Government Officials
The last Commandant of Mauthausen was Franz Ziereis. Ziereis was sent from the Buchenwald camp to Mauthausen on February 9, 1939, to replace the previous Commandant, Albert Sauer. On August 25, 1939, Ziereis was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer and on April 20, 1944, as a reward for "special achievements" as camp commandant, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Standartenführer. Commandant Franz Ziereis was never brought before a Military Tribunal. On the morning of May 3, 1945 Ziereis departed Mauthausen with his wife and three children. He was identified by former Polish inmates, and arrested on May 23, 1945 at his hunting lodge on the Pyhrn in Upper Austria. While trying to escape the Americans he was shot at and wounded. He died at the Mauthausen camp, where he was brought after he was "shot while attempting to escape." Ziereis was questioned over six to eight hours that night with Colonel Richard R. Seibel of the 11th Armored Division then commanding Mauthausen, other US Army personnel and civilians. Polish and Russian former inmates of the camp took Ziereis' body. Later his body was found (and photographed) placed onto the barbed wire fence at Mauthausen, naked except for the bandage on his left arm and with his back painted with anti-Nazi graffiti "Heil Hitler" and Swastikas.
Quoted below is an excerpt from page 16 of "The Redemption of the Unwanted," written by Abram L. Sachar:
" He (Ziereis) always appeared immaculately uniformed and bemedaled. Since Himmler had taken him from a mental asylum, Ziereis imitated his mentor by drawing the members of his personal staff from among vicious criminals. He conducted seminars to refine techniques in brutality and never denied that he shared in the satisfactions of maltreating the prisoners. He confessed to the charge that book covers and screens had been made from the skins of the camp victims, but claimed that this was the work of two of his demented fellow officers. To Ziereis it was apparently entertaining to have the kitchen staff overturn pots of watery soup so that the starved creatures who shambled up for their "meal' would be forced to lick the spillage before it was absorbed into the filthy floor. He had the SS brothels secretly equipped with motion picture cameras, to monitor the possibility that messages might be passed during coitus. In his confessions, he noted that he gave fifty Jews for target practice as a birthday present to his son."
Quoted below is an excerpt from page 16 of "The Redemption of the Unwanted," written by Abram L. Sachar:
" He (Ziereis) always appeared immaculately uniformed and bemedaled. Since Himmler had taken him from a mental asylum, Ziereis imitated his mentor by drawing the members of his personal staff from among vicious criminals. He conducted seminars to refine techniques in brutality and never denied that he shared in the satisfactions of maltreating the prisoners. He confessed to the charge that book covers and screens had been made from the skins of the camp victims, but claimed that this was the work of two of his demented fellow officers. To Ziereis it was apparently entertaining to have the kitchen staff overturn pots of watery soup so that the starved creatures who shambled up for their "meal' would be forced to lick the spillage before it was absorbed into the filthy floor. He had the SS brothels secretly equipped with motion picture cameras, to monitor the possibility that messages might be passed during coitus. In his confessions, he noted that he gave fifty Jews for target practice as a birthday present to his son."