Arrest and Execution
On June 11, 1945, Aumeier was arrested at Terningmoen camp as a result of the capture by the British MI6 of Gestapo files. He was still in full SS uniform and admitted almost immediately his name and rank. He was handed over to United States intelligence officers at Akershus Prison for interrogation in August, 1945. In 1946, he was extradited to Poland to face trial as a war criminal along with thirty-nine other members of the SS staff of Auschwitz-Birkenau, before the Supreme National Tribunal in Kraków. The trial lasted from November 25 to December 16, 1947, and Aumeier stated that if he was found guilty and sentenced to death, he would "die as a 'Sündenbock' (scapegoat) for Germany". He told the court that he had never killed anyone at Auschwitz and neither had any of his men and denied knowledge of the gas chambers. On December 22, Aumeier was sentenced to death, and he was hanged on January 28, 1948 in Montelupich Prison, Kraków.
Read more about this topic: Hans Aumeier
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