Fritz Suhren

In 1946, Suhren and another man, Hans Pflaum [fr], escaped prison and fled to Bavaria. As a result, they did not attend the Hamburg Ravensbrück trials in 1947. However, in 1949, the two men were recaptured by U.S. soldiers, who extradited them to the French occupation zone. Suhren and Pflaum were both put on trial by a French military court. The trial and appeal took place from February to May 1950. The jury was composed of representatives from the French, Dutch and Luxembourg governments, presided by the chief justice officer of the French zone Several dozen former prisoners were subpoenaed. Suhren and Pflaum were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, sentenced to death, and executed on 12 June 1950.

He was later commandant of the women's camp at Ravensbrück concentration camp. His policy upon taking command in 1942 was to exterminate the prisoners through working them as hard as possible while feeding them the least amount of food he could.

Trained by the Wehrmacht under SS supervision he was nevertheless not used as a soldier and instead was stationed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1941. By 1942 he was Lagerführer (deputy commandant) at the camp and in May of that year ordered camp Lagerältester Harry Naujoks to hang a prisoner who had been earmarked for execution. Naujoks refused to perform the deed. While Naujoks was able to survive the insubordination, Suhren insisted that he stand beside the prisoner on the gallows (which had been fitted with a winch in order to prolong the execution) and forced a young inmate to perform the hanging.

Suhren joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and the Sturmabteilung at the same time. He moved over to the SS in October 1931, initially as a volunteer before going full-time in 1934.

Fritz Suhren (10 June 1908 – 12 June 1950) was a German SS officer and Nazi concentration camp commandant.