Gerhard Palitzsch

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Gerhard Arno Max Palitzsch (born June 17, 1913 in Großopitz ; † December 7, 1944 near Budapest ) was a German SS-Hauptscharführer who was deployed as a report and camp leader in Auschwitz .

Palitzsch as SS-Hauptscharführer

Life

Palitzsch was a farmer by profession . In mid-March 1933 he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) ( membership number 1.965.727) and the Schutzstaffel (SS) (SS number 79.466). From 1933 on, he was a member of the SS guards, initially in the Oranienburg and Lichtenburg concentration camps. From 1936 he acted as a block leader in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and later also as a report leader. On May 20, 1940, Palitzsch arrived with 30 so-called " Reich German " criminal prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in the newly established Auschwitz concentration camp . These “tried and tested” prisoners, with the prisoner numbers 1 to 30, later served as prison officers in Auschwitz.

This incident is also mentioned in the notes of the camp commandant Rudolf Höß :

"[...] The Rapportführer should select 30 BVers - political prisoners were not released for Auschwitz by the RSHA - from all professions. He was convinced that he brought the 30 best that were available in Sachsenhausen. No ten were suitable for my will, for my intentions of it. Palitzsch had chosen the prisoners according to his own opinion, as he imagined the prisoner treatment, as he was used to it, as he had learned it. According to his disposition, he could not act otherwise. "

Höß describes in the following that the foundation stone for a dilapidated system in the prisoner camp was laid and that the selection of the report leader from a higher position was an act of inability, limitation, obstinacy and malevolence. With regard to malice and worldview , exactly those "creatures" were used in the camp that would have matched the worldview of the superiors.

Initially, Palitzsch also worked as a report leader in Auschwitz. Some of the ways he greeted newcomers to Auschwitz:

“We Germans have no pity on the enemies of the Third Reich like you are. With joy we will chase you all through the chimneys of the crematoria. Forget your wives, your children and your families. You will die here like dogs ”.

As a report leader he had an influential position in the hierarchy of the concentration camp system under the camp commandant. So-called prisoner crime reports had to be sent to him directly, and the catering strength reports were always sent directly to Palitzsch. His work was very close to the Political Department of KL Auschwitz. This partly also determined which prisoners should be killed. In his notes, Höss emphasized several times how formative the efforts of Palitzsch and others had been for the brutality with which the camp was traded.

On November 11, 1941, Palitzsch was the first to use the method of individual shooting of prisoners with a small-bore rifle (shot in the neck ) in front of the Black Wall .

“The executioner mechanically reloads his rifle each time and carries out execution after execution. If there is a delay, he puts down the gun, whistles a song or talks to the bystanders about emphatically indifferent topics. With this cynical attitude he wants to show how little he minds killing this pack and how tough he is. He prides himself on killing these innocent people without a trace of conscience. If someone doesn't keep his head still, he presses the muzzle of the rifle into his neck and pushes his face against the wall. "

The inmate Witold Pilecki described the following in his report, which he wrote in the summer of 1945:

“There was a free space between blocks 12 and 13 [note: old numbering]. On the east side, it was closed off by a wall between the two blocks, the so-called Western Wall. The west side was also blocked by a wall with a passage that served as a screen. The condemned passed the passage first alive and then again as a bloodied corpse. If you went nearby, it often smelled like a slaughterhouse. […]
Palitzsch, a handsome man who never hit a prisoner (that was simply not his style), ruled the locked courtyard as the executioner of his office. The convicts had to undress and wait naked in a row until it was their turn to step in front of the 'Wailing Wall' and to be shot in the back of the head by Palitzsch with a small-caliber pistol. "

According to the memories of SS man Johann Becker, Palitzsch once complained in the slaughterhouse that "the cows there were slaughtered in too raw a way by the prisoners."

Palitzsch was one of the SS members who, on their own initiative and without any higher order, accepted the shooting of prisoners. The shooting of several Polish officers who had reached the camp with a transport on August 15, 1940, goes back to Palitzsch. The reason for their killing, according to a later indictment against the report leader, was their refusal to kiss his boots.

Palitzsch the main participants regarded as one in the first experiments for the mass killing of prisoners using cyclone B . At the beginning of September 1941 the first mass gassing took place in Block 11 of the main camp with the participation of Karl Fritzsch and Gerhard Palitzsch , in which around 900 Soviet commissioners and selected patients were killed with Zyklon B. As a report leader, he also oversaw the gassing process of the Jewish prisoners and from 1942 also worked in the Auschwitz-Birkenau men's camp . After the establishment of the " Auschwitz Gypsy Camp ", Palitzsch became its director in June 1943.

Inmate Jan Wolny witnessed another execution carried out by Palitzsch and others:

“[…] I lived most strongly in the moment when the two women and the girl began to cry and asked that they be given their lives. Palitzsch went over to them, stunned one of the women with a blow of the pistol on the head, and dragged her to the embankment. [...] Bogner (information) and Palitzsch shot the fusiliers dead, they held the barrel of the pistol to their ears and pulled the trigger. They did this work very willingly, they had smiling faces and when they stepped back from the embankment they gave the impression that they had come from a successful hunt. On that day, 30 people of Polish nationality were shot ”.

Another report of a shooting by the SS-Hauptscharführer is available from the former prisoner Franciszek Gulba:

"[...] The execution was carried out by Rapportführer Palitzsch. During the breaks, as long as it took until the next group was brought in, he threw the small-bore rifle over his shoulder and strolled around the courtyard, smoking cigarettes in complete calm. […] In the end, a woman with a child was brought in […] Palitzsch first shot the mother. When this fell to the ground, the child threw himself, crying, on the corpse lying on the floor and called out: Mama! Mummy! Palitzsch shot the girl, but he obviously missed because the child continued to grasp the mother's body and shake her. [...] We saw such executions almost every day. "

Although the administration of the concentration camp was well aware of punishments for the arbitrary killing of prisoners, these were only imposed very selectively. Palitzsch was personally sponsored by the camp commandant. Thus Palitzsch became the main executor of death sentences. In the presence of an inmate, he is said to have claimed to have personally shot 25,000 people.

Private life

During the time in Auschwitz, the Palitzsch family lived in what is now Obozowa Street in Oświęcim. The two-story house of the Kapcinski family was previously expropriated. A small garden was attached to the property, in which the Palitzsch couple raised geese and cultivated various kinds of vegetables. 19-year-old Helena Klys was obliged to work in the Palitzsch household. When Helena Klys began to work for the family, this consisted of Palitzsch, his wife Luise and their three-year-old daughter Helga. The young Polish woman described the report leader's wife in her notes:

“I really liked Ms. Palitzsch. She was tall, and she had lovely eyes, a nice smile and she always spoke in a gentle tone. "

Palitzsch herself was also described by Frau Klys as a blond, handsome man who only had a funny look in his eyes. As her working hours continued, the young Polish woman spoke of the birth of a son whom she remembered by the name of Lothe. In her statements about the use of other workers from the camp complex, Klys emphasized that she could only talk to them when Palitzsch was doing his work in the camp. This was preceded by a warning from the workers themselves, who feared they would be killed by violating the rules by Palitzsch as soon as the opportunity arose. Within the family community, the SS member was described as a very friendly and loving family father.

Arrest, conviction and death

In the summer of 1942, Ms. Palitzsch fell ill during a typhus epidemic and died only a few months later from the consequences of her illness. The housemaid heard the news of her death through Palitzsch himself, who came home that night and tearfully told the children about their mother's fate. Klys also describes the widower's excessive alcohol consumption from this point on.

After the death of his wife, Palitzsch became increasingly addicted to alcohol and had several affairs, including with female prisoners. In the "Gypsy camp", he was with the female inmate Vera Luca / Lucan in a unique situation in the act caught. Because of investigations into theft and corruption as well as " racial disgrace ", Palitzsch was arrested and briefly arrested in the main camp of Auschwitz in the bunker of Block 11 together with concentration camp inmates. A fellow arrested Pole and Otto Küsel later described that Palitzsch was a completely different person in custody and how naturally he used the " you" that was common among prisoners . On October 1, 1943, he was transferred to the Brno satellite camp of the Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp as a camp leader . In Brno his task was to build up the Technical Academy of the SS and the police there. One month after his transfer, he was arrested again for his actions (accusation of “racial disgrace” / enrichment through effects ), transferred to the Danzig-Matzkau prison and sentenced by an SS and police court to a prison term of several years for his actions. However, he was subsequently pardoned and expelled from the SS in June 1944. He was then demoted and assigned to a probation unit.

Palitzsch died on December 7, 1944 in combat operations in Hungary during the Battle of Budapest .

Quotes

The camp commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höß , knew Palitzsch from other concentration camps as early as the 1930s. According to this, Palitzsch ruled, terrorized and dealt with the prisoners more than the changing protective custody camp leaders. Through threats and favors, he built up a network of relationships with them that increased his position of power in the camp and made him almost unassailable from his superiors. Höss sums up his judgment on Palitzsch as follows:

“Palitzsch was the most cunning and devious creature that I got to know and experienced during my long, varied service time at the various KLs. He literally walked over dead bodies to satisfy his lust for power! "

The excessive influence of Palitzsch on camp life is also testified by Hermann Langbein , who as a prisoner was the clerk of the on-site doctor in Auschwitz. According to this, Palitzsch "largely determined the climate in Auschwitz from the start as an experienced and energetic report leader."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Full name according to: Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Ed.): Auschwitz death books , Volume 1: Reports , KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1995, p. 292
  2. ^ Rudolf Höss: Commandant in Auschwitz. Autobiographical records. Edited by Martin Broszat . Deutscher-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 24th edition, Munich 2013, p. 137, footnote 2 (by Martin Broszat).
  3. ↑ Irena Strzelecka, Piotr Setkiewicz: construction, expansion and development of the KL Auschwitz and its satellite camps . In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940 - 1945, Studies on the History of the Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp , Volume 1: Structure and Structure of the Camp, Auschwitz State Museum - Birkenau Oświęcim , 1999. P. 73 -145. Here: p. 75.
  4. ↑ Quoted from Martin Broszat (ed.): Rudolf Höß: Kommandant in Auschwitz, Autobiographische Aufzüge , Munich 1989, p. 92.
  5. ↑ Martin Broszat (ed.): Rudolf Höß: Commandant in Auschwitz, Autobiographical Notes , Munich 1989, p. 93.
  6. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz , in: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Volume 1: Construction and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum , Oświęcim 1999, p. 232.
  7. ↑ Quoted in Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, perpetrators, assistants, victims and what became of them, Ein Personallexikon , Frankfurt a. M. 2013. pp. 308f.
  8. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz . In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940 - 1945, Studies on the History of the Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp , Volume 1: Structure and Structure of the Camp , Auschwitz State Museum - Birkenau Oświęcim, 1999. p. 165 -317. Here: p. 227.
  9. ↑ Martin Broszat (Ed.): Rudolf Höß: Kommandant in Auschwitz , Munich 1989, p. 100
  10. ↑ a b State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oświęcim 1998, p. 240
  11. ↑ SS-Unterscharführer Pery Broad on the executions in Block 11 Quoted in: Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oswiecim 1998, 439.
  12. ↑ Quoted from Hermann Langbein: Menschen in Auschwitz , Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 440.
  13. ^ Franciszek Piper: Auschwitz 1940-1945, Studies on the History of the Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp, Volume 3: Destruction , Auschwitz State Museum - Birkenau Oświęcim 1999. P. 95
  14. ↑ Franciszek Piper: Auschwitz 1940-1945, Studies on the History of the Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp , Volume 3: Destruction , Auschwitz State Museum - Birkenau Oświęcim 1999. S. 142. And see also: Stanisław Klodzinski: The first gassing of prisoners and prisoners of war in the Auschwitz concentration camp , p. 272
  15. ↑ State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oswiecim 1998, p. 64f
  16. ↑ Entry September 3, 1941 in Chronology of the Holocaust ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.holocaust-chronologie.de
  17. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz , in: Wacław Długoborski, Franciszek Piper (ed.): Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Oswiecim 1999, Volume 1: Construction and structure of the camp , p. 238
  18. ^ Jan Wolny: Wspomnienia sanitariusza z obozów w Dachau, Oswiecimiu i Mauthausen , in: Przeglad Lekarski: Special Issue Auschwitz , Issue 23, 1968. P. 215
  19. ^ Franciszek Piper: Auschwitz 1940-1945, Studies on the History of the Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp , Volume 3: Destruction , Auschwitz State Museum - Birkenau Oświęcim 1999. P. 109
  20. ↑ Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940 - 1945, Studies on the History of the Auschwitz Concentration and Extermination Camp , Volume 1: Structure and Structure of the Camp , Auschwitz State Museum - Birkenau Oświęcim, 1999. P. 321– 380 Here: p. 383.
  21. ↑ Ibid. P. 121.
  22. ↑ Quoted in Piotr Setkiewicz (ed.): The Private Lives of the Auschwitz SS, Auschwitz , State Museum Oświęcim 2014, p. 57
  23. ↑ Piotr Setkiewicz (Ed.): The Private Lives of the Auschwitz SS, Auschwitz , State Museum Oświęcim 2014, p. 57
  24. ↑ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, perpetrators, assistants, victims and what became of them, Ein Personallexikon , Frankfurt a. M. 2013, p. 308 f.
  25. ↑ Piotr Setkiewicz (Ed.): The Private Lives of the Auschwitz SS , p. 59
  26. ^ A b Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz , Frankfurt am Main 1980, pp. 457–458
  27. ↑ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, perpetrators, assistants, victims and what became of them, Ein Personallexikon , Frankfurt a. M. 2013, p. 309.
  28. ↑ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. , Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 448
  29. ↑ Quoted from Martin Broszat: Rudolf Höß. Commandant in Auschwitz. Autobiographical notes , Munich 2013, p. 137 note 2.
  30. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz , Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 439.
personal data
SURNAME Palitzsch, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Palitzsch, Gerhard Arno Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Hauptscharführer in Auschwitz concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Großopitz
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1944
Place of death near Budapest