Hermann Florstedt: Brutal Nazi Commandant of the Majdanek Death Camp

World History: True Stories of the 20th Century · Jul 31, 2026 · 11m

Hermann Florstedt was a brutal SS officer who commanded the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp, where tens of thousands of prisoners were murdered during the Holocaust. Born in 1895 in Bitche, then part of the German Empire, he served in the First World War and later joined the nationalist Stahlhelm organization before becoming a member of the Nazi Party and the SS in the early 1930s.

From the beginning of Nazi rule, Florstedt was involved in political violence, including participation in the 1933 "Eisleben Bloody Sunday" attack against political opponents. His career in the…