1. Richard Baer was a German SS officer who, among other assignments, was the final commandant of Auschwitz I concentration camp from May 1944 to January 1945, and right after, from February to April 1945, commandant of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp.
Richard Baer died in detention before he could stand trial.
Richard Baer signed on with the Nazi Party in 1930, and on 1 July 1932, he became a member of the Allgemeine SS.
Richard Baer later stated that he had joined the Allgemeine SS because he liked the "soldier discipline" and the "joy of playing soldiers".
Richard Baer's teacher was Theodor Eicke, the camp commandant since June 1933 and shaper of the so-called "Dachau Model" of the Nazi concentration camp system.
From December 1934 to end-March 1935, Richard Baer performed guard duty at the infamous Gestapo prison Columbia-Haus in Berlin.
Richard Baer was later assigned to the SS-Death's Head 2nd regiment Brandenburg, which in 1936 was involved in the build up of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
In September 1938, Richard Baer was promoted to SS-second lieutenant and, at the end of the same year, he headed the first group of guards in the newly established Neuengamme concentration camp, then still a sub-camp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
In 1942, Richard Baer was appointed adjutant to the commandant of the Neuengamme concentration camp.
From November 1942 to May 1944, Richard Baer was adjutant to Oswald Pohl, then chief of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office.
Richard Baer succeeded Arthur Liebehenschel, considered by Himmler to be too "soft" with the prisoners, as the third and final commandant of Auschwitz I from 11 May 1944, until the final dissolution of the camp in early 1945.
From November 1943 until the end of 1944, Fritz Hartjenstein and Josef Kramer were responsible for the extermination camp in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, so Richard Baer was only Commandant of that part of the camp from the end of 1944 until February 1945.
Richard Baer returned to his home county at the end of the war and eventually settled near Hamburg, living as Karl Egon Neumann, a forestry worker.
The story of Richard Baer's arrest is vividly recounted by Devin Pendas in his book The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial.
Richard Baer died of a heart attack while in pre-trial detention in 1963.