Nazi "particularmente cruel" murió a los 92 años

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Josef Schwammberger, a former Nazi labor-camp commander who was known for his particular sadism and hid for 40 years in Argentina before being captured and returned to Germany for trial, has died in a prison hospital. He was 92.

Schwammberger died during the night in the hospital in Hohenasperg, outside the southwestern city of Stuttgart, said Tomke Beddies, a spokeswoman for Stuttgart's prosecutors office said Friday.

He had been at the hospital for treatment since Sept. 20, but Beddies said she could not comment on the cause of death. advertisement

Schwammberger, a native of Austria, was convicted in 1992 in Stuttgart of seven counts of murder and 32 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Schwammberger, who was born Feb. 14, 1912, appealed his incarceration in 2002 on the grounds that he was too frail to remain in prison.

But he was ordered to continue serving his sentence when the court ruled his "particularly cruel" crimes outweighed his health concerns.

He was originally charged with murdering or helping murder 3,377 people, including more than 40 by his own hand.

But in the final days of the 11-month trial, prosecutors reduced the number of charges, because of lack of evidence, to 34 inmates killed by Schwammberger and at least 275 who died as a result of his orders.

Most of the victims were Jewish inmates of three forced labor camps in World War II Poland: Przemysl, Rozwadow and Mielec.

Schwammberger admitted having been an SS lieutenant in command of the three camps between 1942 and 1944 but denied the charges.

Witnesses traveled from as far away as Israel, Canada and the United States for the trial, telling the court how he set his German shepherd Prinz on camp inmates and how he killed a man for stealing bread for his hungry child.

American Abraham Secemski recalled watching as Schwammberger killed his uncle, apparently for wearing a ring after being told to turn over all valuables.

"His face, his actions are engraved in my brain. To my dying day, I'm going to have it," said Secemski, who traveled to Germany from San Diego to testify in 1991.

Schwammberger called Secemski's uncle out of an inspection line after spotting the jewelry, pulled out his pistol and shot him, said the Polish native, who resettled in California.

"He fell and he was moaning," Secemski testified. Schwammberger "didn't have the decency to give him another bullet to put him out of his misery. We went to work. When we came back, my uncle wasn't there."

Schwammberger was arrested in Innsbruck, Austria, in the French occupation zone after the war on July 19, 1945, but escaped in January 1948 from a train taking him to U.S. military authorities in Austria for trial.

Within months he was able to enter Argentina, allegedly with the help of Odessa, a shadowy organization formed to help former SS officers escape punishment.

He lived under his own name and obtained Argentine citizenship in 1965, working for years at a petrochemical plant in La Plata, 30 miles south of the capital, Buenos Aires.

West German authorities had sought Schwammberger's extradition since 1973, when they notified Argentina he might be living there and was on the top 10 list of most wanted Nazis compiled by famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

Argentine officials tracked him down on Nov. 13, 1987, in Huerta Grande, a village 500 miles northwest of Buenos Aires near a German-Argentine settlement.

After two years of appeals to fight extradition, Schwammberger was eventually returned to Germany in May 1990 for trial.

There were no immediate details of survivors or funeral arrangements available.