{{Short description|German Nazi politician and military figure (1884–1940)}} '''Hermann Baranowski''' (11 June 1884 in Schwerin&nbsp;&ndash; 5 February 1940 in Aue) was a German politician and military figure. A member of the Nazi Party, he is best known as the commandant of two German concentration camps of the SS Death's Head unit.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tuchel |first=Johannes |year=1991 |title=Konzentrationslager : Organisationsgeschichte und Funktion der "Inspektion der Konzentrationslager" 1934-1938 |language=de |location=Boppard am Rhein |publisher=H. Boldt |page=371 |isbn=978-3-7646-1902-2 }}</ref>

In April 1900, at the age of fifteen, he volunteered for the navy and later fought in the First World War, serving aboard the SMS Moltke. In 1912 he married August Dibbern with whom he had two children, a boy and a girl. In 1930 he was discharged as a lieutenant and then worked first as an office clerk in Kiel and later as a sales representative in Hamburg.<ref name="Morsch-2005">{{Cite book|last1=Morsch |first1=Günter |last2=Gabriel |first2=Ralph |year=2005 |title=Mord und Massenmord im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen 1936-1945 |trans-title=Murder and Mass Murder in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp 1936-1945 |language=de |location=Berlin |publisher=Metropol |page=83 |isbn=978-3-936411-93-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owdnAAAAMAAJ }}</ref>

Baranowski joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) in 1930. The following year he signed up for the SS (SS #24009<ref>{{Cite book|editor-last1=Broszat |editor-first1=Martin |editor-last2=Fröhlich-Broszat |editor-first2=Elke |year=2018 |chapter=Das Konzentrationslager Dachau: In Dachau geschulte Kommandanten der Kriegs-KL |title=Herrschaft und Gesellschaft im Konflikt: Teil A |language=de |location=Berlin |publisher=Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag (Walter de Gruyter) |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VgpTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA363 363] |isbn= }}</ref>). His first appointment was as the leader of the 4th SS Standarte in Hamburg-Altona. In March 1936 Himmler appointed him commandant of the Lichtenburg concentration camp.<ref name="Morsch-2005" /> However, he was soon removed, demoted and sent as a Lagerführer (compound leader) at Dachau concentration camp.<ref name="Morsch-2005" /><ref name="Dillon-2016">{{Cite book|last=Dillon |first=Christopher |year=2016 |title=Dachau and the SS: A Schooling in Violence |location=Oxford, England |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QHR4DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT144 144] |isbn=978-0-19-965652-3 }}</ref>

However, in 1938 he was promoted to ''Schutzhaftlagerführer'' at Dachau concentration camp.<ref name="Dillon-2016" /> He served as the commandant (SS-Oberführer) of Sachsenhausen concentration camp from May 1938<ref name="Morsch-2005" /> until September 1939.{{cn|date=July 2017}} He died at Aue in 1940.

He was noted to be especially sadistic.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hett |first=Benjamin Carter |year=2008 |title=Crossing Hitler: The Man Who Put the Nazis on the Witness Stand |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tWvRCwAAQBAJ&dq=Hermann+Baranowski&pg=PA223 223] |isbn=978-0-19-970859-8 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Zadoff |first=Mirjam |year=2018 |title=Werner Scholem: A German Life |location= Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Dfs9DwAAQBAJ&dq=Hermann+Baranowski&pg=PA264 264] |isbn=978-0-8122-4969-9 }}</ref> However, Rudolf Höss, commandant at Auschwitz, described Baranowski as: {{Blockquote|text=very strict and hard, but of a scrupulous sense of fair play and fanatical sense of duty. As a very old SS leader and National Socialist he became my role model. I constantly saw in him a grander reflection of myself. He also had movements where his good nature, his soft heart revealed themselves, and yet he was hard and uncompromisingly strict in all matters of duty. So he constantly brought home to me how the hard 'must' demanded by the SS had to silence all soft stirrings. |author=Höss |source=<ref>quoted in {{Cite book|last=Koop |first=Volker |year=2021 |chapter=Höss and the SS |title=The Commandant of Auschwitz: Rudolf Höss |location=Barnsley, South Yorkshire |publisher=Frontline Books (Pen & Sword Books) |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Gv0hEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT38 38] |isbn=978-1-4738-8688-9 }}</ref>}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box| before= SS-Standartenführer Otto Reich| after= SS-Standartenführer Hans Helwig| title= Commandant of Lichtenburg concentration camp| years=April 1936 – October 1936 }} {{succession box| before=SS-Oberführer Hans Helwig| after= SS-Oberführer Hans Loritz| title= Commandant of Sachsenhausen concentration camp| years=February 1938 – September 1939 }} {{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baranowski, Hermann}} Category:1884 births Category:1940 deaths Category:People from Schwerin Category:People from the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Category:SS-Oberführer Category:Dachau concentration camp personnel Category:Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel Category:Nazi concentration camp commandants Category:Schutzhaftlagerführer Category:Lichtenburg concentration camp personnel {{Germany-Nazi-politician-stub}}