and was posted to Munich.

In 1939, Josef Oberhauser was assigned to Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft fur Heil- und Pflegeanstalten, part of the office for Action T4 and one of several front organizations of Hitler's Chancellery, in November 1939.

At the killing centers of Grafeneck, Brandenburg and Bernburg, where these people were murdered en masse by gas, Josef Oberhauser was a Brenner, or Leichenbrenner : he was responsible for the burning of the bodies in the specially installed crematory ovens.

Josef Oberhauser was responsible for the development of the camp.

Josef Oberhauser was under the command of camp commandant Christian Wirth, and he served as Wirth's liaison to Globocnik.

Consequently Josef Oberhauser was often seen in Wirth's company within the camp, but no recognizable activity would have resulted nor would any independent authority have been exercised.

Only occasionally was Josef Oberhauser given a role at the implementation of mass killings, the illegality of which he had fully recognized.

Josef Oberhauser led the supervision of the unloading of the trains and made sure that the train crew did not enter the camp area but were held outside the camp in readiness, to be able to reinforce the outer cordon in case there was an uprising or desperate breakout attempt by the doomed people.

Josef Oberhauser was allocated vehicles and the people necessary for the fulfillment of this task.

Josef Oberhauser was promoted to the rank of SS-Obersturmfuhrer on 30 January 1945.

Purportedly, Josef Oberhauser was commandant of Risiera di San Sabba until its closure in late April 1945.

Josef Oberhauser then went to Austria with his unit, and was arrested by the British authorities in May 1945 in Bad Gastein.

Josef Oberhauser was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 10 years deprivation of civil rights.

Josef Oberhauser was granted an amnesty on 28 April 1956, and released after only 8 years.

On 30 January 1964, all of the defendants but Josef Oberhauser were acquitted due to the collapse of the prosecution case but re-arrested shortly thereafter.

Josef Oberhauser was found guilty of a number of charges, namely:.

Josef Oberhauser was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison with hard labor.

Josef Oberhauser was released after serving half of his sentence.

Josef Oberhauser was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for his crimes committed in Italy, but the Italian extradition request failed.

Josef Oberhauser was unwillingly filmed for Claude Lanzmann's documentary Shoah, released in 1985.