Josef Kramer: Nazi Camp Commandant of Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz Executed After Trial

World History: True Stories of the 20th Century · Apr 25, 2026 · 23m

Josef Kramer, known as the “Beast of Belsen,” was a Nazi camp commandant responsible for mass murder who was executed after the Belsen Trial. Josef Kramer was one of the most notorious concentration camp commandants of Nazi Germany, remembered as the “Beast of Belsen.” His career traces the evolution of the Nazi camp system itself — from early political repression to industrialized mass murder. Born in Munich in 1906, Kramer joined the Nazi Party and the SS during the economic collapse of the Great Depression. Like many perpetrators, he was not driven by ideology alone but by opportunity…