English research edition
Heinz Auerswald
Heinz Auerswald served as commissioner for the Jewish residential district in Warsaw. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Warsaw and the Warsaw ghetto 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
- From 1941 Auerswald was the German civil-administration commissioner responsible for the Warsaw ghetto.
- His office regulated labour, passes, contacts with the Jewish Council and police enforcement of isolation.
- His reports document an administrative view of hunger, smuggling and coercion as management problems.
Place in the chain of responsibility
The profile demonstrates how isolation and destruction were sustained by daily administration, not only by the highly visible deportation operations.
Key events and mechanisms
- administration of the Warsaw ghetto in 1941–1942
- intensified punishment for leaving the ghetto
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
Auerswald worked as a lawyer in Hanover. He was investigated during the 1960s but died in 1970 before an indictment was filed.
Limits of the evidence
The commissioner’s powers overlapped with those of the district governor, police and SS. Only regulations and practices documented as belonging to Auerswald’s office are attributed to him.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.