Adolf Theuer

Adolf Theuer (sometimes given as Teuer) (20 September 1920 in Henneborg-Bolatitz, today borough of Borová, Bolatice, Opava District – 23 April 1947 in Opava) was an SS-Unterscharführer at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was executed after the war as a war criminal.

Life

Previously a bricklayer by trade, Theuer's SS career began when he was deployed to Auschwitz in 1940 at the rank of SS-Rottenführer. On the 1 August 1941 he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer. He served as an SDG or Sanitätsdienstgefreiter; a medical orderly as part of the Sanitätswesen, one of the five concentration camp departments involved in running such a facility. He was also a member of the Desinfektionskommando (disinfection squad), the unit of SS medics involved in the mass gassing of prisoners. One of Theuer's responsibilities was inserting the Zyklon B into the gas chamber, a task shared by other SS orderlies such as SS-Unterscharführer Hans Koch and SS-Oberscharführer Josef Klehr. During the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, Klehr, the chief of the Desinfektionskommando, testified that Theuer explained to him that he would insert the gas when ordered to do so by the accompanying SS doctor.