Hermann Baranowski

Hermann Baranowski (11 June 1884 in Schwerin – 5 February 1940 in Aue) was a German politician and military figure. A member of the Nazi Party, he is best known as the commandant of two German concentration camps of the SS Death's Head unit.

In April 1900, at the age of fifteen, he volunteered for the navy and later fought in the First World War, serving aboard the SMS Moltke. In 1912 he married August Dibbern with whom he had two children, a boy and a girl. In 1930 he was discharged as a lieutenant and then worked first as an office clerk in Kiel and later as a sales representative in Hamburg.

Baranowski joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) in 1930. The following year he signed up for the SS (SS #24009 ). His first appointment was as the leader of the 4th SS Standarte in Hamburg-Altona. In March 1936 Himmler appointed him commandant of the Lichtenburg concentration camp.

However, in 1938 he was promoted to Schutzhaftlagerführer at Dachau concentration camp. However, Rudolf Höss, commandant at Auschwitz, described Baranowski as: