English source-aligned edition
Anton Kaindl
Anton Kaindl served as commandant of Sachsenhausen concentration camp from 1942 to 1945. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Sachsenhausen · Oranienburg · Germany through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- Anton Kaindl was born on 14 July 1902 in Munich. He commanded Sachsenhausen concentration camp from 1942 to 1945. (Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Anton Kaindl affidavit of 16 July 1946, 23 pp.; metadata lines and scanned pp. 1–23; NMT 4 pp. 4114, 4139; Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Section “SS Personnel,” especially the paragraph naming Anton Kaindl)
- On 2 February 1945 he ordered preparations for evacuation; from 21 April more than 33,000 prisoners were driven out in columns, the SS shot those who fell behind, and over one thousand did not survive. (Source: Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen, Paragraphs beginning “Am 2. Februar 1945…” and “Die zurückbleibenden Häftlinge…”)
- The Soviet Sachsenhausen trial sentenced him in 1947 to lifelong forced labour. He was sent to Vorkuta and died there on 31 August 1948. (Source: Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten, Printed p. 92, discussion of the 1947 Sachsenhausen trial)
Place in the chain of responsibility
Kaindl’s responsibility rests on his position as commandant and the specific order to prepare an evacuation that became a death march. His sworn affidavit also documents his knowledge of the concentration-camp system. (Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Anton Kaindl affidavit of 16 July 1946, 23 pp.; metadata lines and scanned pp. 1–23; NMT 4 pp. 4114, 4139; Source: Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen, Paragraphs beginning “Am 2. Februar 1945…” and “Die zurückbleibenden Häftlinge…”)
Key events and mechanisms
- 1942 – assumed command of Sachsenhausen (Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Section “SS Personnel,” especially the paragraph naming Anton Kaindl)
- 2 February–21 April 1945 – preparation and start of the camp evacuation (Source: Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen, Paragraphs beginning “Am 2. Februar 1945…” and “Die zurückbleibenden Häftlinge…”)
- 1947 – lifelong forced labour in the Soviet Sachsenhausen trial (Source: Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten, Printed p. 92, discussion of the 1947 Sachsenhausen trial)
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
A Soviet military tribunal sentenced Kaindl in 1947 to lifelong forced labour. He was deported to Vorkuta and died there on 31 August 1948. (Source: Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten, Printed p. 92, discussion of the 1947 Sachsenhausen trial)
Limits of the evidence
The figure of more than one thousand deaths concerns the entire death march, not Kaindl’s personal victim total. The profile attributes to him the evacuation order and command responsibility, not every shot fired by guards. (Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Anton Kaindl affidavit of 16 July 1946, 23 pp.; metadata lines and scanned pp. 1–23; NMT 4 pp. 4114, 4139; Source: Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen, Paragraphs beginning “Am 2. Februar 1945…” and “Die zurückbleibenden Häftlinge…”; Source: Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten, Printed p. 92, discussion of the 1947 Sachsenhausen trial)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.