Franz Xaver Kraus Signed Document - Auschwitz

Franz Xaver Kraus Signed Document - Auschwitz
Document from Auschwitz concentration camp dated 30.4.41 and is signed by SS-Untersturmfuhrer Kraus(ss)Concentration camp Auschwitz on 30.4.41to: canteen management, building 7At the instruction of the Auschwitz Economic Office, whole milk is only to be sold to holders of milk cards.Skimmed fresh milk (skimmed milk) is sold unbranded as before.F.d.rKrausSS-UntersturmfuhrerFranz Xaver Kraus (born September 27, 1903 in Munich , † January 24, 1948 in Krakow ) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer (1938) and was employed as an administrative leader in several concentration camps.After attending primary school, Kraus completed an apprenticeship as a liquor salesman. In 1925 he started his own business, which he had to give up again in 1931. Kraus joined the NSDAP on January 1, 1931 ( membership number 405.816) and the SS on November 2, 1931 (SS number 16.299). From the beginning of January 1932 Kraus was employed full-time in the Brown House in Munich at the accounting office of the NSDAP's auxiliary fund . From August 1932 he took up an administrative position with an SS-Sturmbann.After the Nazis came to power , Kraus took over the post of administrative director in several concentration camps: Esterwegen (July 1934 – December 1934), Lichtenburg (December 1934 – March 1936), Columbia (April 1936 – November 1936). Subsequently, Kraus was also the administrative manager in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp until the end of October 1939 . From November 1, 1939 to October 1, 1941 he was the chief administrative officer in the staff inspector of the concentration camps .From the beginning of October 1941 he headed the economic inspection of the Waffen-SS in the area of ​​Central Russia and was then employed by the SS economist there. In Breslau he was in charge of the Waffen-SS troop and main economic camp. [2]Kraus worked there from December 1944 to January 1945 for the purpose of liquidating the Auschwitz concentration camp . Probably by the Higher SS and Police Leader Southeast Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser , Kraus was transferred from Breslau to the Auschwitz concentration camp in December 1944 in order to organize the liquidation of the camp as a special representative. Kraus and other SS officers led the prisoner columns from the Auschwitz concentration camp as part of the evacuation of the camp. On January 20, 1945, Schmauser ordered Kraus to kill the prisoners who had not been evacuated. Kraus later stated in court that he had already left the camp on January 21, 1945 and resisted the order. Probably this plan was made possible by the advancing Red Army no longer be implemented due to the war. According to witness statements from surviving prisoners, however, Kraus remained in the Auschwitz concentration camp until January 25, 1945 and led a group of SS officers through the camp to inspect the camp after January 20, 1945. In addition, Kraus is said to have had the last crematoria blown up and shot several prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau himself.After his departure, he headed until February 17, 1945, the joint Auschwitz in Zittau . The purpose of this office was to organize the transfer of the Auschwitz SS guards and probably the Auschwitz prisoners to other concentration camps that were not endangered by the war.During the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków , Kraus was sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland on December 22, 1947 and hanged a few weeks later .This Typed document from Auschwitz measures 145mm x 165mm