Pohl trial

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Oswald Pohl receives his sentence to death by hanging.

The Pohl trial (also known as the WVHA Trial and officially The United States of America vs. Oswald Pohl, et al.) was the fourth of the twelve trials for war crimes that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, although both courts presided in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).





  2. War crimes through the administration of concentration camps and extermination camps, and the mass murders and atrocities committed there.
  4. Membership in a criminal organization, the SS.

The SS had been found a criminal organization previously by the IMT. All defendants were charged on all counts of the indictment, except Hohberg, who was not charged on count 4. Charge 1 (conspiracy) was largely disregarded by the tribunal and no judgments on this count were passed.


All convicts were found guilty on charges 2, 3, and 4, except Hohberg (who was not charged on count 4, but found guilty on counts 2 and 3). Three defendants were acquitted on all charges: Vogt, Scheide, and Klein.

Defendant Function Sentence of
Nov 3, 1947
Sentence of
Aug 11, 1948
1951 Amnesty
O. Pohl.png
Oswald Pohl
head of the WVHA, Lt. General of the Waffen SS death by hanging confirmed executed June 7, 1951
August Frank.png
August Frank
deputy chief of the WVHA, Lt. General of the Waffen SS life imprisonment confirmed commuted to 15 years
Georg Lörner.png
Georg Lörner
deputy chief of the WVHA, Maj. General of the Waffen SS death by hanging changed to lifetime imprisonment commuted to 15 years
Heinz Fanslau.png
Heinz Karl Fanslau (de/pl)
deputy chief of the WVHA, Brigadier General of the Waffen SS 25 years reduced to 20 years commuted to 15 years
Hans Lörner.png
Hans Lörner (de)
SS Oberführer 10 years confirmed released
Josef Vogt.png
Josef Vogt (de)
SS Standartenführer acquitted    
Erwin Tschentscher.png
Erwin Tschentscher (de)
SS Standartenführer 10 years confirmed released
Rudolf Scheide.png
Rudolf Scheide (de)
SS Standartenführer acquitted    
Max Kiefer.png
Max Kiefer (de)
SS Obersturmbannführer life imprisonment reduced to 20 years released
Franz Eirenschmalz.png
Franz Eirenschmalz (de)
SS Standartenführer death by hanging confirmed commuted to 9 years
Karl sommer.png
Karl Sommer (de)
SS Sturmbannführer death by hanging confirmed commuted to lifetime imprisonment in 1949;
commuted to 20 years in 1951
Hermann Pook.png
Hermann Pook (de)
Obersturmbannführer of the Waffen SS, chief dentist of the WVHA 10 years confirmed released
Johannes Baier.png
Hans Baier (de)
SS Oberführer 10 years confirmed released
Hans Hohberg.png
Hans Hohberg (de)
executive officer 10 years, incl. time already served confirmed released
Leo Volk-1.png
Leo Volk (de)
SS Hauptsturmführer, personal advisor of Pohl, head of legal department of the WVHA 10 years confirmed commuted to 8 years
Karl Mummenthey.jpg
Karl Mummenthey (de)
SS Obersturmbannführer life imprisonment confirmed commuted to 20 years
Hanns Bobermin.png
Hanns Bobermin (de)
SS Obersturmbannführer 20 years reduced to 15 years released
Horst Klein.jpg
Horst Klein (de)
SS Obersturmbannführer acquitted    

Hohberg's sentence of 10 years included time already served—he was imprisoned on October 22, 1945—because he was not a member of the SS. The defense counsel for Karl Sommer filed a petition to modify the sentence to General Lucius D. Clay, the Commander-in-Chief for the U.S. occupation zone. In response to this appeal, Clay [1] ordered Sommer's death sentence to be commuted into a lifetime imprisonment on May 11, 1949. Pohl kept claiming his innocence, stating that he had been only a lower functionary. He was hanged on June 7, 1951, in the prison at Landsberg.

The head of Amt D: Konzentrationslagerwesen of the WVHA (the department of concentration camps), Richard Glücks, who had been the direct superior of all commanders of concentration camps and as such directly responsible for all the atrocities committed there, was not tried. On May 10, 1945, two days after the unconditional surrender of Germany, he had committed suicide in the navy hospital of Flensburg.

See also[edit]