Kurt Becher

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Short description|SS officer (1909–1995)}} {{"Blood for goods" proposal}} '''Kurt Andreas Ernst Becher''' (12 September 1909 – 8 August 1995<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhV3DwAAQBAJ&dq=Kurt+Becher+8+August+1995&pg=PT379|title=Hitlers Menschenhändler: Das Schicksal der "Austauschjuden"|author=Thomas Ammann, Stefan Aust|year=2014|publisher=Rotbuch Verlag|isbn=978-3-86789-574-3 }}</ref>) was a mid-ranking SS commander who was Special Commissioner of all Concentration Camps ''(Reichssonderkommissar für sämtliche Konzentrationslager)'', and Chief of the Economic Department of the SS Command in Hungary during the German occupation in 1944. He is best known for having traded Jewish lives for money during the Holocaust.

==SS background== The state archives records of Hamburg on Becher's parents and grandparents indicate he was from modest background. His maternal grandfather was Andreas Wieck, a shoemaker, and his paternal grandfather, Julius Becher, a bricklayer. His father Hermann Becher was (in 1905) listed as a clerk in Ludwig Krenzien's general store in a suburb of Hamburg. Hermann Becher married Frieda Dora Alexandrine Wieck in 1906, and they moved into a rented apartment in a 12-party-building at Hasselbrookstrasse 15, Hamburg. In 1919, they moved to a single family house in Wandsbek, where records indicate Hermann was a commercial traveller.<ref>Staatsarchiv, Kattunbleiche 19, D-22041 Hamburg, Germany.</ref>

He testified during the Nuremberg Trials that he had joined the SS because from 1932 he had been actively engaged in horseback riding, and in 1934, his instructor had advised him to enter the SS cavalry regiment (the ''Reiter-SS''). Hannah Arendt suggests that the only reason Becher stressed this story was that the Nuremberg Tribunal had excluded the ''Reiter-SS'' from its list of criminal organizations.<ref name="Arendt141">{{cite book|last1=Arendt|first1=Hannah|title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil|date=1963|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-303988-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/eichmanninjerusa00aren_0/page/141 141]|edition=2006|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/eichmanninjerusa00aren_0/page/141}}</ref>

Becher served as an SS major in Poland and Russia, as part of the ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'', which perfected the techniques for killing Jews. He was appointed Special Commissioner of all Concentration Camps ''(Reichssonderkommissar für sämtliche Konzentrationslager)'', and Chief of the Economic Department of the SS Command in Hungary, by Heinrich Himmler. The "Economic Department" was tasked with extracting maximal economic value from Jews, which included confiscating goods and property, and selling or using belongings and body parts, including shorn hair and gold extracted from teeth.<ref name=Hecht3>Hecht, Ben. ''Perfidy'', Milah Press, 1999, pp. 67-68.</ref>

==In Hungary== Becher became the main buyer of horses for the SS and, according to his own testimony, was sent to Hungary in March 1944, when Germany invaded that country, to buy 20,000 horses. Arendt posited that this story is unlikely to be true, because as soon as he arrived in Budapest, he began to engage in a series of negotiations with the heads of several large Jewish business concerns.<ref name=Arendt142>Arendt, p. 142.</ref>

His later actions showed that his goal was rather to extort as much wealth as possible from Hungary's Jews on behalf of Himmler, the head of the SS. From 1944 to 1945, he collected large sums of money, jewellery, and precious metals, worth an estimated 8,600,000 Swiss francs, from Hungarian Jews, a portion of which travelled with him in six large suitcases, in what became known as the "Becher Deposit".<ref>Zweig, Ronald W. ''The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary'', Harper Collins, 2002, p. 223.</ref>

In January 1945, he was appointed as Special Reich Commissioner for all the concentration camps by Himmler.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205978.pdf|title="Becher, Kurt"}} {{small|(26.1 KiB)}} ''Yad Vashem'', retrieved 8 May 2006.</ref>

He was arrested in May 1945 by the Allies and imprisoned at Nuremberg but was not prosecuted as a war criminal, serving only as a witness<ref>[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-11/tgmwc-11-106-08.shtml "Statement from Kurt Becher"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023231843/http://nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-11/tgmwc-11-106-08.shtml |date=23 October 2012 }}, The Trial of German Major War Criminals, sitting at Nuremberg, Germany, 4–15 April 1946, The Nizkor Project.</ref> during the Nuremberg trials, as a result of a statement provided on his behalf by Rezső Kasztner, a leading member of the Jewish Aid and Rescue Committee in Hungary.<ref>an affidavit signed by Walter H. Rapp, lieutenant colonel of the American army, legal officer of the State Department, and head of the Evidence Counsel of the War Crimes Council in Nuremberg, states: "Becher's ultimate release was solely the result of Kasztner's pleadings and the contents of his sworn testimony. His affidavit regarding Becher was the main, if not the sole reason underlying our decision to free him." Affidavit given in Tel Aviv on 6 February 1957. Hecht, Ben. ''Perfidy'', Milah Press, 1999, pp. 70-71.</ref>

In an affidavit that Kasztner submitted before the court at Nuremberg, Kasztner states: "There can be no doubt about it that Becher belongs to the very few SS leaders having the courage to oppose the program of annihilation of the Jews, and trying to rescue human lives...that Kurt Becher did everything within the realm of possibilities to save innocent human beings from the blind fury of the Nazi leaders...I never doubted for one moment the good intentions of Kurt Becher etc."<ref>Hecht, Ben. ''Perfidy'', Milah Press, 1999, p. 67</ref>

Kasztner was the plaintiff in a trial in which the Jerusalem District Court found that he was complicit in the Nazi murder of 740,000 Hungarian Jews, and had "sold his soul to the devil". The court found that Kasztner collaborated with the Nazis' extermination of the Jews in Hungary, and by saving the war criminal Kurt Becher from its penalty. Kasztner was subsequently assassinated in Israel in March 1957. The Supreme Court of Israel overturned the judgment against Kasztner in 1958, except for the section exonerating Becher, whose status as a war criminal was determined in a 35-page decision; the Supreme Court ruled that Kasztner's affidavit was perjurious, as Kasztner had known of Becher's activities during the war.<ref>[https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/vl/kestnerpsak/kestnerpsak11.pdf "Kastner's conviction in mistestifying for a war criminal- part A"], Supreme court of Israel's verdict at Daat website, '''Hebrew'''</ref><ref>[https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/vl/kestnerpsak/kestnerpsak12.pdf "Kastner's conviction in mistestifying for a war criminal- part B"], Supreme court of Israel's verdict at Daat website, '''Hebrew'''</ref>

The Becher Deposit was eventually sold for $55,000, far less than its estimated value. Some of the discrepancy was due to the hyperinflation which made the Hungarian pengő worthless after the war,<ref>Zweig, Ronald W. ''The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary'', Harper Collins, 2002, p. 230.</ref> but the Hungarian officials had already confiscated most of the cash and foreign currency held by Jews, so most passengers paid "in the form of jewelry, gold (gold jewelry, gold bullions and Napoleon gold), platinum, precious stones, and other valuables."<ref name=Kadar>Kadar, Gabor, and Vagi, Zoltan. ''Self-financing Genocide: The Gold Train, the Becher Case, and the Wealth of Hungarian Jews''. Central European University Press, 2004, p. 213.</ref> Dagobert Arian of the Jewish Agency suggested that Becher had hidden most of his loot before he was captured, and that this explained the difference.<ref>Zweig, Ronald W. ''The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary'', Harper Collins, 2002, p. 231.</ref>

Historian Yehuda Bauer writes that Becher is known to have had specific Jewish treasures in his possession, which came from payments made to him by the Aid and Rescue Committee, and from property he had confiscated in Hungary. Of the luggage that made up the Becher Deposit, Becher gave one case to Moshe Schweiger (an associate of Rudolf Kastner), who had been released from Mauthausen specifically to take possession of the case. On 24 May 1945, Subsection B of the 215th American Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) detachment found 18.7 pounds of gold, 4.4 pounds of platinum, and some jewelry hidden under beds in a house Becher had been living in,<ref name=Bauer240>Bauer, Yehuda. ''Jews for sale: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945''. Yale University Press, 1994, p. 240</ref> and on 30 May, the suitcase Becher had given to Schweiger was handed over to the CIC.<ref name=Bauer239>Bauer, Yehuda. ''Jews for sale: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945''. Yale University Press, 1994, p. 239</ref> On 25 June some other Jewish refugees Becher had been using as couriers handed in gold and paper shares.<ref name=Bauer240/>

==Postwar activities== After the war, Becher was spared prosecution primarily through the testimony of Kasztner, his negotiating partner from his time in Budapest.<ref>Löb, Ladislaus (2008). ''Dealing with Satan. Rezsõ Kasztner's Daring Rescue Mission''. New York: Jonathan Cape, pp. 274–277. {{isbn|978-0-224-07792-7}}</ref> He later became a prosperous businessman in Bremen.<ref name="Arendt141"/> Becher was the president of many corporations, including the Cologne-Handel Gesellschaft, which did extensive business with the Israeli government.<ref name=Hecht84>Hecht, p. 84.</ref>

By 1960 he was one of the wealthiest men in West Germany,<ref name=Hecht84/> with estimated assets of US$30 million.<ref>Hecht, p. 259, footnote 48.</ref> He came to public attention once again in 1961 when he served as a witness for the prosecution during the trial in Jerusalem of SS officer Adolf Eichmann.<ref>[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Testimony-Abroad/ "The Testimony of Kurt Becher"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002002711/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Testimony-Abroad/ |date=2 October 2006 }}, Trial of Adolf Eichmann, The Nizkor Project</ref> He provided his testimony from his home in Germany, because he was unwilling to travel to Israel.<ref name="Arendt141"/> He reportedly died a wealthy man.<ref>Zweig, Ronald W. ''The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary'', Harper Collins, 2002, p. 232.</ref>

==Awards== *German Cross in Gold on 15 January 1943 as SS-''Hauptsturmführer'' in the SS-Kampfgruppe "Fegelein"<ref>Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 29.</ref>

==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}

==References== {{Refbegin}} *[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-11/tgmwc-11-106-08.shtml "Statement from Kurt Becher] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023231843/http://nizkor.org/hweb/imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-11/tgmwc-11-106-08.shtml |date=23 October 2012 }}, The Trial of German Major War Criminals, Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany, 4–15 April 1946, The Nizkor Project *[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Testimony-Abroad/Kurt_Becher-01.html "The Testimony of Kurt Becher"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002050516/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Testimony-Abroad/Kurt_Becher-01.html |date=2 October 2006 }}, Trial of Adolf Eichmann, The Nizkor Project *{{cite web |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org.il/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205978.pdf |title= "Becher, Kurt" }} {{small|(26.1 KiB)}} ''Yad Vashem'', retrieved 8 May 2006 *Arendt, Hannah. ''Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil'', first published 1963, this edition Penguin Books, 1994. {{ISBN|0-14-018765-0}} *Bauer, Yehuda. ''Jews for sale: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933-1945''. Yale University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|0-300-06852-2}} *Kadar, Gabor, and Vagi, Zoltan. ''Self-financing Genocide: The Gold Train, the Becher Case, and the Wealth of Hungarian Jews''. Central European University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|963-9241-53-9}} *Hecht, Ben. ''Perfidy'', Milah Press, first published in 1961; this edition 1999. {{ISBN|0-9646886-3-8}} *Zweig, Ronald W. ''The Gold Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary''. HarperCollins, 2002. {{ISBN|0-06-620956-0}} * {{Cite book |last1=Patzwall |first1=Klaus D. |last2=Scherzer |first2=Veit |year=2001 |title=Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II |trans-title=The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2 |language=German |location=Norderstedt, Germany |publisher=Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall |isbn=978-3-931533-45-8 }} {{Refend}}

==Further reading== *Hilberg, Raul. ''The Destruction of the European Jews'', first published in 1961, this edition Yale University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-300-09557-0}}

==External links== *[http://www.holokausztmagyarorszagon.hu/images/portraits/becher.jpg Picture of Kurt Becher]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becher, Kurt}} Category:1909 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Blood for goods Category:SS-Standartenführer Category:Recipients of the Gold German Cross Category:Nazi concentration camp personnel Category:Waffen-SS personnel Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Hungary Category:German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States Category:Witnesses to the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg