Heinrich Forster was born on 14 January 1897 in Langenaltheim in Bavaria. After joining the NSDAP and the Protection Squad (SS), in the 1930s he began his role as a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg.

In May 1939, it was there where he assumed the position of Protective Custody Camp Leader. Forster was instrumental in building a camp in Semlin, a municipality of Belgrade. Facilities such as (mobile) gas vans were used there for the murder of Jews. These were first tested in Sachsenhausen.

Following his mission in Belgrade, Forster became a Camp Commandment in the Drütte subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, as well as in the Schaulen subcamp of the Kauen concentration camp, and subsequently Protective Custody Camp Leader in the Dora labour camp. After having presented violent photographs from his time in Serbia, preliminary proceedings were launched against him. In 1944 he was therefore sentenced to arrest.

Following his release, he was transferred to the Landsberg/Kaufering concentration subcamp complex, and then to the Hersbruck concentration subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp. Subsequently – due to military disobedience – he had to serve in a replacement battalion of the Waffen-SS until the end of the war. Forster then lived as “Hans Reich” in Hessen, thus evading the jurisdiction of the Allies. He died in October 1955 from a bicycle accident.