Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert

Confirmed findings

• Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert, born in 1905, served in the SS camp system, including Dachau and Majdanek; in 1944 he commanded the Warsaw labour camp. (Source: Polish Institute of National Remembrance — KL Warschau, printed p. 125, footnote 21 and paragraph on Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert)
• Former Dachau prisoner Rudolf Wolf testified that he repeatedly saw Ruppert kick and whip prisoners until they lost consciousness. A US Army case review separately discusses his beatings and supervision of executions. (Source: Horace R. Hansen, Witness to Barbarism — University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, printed p. 192, testimony of Dachau survivor Rudolf Wolf; Source: US Army War Crimes Branch — review of the Dachau main trial, Vol. 66, section “2. Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert”, printed pp. 3–4)
• On 13 December 1945, the US military court in the first Dachau staff trial sentenced Ruppert to death by hanging. A trial register records that the sentence was carried out on 28 May 1946. (Source: Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte — Dachauer Prozesse exhibition, PDF p. 2, lines 99–116, facsimile of the US military-court sentence of 13 December 1945; Source: Jewish Virtual Library — Dachau War Crimes Trials register, Case No. 000-50-2, individual sentence list, Friedrich-Wilhelm Ruppert row)

Place in the chain of responsibility

His responsibility is documented by an eyewitness account of his own violence, the case review of his camp activity, and an individual sentence. The more than 90 Soviet POWs mentioned in the review were victims of executions he supervised; that is not a count of people he personally killed. (Source: Horace R. Hansen, Witness to Barbarism — University of Minnesota Human Rights Library, printed p. 192, testimony of Dachau survivor Rudolf Wolf; Source: Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte — Dachauer Prozesse exhibition, PDF p. 2, lines 99–116, facsimile of the US military-court sentence of 13 December 1945; Source: US Army War Crimes Branch — review of the Dachau main trial, Vol. 66, section “2. Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert”, printed pp. 3–4)

Key events and mechanisms

• 1944–1945 — after service in Warsaw, Ruppert held the protective-custody camp leadership post at Dachau. (Source: Polish Institute of National Remembrance — KL Warschau, printed p. 125, footnote 21 and paragraph on Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert; Source: US Army War Crimes Branch — review of the Dachau main trial, Vol. 66, section “2. Friedrich Wilhelm Ruppert”, printed pp. 3–4)
• 13 December 1945 — death sentence in the Dachau main trial; execution in May 1946. (Source: Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte — Dachauer Prozesse exhibition, PDF p. 2, lines 99–116, facsimile of the US military-court sentence of 13 December 1945; Source: Jewish Virtual Library — Dachau War Crimes Trials register, Case No. 000-50-2, individual sentence list, Friedrich-Wilhelm Ruppert row)

Postwar accountability

The military court sentenced him to death on 13 December 1945; the trial register gives 28 May 1946 as the date of his execution at Landsberg. (Source: Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte — Dachauer Prozesse exhibition, PDF p. 2, lines 99–116, facsimile of the US military-court sentence of 13 December 1945; Source: Jewish Virtual Library — Dachau War Crimes Trials register, Case No. 000-50-2, individual sentence list, Friedrich-Wilhelm Ruppert row)

Limits of the evidence

Sources

The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.

• Institute of National Remembrance
• hrlibrary.umn.edu
• archiv.hdbg.de
• ltd-docs.s3.nl-ams.scw.cloud
• jewishvirtuallibrary.org