Roland Puhr

Roland Puhr (21 January 1914 – 15 April 1964) was an SS-Unterscharführer who committed numerous atrocities at Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. After the war, he settled down in East Germany using forged papers. Puhr was exposed as a war criminal in 1963, and executed the following year.

Roland Puhr
Puhr during his time in the SS
Born	(1914-01-21)21 January 1914 Staré Křečany, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary
Died	15 April 1964(1964-04-15) (aged 50) Leipzig Prison, Leipzig, East Germany
Cause of death	Execution by guillotine
Political party	Nazi Party
Criminal status	Executed
Motive	Nazism
Conviction(s)	War crimes Crimes against humanity
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	30–40+
Span of crimes	1938–1945
Country	Germany and Channel Islands
Location(s)	Sachsenhausen concentration camp Lager Sylt
Date apprehended	June 1963
Military career
Allegiance	Germany
Service / branch	Schutzstaffel
Years of service	1938–1945
Rank	Unterscharführer
Unit	SS-Totenkopfverbände

Early life

Puhr was born in Staré Křečany in Bohemia in 1914. He joined the Sudeten German Party in 1936.

Wartime activities

In the 1930s, Puhr joined the Czechoslovakian military. In 1938, he deserted to join the Wehrmacht. In 1939, Puhr joined the Nazi Party. He was then assigned to the SS-Totenkopfverbände and sent to work as a guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. During his time, Puhr participated in the shootings of multiple Soviet POWs at the camp's execution site. He personally murdered approximately 30 to 40 prisoners. One prisoner whose murder he participated in was the beating death of Austrian prosecutor Karl Tuppy, who'd initiated the case against SS men Otto Planetta and Franz Holzweber for the murder of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss during the July Putsch in 1934. Planetta and Holzweber were both found guilty of killing Dollfuss and executed. Tuppy had also been involved in the prosecutions of Anton Rintelen, one of the ringleaders in the coup, and Otto Steinhäusl, a police officer who'd collaborated. Rintelen and Steinhäusl both received prison terms for treason, albeit they were later released under amnesty agreements with Germany. German communist Rudolf Wunderlich, a survivor of Sachsenhausen, later described finding Tuppy after he was beaten by Puhr and other SS men.

"I had never seen anything like it. His face was gone. Just a piece of completely undefined meat, full of blood, cuts, the eyes completely swollen up."

Tuppy died shortly after being beaten further by SS guards Gustav Sorge and Wilhelm Schubert.

Puhr was suspected of additional targeted killings at an SS construction brigade near Düsseldorf. Puhr was also the first commandant of the Lager Sylt camp in the Channel Islands.

Exposure, trial, and execution

After war ended, Puhr went into hiding using forged papers. He started a new life in Schönhausen. However, in June 1963, Puhr was exposed and arrested by East German authorities. He was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. On 16 December 1963, Puhr was found guilty by a court in Neubrandenburg and sentenced to death. His appeal was rejected, and Chairman of the State Council Walter Ulbricht rejected his petition for clemency. Puhr was guillotined at Leipzig Prison on 15 April 1964. His remains were then cremated, and he was buried in an unmarked grave in an undisclosed location.