Stefan Baretzki

Stefan Baretzki ( – ) was an Auschwitz guard of Bukovina German origin. He was conscripted into the Waffen-SS and stationed at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1942 until 1945. There he participated in the mass murder by making selections, beatings and murdering prisoners on his own initiative. After the war, Baretzki settled in West Germany. He was the lowest-ranking of the twenty-four defendants in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. His murders were sensationalized in the German press, taking the focus off the systematic crimes of the Nazi regime. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment and eight years for participating in the murder of more than 8,000 people. Baretzki expressed regret for his actions, testified against his former superiors, and died by suicide while serving his sentence.

Early life Stefan Baretzki was born in 1919 into a Bukovina German family in Cernăuți (Czernowitz), then part of the Kingdom of Romania. Hermann Langbein, an Austrian historian and Auschwitz political prisoner, noted that Baretzki was born in the same town as Viktor Pestek, an Auschwitz guard executed by the Nazis because he helped Siegfried Lederer, a Czech Jew, to escape. Baretzki had only an elementary school education and never spoke German well.

Baretzki said that Lucas changed his behavior during the final months of the war only when it was clear that Germany would lose. As a result, other witnesses came forward stating that Lucas had selected inmates to live or die. Lucas eventually admitted having done so on four occasions, but on orders and against his personal conviction. The court found that he had participated in murder. Cultural references German actor Jonas Nay played Baretzki in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. He said the role was deeply disturbing and he nearly quit.