Josef Erber

Nazi death camp staff member

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Josef Erber (birth name: Josef Houstek) (16 October 1897 – 31 October 1987) was a Nazi German SS-Oberscharführer at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was in charge of the crematoria.^[1]

Erber was born in Ottendorf in 1897. He is mentioned several times in the account of Sonderkommando member Filip Müller, and is noted to have been among the most notoriously cruel of the SS personnel.^[2]

After serving at Auschwitz, in 1944, Josef Houstek changed his name to Josef Erber.

In May 1945, Erber was taken prisoner by the Americans. He was released in Christmas 1947, after which he worked at a spinning mill in Hof, Bavaria for 15 years. On October 1, 1962, Erber was arrested. He was tried at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Erber was found guilty of mass murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was released from prison in 1986, and was killed in a traffic accident on 31 October 1987.^[3]

References

Müller, Filip (1999) [1979]. Eyewitness Auschwitz – Three Years in the Gas Chambers. trans. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. and Susanne Flatauer. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee & in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. p. 180. ISBN 1-56663-271-4.

^ "Zyklon Introduction Columns – Erber's Testimony". Holocaust History Project. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
^ Müller, Filip. Eyewitness Auschwitz – Three Years in the Gas Chambers.
^ "Wie die DDR ihr eigenes Tribunal inszenierte" (in German). Retrieved 2023-05-15.