Execution of August Bogusch
- Brutal Nazi Guard at Buchenwald, Auschwitz & Gusen Concentration Camps

7 September 2022

Category: Male Nazi Guards

August Bogusch was born on the 5th of August 1890 in Lubliniec, then part of the German Empire. In October 1932 Bogusch joined the Nazi Party and in April 1933 he joined the SS. In August 1939 August Bogusch arrived in Buchenwald. Established in July 1937, Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps established within the German borders.

The camp played an important role in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, which occurred on the 9th – 10th of November 1938, when the Nazi leaders unleashed a series of coordinated violent riots against the Jews throughout Nazi Germany and recently incorporated territories. The Nazi SA and German civilians not only ransacked Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues, hospitals, and schools but the German SS and police sent almost 30,000 Jewish males to concentration camps. Prisoners lived in the Buchenwald main camp which was surrounded by an electrified barbed-wire fence, watchtowers, and a chain of sentries outfitted with automatic machine guns.

Crimes in Auschwitz

August Bogusch left Buchenwald in January 1941 and on the 27th the same month, he arrived in Auschwitz, which was located in German occupied Poland, where he first served as a guard. Bogusch became known for his incredible hatred towards the Polish prisoners whom he used to call such names as Polish swine and bandits. Among the Auschwitz prisoners, whom he would beat for the smallest violations of the rules, he had a reputation of a stupid, rapacious and sneaky man. He was infamous for skillfully using his whip to make the inmates suffer as much as possible. Sometimes Bogusch did not administer the punishment himself but would send inmates to a notorious penal company to which the prisoners were assigned for various reasons, including escape attempts, contact with civilians or the illegal possession of food money and additional clothing.

Another of Bogush’s specialties was hitting the prisoners in the face and kicking them. At Auschwitz he also worked as a block leader. Bogusch also took part in selections on the rail ramp and actively participated in taking prisoners – especially Jews and those who were sick - to the gas chambers. In mid-January 1945, as Soviet forces approached the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, the SS began evacuating Auschwitz and its subcamps. SS units forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to march west from the the Auschwitz camp system. Prisoners suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure during these death marches.

In sub-camp of Mauthausen concentration camp

In February 1945, August Bogusch was transferred again to the Buchenwald camp, and finally to Gusen, which was a sub-camp of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Established in May 1940, the Gusen site had attracted the SS because of its proximity to the stone quarries. Living and working conditions in Gusen, as in Mauthausen, were harsh, which led to the death by murder, mistreatment, starvation, exposure, and disease of more than half of the prisoners.. By the end of 1944, some 6,000 prisoners worked in 18 factory halls in Gusen producing rifles, machine pistols and aircraft motors. The stress on armaments production brought some benefits to the prisoners in 1943 and 1944.

In January and February 1945, the SS forcibly evacuated thousands of prisoners to Gusen from Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, and Sachsenhausen. Most of the new arrivals were Jews. More than 10,000 prisoners died in Gusen between January and May 1945, including 4,500 prisoners who were shipped back to Mauthausen to die.

Gusen concentration camp was liberated by the US soldiers on the 5th of May 1945. They found some 20,000 prisoners who were sick and starved. In the confusion during the liberation, prisoners, enraged by the killings perpetrated by the Kapos and barrack elders the previous month, killed a number of prisoners who had served as Kapos, room elders or other types of auxiliary service to the SS staff. Over the course of its existence, some 35,000 of a total of over 60,000 registered prisoners were killed in Gusen.

After the end of the war, August Bogusch was finally to face justice and pay for his crimes. Bogusch was tried at the Auschwitz Trial and he was executed on the 28th of January 1948.

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