Otto Förschner

Otto Förschner after his arrest

Otto Förschner (born 4 November 1902 in Dürrenzimmern - died 28 May 1946 in Landsberg am Lech) was a German Schutzstaffel officer and Nazi concentration camp commandant.

Brought up on his parents farm in Dürrenzimmern, Bavaria, he enlisted in the army in 1922 and remained a soldier until 1934.^[1] The day he left the army Förschner enlisted in the Militarised Formations of the SS, which formed the basis of the Waffen-SS.^[1]

Following the outbreak of World War II he was transferred to the SS-Totenkopfverbände.^[1] His initial concentration camp service was as a guard at Buchenwald concentration camp in 1941.^[1] From there he rose to become commandant of Dora concentration camp although in this role he was described as "too soft" with his subordinates, a fact that delayed promotions throughout his SS career.^[2] By the end of the war he held the rank of Sturmbannführer.^[1] He was moved to a post at Dachau concentration camp in 1945 with Richard Baer taking command of Dora.^[3]

After the war he was captured and tried by the United States military court for cruelty to prisoners, including beating one to death with an iron bar, as part of the Dachau Trials.^[4] He was hanged on 28 May 1946 at Landsberg Prison.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Tom Segev, Soldiers of Evil, Berkley Books, 1991, p. 70
2. ^ Segev, Soldiers of Evil, p. 26
3. ^ Guy B. Adams, Danny L. Balfour, Unmasking Administrative Evil, M.E. Sharpe, 2009, p. 63
4. ^ Holger Lessing: Der erste Dachauer Prozess (1945/46)., Baden-Baden 1993, p.319
5. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 158

Persondata
Name	Forschner, Otto
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Date of birth	4 November 1902
Place of birth
Date of death	28 May 1946
Place of death