Arthur Hermann Florstedt
Born(1895-02-18)18 February 1895
Bitsch, Bezirk Lothringen, German Empire
DiedOn or after 5 April 1945
Cause of deathExecution by firing squad
Criminal statusExecuted
Conviction(s)Embezzlement
Criminal penaltyDeath
Military career
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Service/branch Schutzstaffel
Years of service1931–1945
RankSS-Standartenführer
Commands heldMajdanek concentration camp
AwardsIron Cross 2nd Class 1914 
                 Honor Cross of World War 1914/1918
                 SA-Sports Badge in Bronze
NSDAP Party Badge

Arthur Hermann Florstedt (18 February 1895 – on or after 5 April 1945), member of the NSDAP, was a German SS commander, war criminal and convicted war profiteer. He became the third commander of Majdanek concentration camp in October 1942. Florstedt was convicted of corruption and sentenced to death. Whether he was executed is unknown.[1]

World War II

Florstedt joined the SS in 1933 achieving the rank of Standartenführer in 1938. He served at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from 1940 till 1942. He was appointed the third chief of Majdanek extermination camp in October 1942 to replace SS-Sturmbannführer Max Koegel.

Florstedt was investigated by SS Judge Georg Konrad Morgen and charged by the Schutzstaffel (SS) with embezzlement and arbitrary killing of prisoner witnesses.[2] Florstedt was one of two Majdanek commandants put on trial by the SS in the course of the camp operation.[3] He was charged with corruption (wholesale stealing from the Third Reich); he had access to valuables stolen from Holocaust victims killed at death camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. These valuables were stored and processed at Majdanek.

He was replaced by the interim commander Martin Gottfried Weiss. Florstedt was allegedly executed by the SS on 5 April 1945, the same day Karl-Otto Koch was executed. However, while Koch's execution has been confirmed, Florstedt's fate remains disputed.[4][5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-596-16048-0, S. 156f.
  2. ↑ "Konrad Morgen "The Bloodhound Judge", Investigating corruption within the SS". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. 2012. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
  3. ↑ Staff Writer (2006). "Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp: Conditions". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2013-04-13.
  4. ↑ Lindner, Peter (1997). Hermann Florstedt, SS-Führer und KZ-Lagerkommandant. Ein Lebensbild im Horizont der Familie (in German). Halle: Gursky. p. 76. ISBN 3-929389-19-3.
  5. ↑ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-596-16048-0, S. 156f.
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