Anton Lechner

Anton Lechner (18 November 1907 – 14 September 1975[1]) was an SS-Rottenführer and member of staff at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was prosecuted at the Auschwitz Trial.

Anton Lechner
Anton Lechner
Born	(1907-11-18)18 November 1907 Buchers
Died	14 September 1975(1975-09-14) (aged 67) Eppingen, Germany
Occupation	SS-Rottenführer
Known for	Defendant at the Auschwitz Trial
Political party	National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)

Lechner was born in Buchers (Pohoří na Šumavě (1869-1910), (Sudetenland)). He was a citizen of Czechoslovakia until 1938. He held German citizenship after the annexation of the Sudetenland by the Third Reich. After primary school he became a coach-driver. He joined the Nazi party and the SS in December 1939. In February 1941 he was assigned to Auschwitz, where he initially served as a guard, and then as a reserve vehicle driver from 1943 to December 5, 1944.

For his cruelty to prisoners on multiple occasions, he was tried by the Supreme National Tribunal at the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 December 1947[2]. Due to an amnesty, he was released in the fifties.

He died in 1975, at the age of 67.