Nazi Camp Commander Josef Schwammberger, 92

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Josef Schwammberger, a former Nazi labor camp commander notorious for sadism who hid for 40 years in Argentina before being captured and returned to Germany for trial, died Friday in a prison hospital in Hohenasperg, Germany. He was 92.


Schwammberger, a native of Austria, was convicted in 1992 of seven counts of murder and 32 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was originally charged with murdering or helping murder 3,377 people, including more than 40 by his own hand.


Most of the victims were Jewish inmates of three forced labor camps in World War II Poland – Przemysl, Rozwadow and Mielec.


Witnesses traveled from as far away as Israel, Canada, and America for the trial, telling the court how he set his German shepherd dog Prinz on camp inmates and how he killed a man for stealing bread for his hungry child.


Schwammberger was arrested in Innsbruck, Austria, in the French occupation zone after the war on July 19, 1945, but escaped in January 1948 from a train taking him to American military authorities in Austria for trial.


Within months he was able to enter Argentina, allegedly with the help of Odessa, a covert organization that helped SS officers escape punishment.


Argentine officials tracked him down on November 13, 1987, in Huerta Grande, a village 500 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.


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