In another video I examined the life of Josef Blösche, a noted killer who would go into the Warsaw ghetto on a bicycle with a friend Heinrich Klaustermeyer and would then indiscriminately murder people they came across. Shortly after I published the video on Blosche, a former ghetto inhabitant wrote to me and asked what happened to Klaustermeyer. He remembered both of them. This video is an answer to that question for anyone else who may be interested. Many of the inmates of the ghetto remembered the names of Blosche and Klaustermayer. Blösche was immortalised by being the SS guard in one of the most famous photographs of the twentieth century, the one with the little boy with his hands in the air. The photograph was taken by a photographer assigned by the National Socialist commander Jurgen Stroop who was tasked with the final destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and its inhabitants. Klaustermeyer also appears in photographs in the Stroop report.
Heinrich Klaustermeyer, was born in Bünde on 22 February 1914. Bünde is located around 15km north of Bielefeld. In 1914 it was an industrial town, its most important industry was cigar production and most cigars smoked in Germany at that time, came from there. Ernst Klaustermeyer, Heinrich Klaustermeyer's father, was a master painter and lived in a house on Winkelstrasse with his family. Heinrich Klaustermeyer attended school from 1920 to 1928, after which he completed an apprenticeship as a car mechanic. Klaustermeyer became unemployed in 1931 and joined the NSDAP and SA at the age of 18 in 1932.
After the National Socialist seizure of power, SA man Klaustermeyer was given a job as a messenger at the city council of Bünde. After compulsory military service was reintroduced in 1935, Klaustermeyer opted to go into the army professionally and signed up to the Wehrmacht for twelve years, but was dismissed on health grounds in the autumn of 1937 due to a stomach ailment. In 1938 he was again employed by the city of Bünde, this time as a caretaker. During this time Klaustermeyer actively participated in boycott campaigns and harassment against Jewish businesses in Bünde. Thirty years later, Erna Spanier, for example, remembered that Klaustermeyer played a significant role in the events during the Night of the Broken Glass and in the boycott of her parents' business.
In 1939 Klaustermeyer successfully applied to the Gestapo in Bielefeld, where he was employed in the office. In November 1940 he was transferred to the Security Police in the Warsaw district, where he was assigned to field service in the autumn 1941. By this time he was an SS Oberscharfuhrer and had an office at ul. Żelażna 103. Amongst other tasks, he was used to monitor the Jews in the ghetto. It was not long before Klaustermeyer became known in the ghetto for his brutal and ruthless behavior towards the inmates, some of whom he shot arbitrarily and indiscriminately.
Klaustermeyer would cycle into the ghetto with Josef Blösche, a bull whip in his boot. His transport was a three-wheeled cycle rickshaw, with two seats at the front. The rickshaw usually started its journey from in front of the red brick building in the Warsaw ghetto at Zelazna 103, the main office of the Jewish Section IV B 4 of the Commander of the Security Police and SD (KdSPuSD) for the Warsaw district.
The trial of Klaustermeyer before the Bielefeld district court began on 23 November 1964 and was held over 23 days. There were more than eighty witnesses. He was tried for the deaths of twenty people in the ghetto. The prosecutor alleged that "His will was to destroy identified targets which were only Jews, which the accused despised because of their religion and race and he did not think he was doing anything wrong."
Witness Aaron Back from Munich said Klaustermayer could not have breakfast before shooting a few Jews. Twenty years later, in a confrontation in Bielefeld prison, some of the survivors recognised the ghetto guard again: The deep dimple on his chin was unforgettable and was still there.
Almost all major German newspapers reported on the trial. Although the evidence was clear, Klaustermeyer denied his actions to the end. The verdict was announced on 4 February 1965. Heinrich Klaustermeyer was found guilty of murder and received nine life sentences. His civil rights were revoked for life.
On 8 April 1976, eleven years later, Klaustermeyer was released because of advanced cancer. He died less than two weeks later on 21 April 1976, aged 62.
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