Josef Leipold
Josef Leipold | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 November 1913 Carlsbad, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 8 March 1949 (aged 35) |
| Allegiance |  Czechoslovakia Nazi Germany |
| Service/ | Czechoslovak Army Schutzstaffel |
| Rank | SS-Obersturmführer |
| Unit | General-SS, Death's Head Units, 18th SS division |
| Commands held | Budzyn labor Camp (Jan - Jun 1944) Brünnlitz labor camp (Oct 1944 - Jan 1945) |
Josef Leipold (10 November 1913 – 8 March 1949) was an SS officer (SS-Obersturmführer) who is best known as the commander of the Brünnlitz labor camp, which was the location where Oskar Schindler brought the Schindlerjuden in order to protect them from Nazi extermination directives.
Early life
Leipold was born on 10 November 1913 in Altrohlau (Carlsbad) in the German Sudetenland. From October 1935 to September 1937, Leipold served in the Czechoslovak Army as a non-commissioned officer. Upon the German annexation of the Sudetenland, and the subsequent founding of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Leipold joined the Nazi Party and the SS, with Party #6,568,081 and SS number 344,830.
Concentration camp service
After briefly serving in a mustering formation of the Allgemeine-SS, Leipold transferred to the concentration camp service and was first posted to Mauthausen. On 15 November 1941 he was transferred to Majdanek. In January 1944, Leipold became a Lagerführer and was posted as commander of the labor camp at Budzyń, near Kraśnik, where he quickly became known for brutality against the prisoners.
In June 1944, the labor camp at Budzyn was closed, and Leipold was transferred to become a camp officer at the Plaszow concentration camp. In the fall of 1944, Leipold was chosen to become the camp commander at Brünnlitz, which was the location where Oskar Schindler had bribed the SS to transfer Jewish workers from his factory at Plaszow, thus avoiding their liquidation and extermination at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Leipold first went to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp where he formed a cadre of staff and guards to head to Brünnlitz, then reported to the camp in October 1944.
At Brünnlitz, Leipold found there was little for the SS to do, as the "camp" was simply a factory complex with an attached prisoner barracks, with external security consisting of a token front gate and simple fence. Schindler then instructed the SS to avoid contact with the camp prisoners and had even forbidden the SS from entering the factory itself. Schindler's camp was in fact only open for a few months, and Leipold deserted, along with the rest of the SS, in early May 1945 as the Red Army was approaching.
Post war fate
After most of his SS staff had deserted from Brünnlitz, Leipold was briefly attached to the 18th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Horst Wessel. After Germany's complete collapse, Leipold was arrested and transferred to Poland in 1947 and charged with war crimes. He was executed in March 1949.
Media portrayals
In the film Schindler's List, Leipold is portrayed by actor Ludger Pistor. The film incorrectly spells Leipold's name as "Josef Liepold".
References
- Crowe, David, Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of His Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List, Westview Press (2004)
External links
- Biography of Josef Leipold (in Polish)
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