June 11, 1884 - Hermann Baranowski
Baranowski's path from naval veteran to concentration camp commandant followed a trajectory common among the SS Death's Head units — men whose postwar disillusionment made them receptive to the Nazi movement and, eventually, to administrative roles in the machinery of mass detention. He commanded two camps, placing him among those directly responsible for the conditions and fates of prisoners held within the SS camp system during its formative years.
From Wikipedia
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 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.
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