Thread by @J_O_Holliday

This is SS-Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Schäfer, once a member of 'Kommando 99', responsible for mass-executions in Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

In the 1950s, Schäfer was chairman of the Peasants Mutual Aid Association (VdgB) in East Germany. He would not escape justice.

Thread:

Schäfer was born in Obhausen, Saxony-Anhalt, in 1911. A brick-layer and farmhand, he joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and the SS in 1933. It's believed his descent into Fascism began with the nationalist beliefs of his father and his father's employer, a large landowner.

Schäfer began his career in the SS in 1935, working at Lichtenburg Concentration Camp near Wittenberg in Saxony. He soon became a Blockführer and was in charge of the detention block.
In 1937, he transferred to Buchenwald and became deputy commandant of the camp laundry.

In late 1941, Schäfer became involved with 'Kommando 99' and the mass-murder of Soviet prisoners of war. Not far from KZ Buchenwald, a stables was converted to look like a medical facility. Soviet POWs would then enter without suspicion, before being shot in the back of the neck.

Schäfer developed a violent reputation throughout Buchenwald, known for his floggings and 'tree-hanging' punishments (hands tied behind the back then suspended from a tree).
In 1943, he joined the 20th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division and was involved in violent 'Bandit-fighting' ops

Avoiding captivity in 45, Schäfer settled in Arnstadt, in what was to become the German Democratic Republic, despite his wife living just over the border in the Federal Republic. He cut out his SS blood-type tattoo and burned all of his SS paperwork. He thought he was anonymous.

In the 1950s, Schäfer became a farmer and was later the chairman of the Peasants Mutual Aid Association (VdgB) in Arnstadt. At this time, the DDR wanted to collectivise all of its farms into 'full-cooperatives', but Schäfer would not surrender his district.

The Nordhausen district had joined the 'full-cooperative' and so sent a representative to Arnstadt to convince them to join. So, in Spring 1960 a man arrived in Arnstadt to meet with Schäfer. This man just so happened to have survived Buchenwald and recognised Schäfer immediately

The man reported Schäfer to the Stasi in Erfurt, who arrested him after an investigation. Schäfer was reported to have personally murdered 100-150 Soviet prisoners of war, and complicit in the murder of 800-1000 others; as well as 30 tree-hangings, and up to 400 floggings.

The Supreme Court of the DDR found him guilty on charges of murder and crimes against humanity. Schäfer's defence appealed to Walter Ulbricht for him to be given a life prison sentence. Ulbricht did not answer.

Wilhelm Schäfer was guillotined in Leipzig Prison on 16 June 1961.