Josef Schwammberger

Who was Josef Schwammberger?

Josef Franz Leo Schwammberger was a member of the SS during the Nazi era.

During the Second World War, Schwammberger was a commander of various SS Arbeitslager in the Kraków district. He was arrested in Innsbruck, Austria, in the French occupation zone after the war on July 19,1945, but escaped in January 1948 and within months was able to enter Argentina, where he lived under his own name and obtained citizenship. West German authorities sought his extradition beginning in 1973, and Argentine officials tracked him down on Nov. 13, 1987. After two years of fighting extradition, hew was returned to Germany in May 1990 for trial. His capture cost the German state of Baden-Württemberg just under 500,000 Deutschmark.

At his trial, which lasted nearly a year, Schwammberger denied being guilty of the crimes of which he was charged; he simply admitted that "Ghetto A" was taken to the Przemyśl camp. On May 18, 1992, he was condemned by the Stuttgart regional court to life imprisonment, which he was to serve in Mannheim. He was found guilty of seven counts of murder and 32 counts of accessory to murder.