13 Facts About Karl Rahm

Karl Rahm was a Sturmbannfuhrer in the German Schutzstaffel who, from February 1944 to May 1945, served as the commandant of the Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Karl Rahm was born in 1907 in the city of Klosterneuburg, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Karl Rahm apprenticed as a toolmaker and worked for a time in Vienna, where during the 1920s he was exposed to the activities of the Austrian Nazi Party.

Karl Rahm became a member of the Nazis in the early 1930s and joined the underground Austrian SS at the same time.

In 1938, after the Anschluss with Nazi Germany, Karl Rahm became an SS officer attached to SS-Oberabschnitt Donau under the command of Ernst Kaltenbrunner.

At the start of World War II in 1939, Karl Rahm was an SS-Obersturmfuhrer in the Allgemeine-SS.

In March 1941, Karl Rahm was briefly sent to the Netherlands together with Gunther, to set up the same institution here, which however failed.

Karl Rahm was promoted to SS-Sturmbannfuhrer in February 1944 and ordered to assume duties as Kommandant of the Theresienstadt camp.

Karl Rahm was known for his cynical and rash character; he frequently beat prisoners himself and oversaw torture sessions.

Karl Rahm further was known to spare some Jews from deportation as well as on occasion referring to members of the Theresienstadt Judenrat in the German tense of Sie instead of du, even in front of other SS officers.

Karl Rahm evacuated Theresienstadt on May 5,1945, along with the last of the SS personnel.

Karl Rahm was captured shortly afterward by American forces in Austria and extradited in 1947 to Czechoslovakia.

Karl Rahm was hanged on April 30,1947, four hours after his guilty verdict had been handed down by the Czech court.