Günther Klingsporn
SS-Nr. 2057
40's style ring that was engraved with the early award date as it was a replacement ring
“Osthofen Lager” (Konzentrationslager Osthofen bei Worms) Einpeitscherkommando" (whip-commando)
SS Concentration Camp II Hinzert until April 1941
SS Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen 1941-45
From Osthofen to Hinzert
Günther Klingsporn was born in Berlin in 1903. He moved to Osthofen in 1928 and joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1929. From 1924 to 1926 he had been a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) at the other end of the political spectrum. From November 1929 onwards, Klingsporn was unemployed. Klingsporn was known to his political enemies as a very “brutal SS maniac", who actively participated in riots directed at the local branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1933 he became a guard at the Osthofen concentration camp. Witnesses described him as a member of the “Einpeitscherkommandos" (whip-commando), which abused Jews and especially despised political opponents in camp II. He disputed this assertion in his denazification trial in 1949 and the allegations could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In 1940 he was drafted into the Waffen-SS and served as a guard of the SS Special Camp / Concentration Camp Hinzert until April 1941. As a member of the Waffen-SS he took part in World War II, holding the rank of Hauptscharführer (Master Sergeant). In May 1945, he was taken prisoner of war by US forces in Austria and subsequently interned until October 1948.
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