Horst Günther

Horst Günther (September 23, 1920 – April 6, 1944) was a German World War II prisoner of war. An Afrika Korps Gefreiter, he was captured on May 9, 1943, in Tunisia and murdered at the Camp Aiken prisoner-of-war camp in South Carolina, by fellow prisoners.

He was suspected of collaborating with the American authorities and was strangled by two fellow prisoners-of-war, Erich Gauss and Rudolf Straub, who hanged his body from a tree in order to make it seem that Günther had killed himself. Gauss, 32, and Staub, 39, were hanged on July 14, 1945, at the United States Disciplinary Barracks Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. They were buried in the prison cemetery. Straub is alleged to have said just before his execution: "What I did was done as a German soldier under orders. If I had not done so, I would have been punished when I returned to Germany."