Max Pauly: The Neuengamme Commandant Linked to the Murder of Children

Max Pauly, commandant of the Neuengamme concentration camp during the Second World War, became responsible for brutal crimes within the Nazi camp system, including the infamous murder of children at Bullenhuser Damm.Max Pauly was a Nazi concentration camp commandant during the Second World War whose career culminated in one of the most horrifying crimes against children during the Holocaust. A veteran of the Nazi movement and an early supporter of Adolf Hitler, Pauly embodied the brutal fusion of ideology, obedience, and cruelty that defined the SS camp system during the Second World War. As commandant of the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, Pauly oversaw a vast network of forced labor, starvation, beatings, and executions that claimed tens of thousands of lives. Under Pauly’s command, Neuengamme became deeply entangled in Nazi medical experiments. Prisoners, including children, were subjected to inhumane experiments that served no medical purpose beyond ideological obsession and scientific ambition. These crimes reached their most infamous conclusion in April 1945 at Bullenhuser Damm, a former school building in Hamburg. As Allied forces closed in, twenty Jewish children—previously used in tuberculosis experiments—were murdered to erase evidence of the crimes committed against them. Along with the children, their caregivers and Soviet prisoners of war were also executed. The killings were carried out in the basement of the building, and the bodies were hung from hooks normally used for drying laundry. Pauly’s responsibility extended beyond Neuengamme. Earlier in the war, he had served within the SS camp system in occupied Poland and was connected to atrocities linked to Stutthof and the broader machinery of mass murder in Eastern Europe. Unlike many perpetrators who evaded justice, Pauly was captured after the war and brought before a British military tribunal. Witness testimony and documentary evidence exposed his role in executions, abuse, and the deliberate murder of prisoners. In 1946, Max Pauly was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging, becoming one of the few concentration camp commandants held fully accountable for crimes against children. His case remains a grim reminder of how bureaucratic authority enabled some of the darkest acts of the Holocaust.This episode is part of the series The Nazi Camp Commandants.Watch the full documentary and explore hundreds of historical films at:WorldHistory.tv