Horst Günther

Horst Günther (23 September 1920 – 6 April 1944) was a German World War II prisoner of war. An Afrika Korps Gefreiter, he was "captured on 9 May 1943 in Tunisia [and] murdered in Camp Aiken prisoner-of-war camp, South Carolina" United States, 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 hung his body from a tree in order to make it seem that Günther had killed himself. Gauss, 32, and Staub, 39, were hanged on 14 July 1945 at 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."