Heinz Baumkötter

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Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Baumkötter called Heinz Baumkötter (* 7. February 1912 in Burgsteinfurt , † 22. April 2001 in Münster ) was a German hauptsturmführer and concentration camp doctor in the concentration camps Mauthausen , Natzweiler-Struthof and Sachsenhausen . He carried out numerous pseudo-medical experiments on prisoners.

Life

Baumkötter, SS troop doctor (SS member number 278.430) with the Waffen-SS since 1939 , began his work as a camp doctor in November 1941 in the Mauthausen concentration camp , worked in the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp from summer 1942 and then briefly in the Niederhagen ( Wewelsburg) concentration camp ). In August 1942 he was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he became the first camp doctor in October 1942 . He remained in this position until the SS “cleared” the camp in April 1945.

Baumkötter became known for his pseudoscientific experiments that he carried out on prisoners. Due to the increasingly threatening war situation, an attempt should be made to let the crew of German submarines get along for days without sleep. Reichsführer SS Himmler had previously given permission to conduct experiments on prisoners. Baumkötter did this by injecting them with drugs. Among other things, cocaine and pervitin were tested . Then they had to march for eleven hours without sleep on a 700-meter-long track with half a hundredweight of luggage. At the same time, they "tested" shoe soles on the approximately 40 kilometers covered daily for industry (shoe runner command ).

Further experiments were to investigate the cause, infection and cure for jaundice in which prisoners were injected with the pathogen.

Second and third degree burns caused by phosphorus were also inflicted on inmates to test the chances of recovery.

Baumkötter was directly responsible for the crimes that were committed against the prisoners. He selected prisoners who were no longer able to work and was present at shootings to confirm the deaths of the prisoners. He was also a witness to gassings to certify the death of the victims. Baumkötter introduced loud marching music to be played in Sachsenhausen during shootings so that the other prisoners could not hear the gunshots.

After the end of the war

After the war ended, he was captured by British troops in 1945 and later transferred to the Soviet military administration. The charge was of involvement in the murder of Soviet prisoners of war in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and shared responsibility for crimes against humanity. A Soviet military tribunal sentenced him in the Sachsenhausen trial , which lasted from October 23 to November 1, 1947, to life imprisonment with the obligation of forced labor. About a month after sentencing he was in Vorkutlag the Gulag prison. After Adenauer's visit to the Soviet Union , Baumkötter was transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1956 as a so-called “ non-amnestee ”. In July 1956 he was in the Marienhospital in Iserlohn and one month later was temporarily arrested by the German authorities. Baumkötter was finally tried before the Münster district court . He was accused of having been involved in the execution of around 125 prisoners in Sachsenhausen and is also said to have selected at least 110 prisoners between 1942 and 1945 to die in the gas chamber . On February 27, 1962, he was found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison, which, however, was considered served due to his imprisonment in the Soviet Union.

Alois Gaberle was sentenced to three years and three months in prison by the two former camp doctors of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp who were also accused and Otto Adam was acquitted. On March 29, 1963, the judgment was upheld by the Federal Court of Justice .

literature

  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .
  • Marco Pukrop: SS medics between camp duty and front duty. The staffing of the medical department in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp 1936–1945. Hannover 2015, Dissertation University of Hannover, doi : 10.15488 / 8553 .
  • Tilman Taube: The grandfather in Auschwitz - On the story of a photo series in the Höcker album. In: Christophe Busch, Stefan Hördler, Robert Jan van Pelt (eds.): Das Höcker-Album. Auschwitz through the lens of the SS. Von Zabern, Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-8053-4958-1 , pp. 172–187.
  • LG Münster from February 19, 1962. In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Volume 18, 1978, pp. 215-331.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carola Sachse (ed.): The connection to Auschwitz. Life sciences and human experiments at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes. Documentation of a symposium , Göttingen 2003, p. 95
  2. ↑ Life data from: Gunther R. Lys : Secret suffering, secret struggle: a report on the Lieberose subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , Metropol, 2007, p. 203
  3. ↑ Justice and Nazi Crimes, Volume XVIII ( Memento from February 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Baumkötter, Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baumkötter, Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS camp doctor in various concentration camps
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgsteinfurt
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 2001
Place of death Muenster