Günther Tamaschke

Günther Tamaschke (26 February 1896 – 14 October 1959) was a Nazi German SS-Standartenführer and commandant of the Lichtenburg and Ravensbrück concentration camps. He was never tried for his role in the Holocaust.

Early life Günther Tamaschke was born the son of a merchant. Tamaschke passed his Notabitur, a wartime emergency high school diploma that allowed one to graduate early provided that he then serve in the military. He then volunteered for the German Army in 1914. From 1914, he was employed in various units during the First World War and came under French captivity during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Tamaschke returned to Berlin in March 1920 and took part in the Kapp Putsch. After that, he joined the Freikorps. After three semesters, he left the Handelshochschule Berlin and completed his training as a banker. Tamaschke married and became a partner at his father-in-law's wholesale store in late 1922. Politically, Tamaschke committed himself to the German Völkisch Freedom Party and was the founder of the Berlin branch of the party's Officers Bund. Tamaschke broke up his household in 1930, and quit working in his father-in-law's business at the end of 1932. After a period of unemployment, Tamaschke found a job in the district office in Neukölln.

Nazi SS career in concentration camps He joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party member number 36,978) in 1926, and the SS (member number 851); he was one of the first members of the Berlin SS in 1927. As early as December 1938, he was involved in establishing Ravensbrück concentration camp, a concentration camp for women and children, and stayed on the construction site at Fürstenberg/Havel. The reason was Tamaschke's private life. Tamaschke, who was married and had at least one child, began an affair with an Aufseherin (female guard). Since the affair had become public, and Tamaschke's wife had complained to Heinrich Himmler's personal staff, and given the fact that Tamaschke paid her no sustenance, Tamaschke lost the trust of Eicke, and he was removed from his post.

Subsequently, Tamaschke served in the Heer

Personal life Tamaschke's first marriage would end in divorce, although Tamaschke's decision to stop alimony payments led to his being disciplined by the SS as any such scandal was seen as bringing dishonour on the organisation. He subsequently remarried, his second wife being Emmy Hirschberg, an office clerk from Sudetenland. The marriage had initially been delayed when an investigation uncovered that Hirschberg's grandfather had committed suicide and that two of her uncles were involved in left-wing politics. Eventually, the marriage was allowed to take place.