Bequest Wilhelm Boger

The bequest Wilhelm Boger was given to the Fritz Bauer Institute by his granddaughter in 2012. Wilhelm Boger was born in Stuttgart on December 19, 1906. His father was a businessman and Boger also completed a commercial traineeship after graduating from high school. Starting in 1925, he worked for the Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfenverband in Stuttgart. During his school years, he became an active member of the Nazi youth (NS-Jugend), later the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend), and the Artamanenbund. In 1929, Boger joined the NSDAP and the SA. A year later, he changed to the SS. At the beginning of 1932, he lost his job and remained unemployed for a year. In March 1933, he was able to join the Friedrichshafen Auxiliary Police because of his SS affiliation. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Wuerttemberg Political Police, where he quickly made a career for himself. In 1937, Boger became a criminal secretary - despite a trial for an assault committed in office in 1936. After the start of World War II, Boger was assigned to various state police posts in occupied Poland. In 1940, he was charged with aiding and coercing an abortion. He was sentenced to a short term of imprisonment, downgraded from Hauptsturmführer to Oberscharführer, suspended from police service, and punitively transferred to the Eastern Front. After being wounded, Boger was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp in December 1942. Here, he took over the department for "Escape, Theft and Manhunt" within the Political Department, the Lagergestapo. The prisoners gave him the nickname "Beast of Auschwitz." He had people shot randomly and during his interrogations he used torture methods, including the so-called "Bogerschaukel." On the eve of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army, Boger participated in the transport of secret files to Buchenwald. Subsequently, he was a member of the Political Department at Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. After the end of the war, Boger went into hiding with his parents in Ludwigsburg. The American military police arrested him in mid-1945. During his interrogations, Boger testified in detail about his activities in Auschwitz concentration camp and described his deeds there as normal police work. In November 1946, Boger was to be extradited to Poland. However, he fled in transit and returned to Baden-Württemberg. There, he lived unrecognized until mid-1949, when the authorities investigated him again for the 1936 assault. In 1951, he went through denazification without any problems. It was not until 1958 that the authorities actually became aware of Boger because a former prisoner had denounced him. Boger was imprisoned and finally charged in 1963 at the proceedings against Mulka et al., the so-called First Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial. Several witnesses incriminated him severely. He denied any involvement in the crimes, insulted spectators, mocked witnesses, and showed the Hitler salute in the courtroom. In 1965, the Landgericht Frankfurt sentenced him to life imprisonment and five years in prison for at least five counts of murder, at least 109 counts of joint murder, and joint aiding and abetting of joint murder. Wilhelm Boger died in custody on April 3, 1977. After description, demetallization, and filing, the bequest Wilhelm Boger contains one archival unit with a total volume of 0.02 running meters. During indexing in August 2023, the processor Inga Steinhauser completely reorganized the holding. The structure conceptually follows the "rules for the description of personal papers and autographs" (RNA, Regeln zur Erschließung von Nachlässen und Autographen). The bequest consists exclusively of a "correspondence" ("Korrespondenzen") section. It contains mainly letters from Wilhelm Boger to his son and his mother, Boger's first wife. The letters were written during Boger's imprisonment, from 1958 to 1974. They mainly concern family and personal matters but repeatedly also Boger's imprisonment and the First Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial. In addition, there are some letters from Boger's son to his parents from 1944 to 1946 some of which he wrote in Auschwitz. These letters concern exclusively everyday and family matters. The bequest Wilhelm Boger can only be inspected with the prior permission of the donor.