⚠️WARNING:  ⚠️This article deals with war crimes in Auschwitz and the post-war trials. It serves solely for historical education and the commemoration of the victims.

Maximilian Grabner – Head of the Political Department in Auschwitz and the Krakow Trial of 1947

Maximilian Grabner (1905–1948) was one of the most notorious SS officers in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Born in Vienna, he joined the Austrian Nazi Party at an early age. In 1940, he was appointed head of the camp’s Political Department (Gestapo section) and was responsible for interrogations, suppressing resistance, and executing prisoners. Numerous survivors testified that Grabner was directly involved in the severe mistreatment and death of thousands of prisoners. He was present in Block 11 (the punishment and execution block) and participated in selections that sent victims to the gas chambers.

In 1943 he was briefly arrested by the SS for unauthorized killings and theft, but the proceedings were discontinued.

After the war, Grabner was captured and extradited to Poland. In the first Auschwitz trial before the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland in Krakow (November–December 1947), he was one of 40 defendants.

On December 22, 1947, he was sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The sentence was carried out in 1948.

The Krakow trial of 1947 was one of the earliest and most important post-war trials. It helped to reveal the full extent of the atrocities committed at Auschwitz and to establish that individuals at all levels of the system were held accountable.

We remember this story not to incite hatred, but to honor the millions who perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau and to ensure that such atrocities are never repeated.

Reliable sources:

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum

Archive of the Auschwitz Trial of 1947 (State Archives Krakow)

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum