Johann Paul Kremer

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Kremer at the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków (1947)

Johann Paul Kremer (born December 6, 1883 in Stelberg near Cologne , † January 8, 1965 in Münster ) was a university professor , anatomist , surgeon and concentration camp doctor in Auschwitz-Birkenau .

Childhood and adolescence, college career

Johann Paul Kremer was born the son of a farmer and first attended the elementary school in his hometown, then the high school and later the Progymnasium in Wipperfürth , which he left with secondary school leaving certificate. As an external he passed the Abitur in Trier in 1909 and studied biology , mathematics and philosophy in Heidelberg , Strasbourg and Berlin . After receiving his doctorate in 1914 as Dr. phil. he began studying medicine and passed the medical state examination in 1918 . He then received his doctorate again, this time as a doctor of medicine . In the following years he worked as an assistant doctor and senior physician at the Charité .

After working as a surgeon and anatomist in Bonn , he worked at the anatomical institute of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster from 1927 and completed his habilitation in 1929. In 1936 he was appointed professor of anatomy and human inheritance. Until 1945 he held lectures in the subjects of heredity , sports medicine , radiology and anatomy .

Activity as a concentration camp doctor

On July 30, 1932, Johann Paul Kremer joined the NSDAP ( membership number 1.265.405) and in 1934 the SS (SS number 262.703).

During the semester break in 1942 he reported to the SS hospital in Prague and on August 29, 1942 he was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , where he arrived on August 30, 1942. He stayed there until November 18, 1942 as a temporary camp doctor, although he was not part of the permanent staff of the camp. During this time he was present on behalf of executions to determine the deaths of the prisoners. In addition, he was involved in fifteen so-called "special offers" during his temporary work. H. Gassings present. His involvement consisted of ensuring the medical safety of the SS medical service grade (SDG) deployed in the event that they suffer an accident while handling the toxins.

He also represented the camp doctor Friedrich Entress at the doctor ideas and in selections of prisoners in the prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp I . Sick inmates with little prospect of recovery and fitness for work were singled out and later killed by medical service grades (SDG) in Block 10 by a phenol injection into the heart.

In the interest of his research on the changes in the human organism as a result of hunger, especially brown atrophy , Kremer was given permission to autopsy prisoners after their death and to remove parts of the liver , spleen and pancreas from the corpses .

During his time in Auschwitz, Kremer wrote a diary about the Holocaust from the perspective of a perpetrator, in which everyday things can be found alongside the unimaginable. The diary is one of the most terrible prose texts of the last century in German. It was evidence in numerous trials and was cited very often (see extracts below ) .

Life after the war

In August 1945, Kremer was arrested by the British and interned in the Neuengamme internment camp . His diary was confiscated during a house search and later made available to the Polish authorities. Kremer was extradited to Poland and sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland in the Kraków Auschwitz Trial on December 22, 1947 .

Kremer was due to be executed in January 1948. Shortly before the execution date , he was pardoned to life imprisonment and released in January 1958 for good conduct. He was deported to the Federal Republic of Germany and the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität gave the “ late returnee ” a festive reception.

Soon after, however, Kremer was charged with murder before the jury chamber of the Münster district court . On November 29, 1960, the court sentenced him to a total of 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder on two counts . Polish detention was seen as sufficient atonement and Kremer was free.

On June 4, 1964, Kremer testified in the 1st Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt am Main , this time as a witness. Kremer died in Münster in January 1965.

Kremer's diary

As a camp doctor, Kremer wrote a detailed diary in 1942 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , in which he indicated, among other things, 15 “selections” and “special actions” (gassings).

Excerpt :
September 17, 1942.

All-weather coat ordered in Berlin from the clothing check-out: Up to waist 48, full length 133, half back 22, up to elbow 51, full sleeve length 81, bust 107, waist 100, buttocks 124. Uniform reference slip included, d. H. for a uniform weatherproof coat. Today with Dr. Meyer visits the Birkenau women's camp .

September 20, 1942.

This Sunday afternoon from 3–6 a.m., listened to a concert by the prisoners' band in glorious sunshine: Kapellmeister, conductor of the Warsaw State Opera. 80 musicians, there was roast pork at lunchtime, and baked tench in the evening .

[...]

October 17, 1942.

Attended one prison and 11 executions. Live fresh material taken from the liver , spleen and pancreas after pilocarpine injection . Drove to Nikolai with Wirths ; beforehand he told me that I would have to stay longer.

October 18, 1942.

In wet and cold weather this Sunday morning at the 11th special ( Dutch ) present. Horrible scenes with three women begging for their bare lives.

October 19, 1942.

With Ostuf . Wirths and Frau Höss went to Katowitz to buy shoulder pieces for the weather coat. Back over Nikolai.

October 24, 1942.

6 women vaccinated from the Budyer revolt ( Klehr ). [Note: "vaccinated" means murdered, presumably through conscious infection . Budy was a satellite camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp , in which 400 female prisoners from a penal company had to dig trenches in 1942.]

October 25, 1942.

Today, Sunday, in beautiful autumn weather, bike tour via Raisko to Budy. Wilhelmy returned from his trip to Croatia ( plum schnapps ).

October 31, 1942.

For about 14 days beautiful autumn weather, which gives cause for sunbathing day in and day out in the garden of the Waffen-SS house . Even the clear nights are comparatively mild. Because Thilo and Meyer are on home leave, I am entrusted with the functions of the troop doctor. Applied for a 5-day vacation to the SS hospital in Prague because of the need to travel to my service authority .

literature

  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945? Fischer TB, Frankfurt 2007 ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
  • Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum , Danuta Czech u. a. (Ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Texts by JPK, Rudolf Höß & Pery Broad . Interpress, Oświęcim 1998, ISBN 83-85047-35-2 (first 1973 & 1981)
  • Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz. Ullstein, Frankfurt 1980, ISBN 3-548-33014-2
  • Till Bastian : Terrible Doctors: Medical Crimes in the Third Reich . 3. Edition. Becksche Reihe, 1113. CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 978-3-406-44800-3 , pp. 66 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • LG Münster, November 29, 1960 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal convictions for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, Volume XVII, edited by Irene Sagel-Grande, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter . University Press, Amsterdam 1977, No. 500, pp. 1-50, subject of the proceedings: criminal offenses committed by a camp doctor in Auschwitz. Participation in a total of 15 'special actions', during which Jewish prisoners arriving in Auschwitz were killed in the gas chambers with Zyklon B. Participation in several executions of Polish civilians in the neck shot range. 6 female prisoners allegedly involved in a revolt in the Budy women's prison camp are killed by phenol injecting the heart. Selection of sick prisoners at the 'doctor presentations' in the ambulance room; the segregated prisoners were killed by phenol injections. Selection of sick prisoners in the ' infirmary ' for gassing jur.uva.nl

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The TB is mentioned in: Fritz Bauer Institute and State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): The Auschwitz Trial: Tape recordings, protocols and documents . CD-ROM. Digital library # 101. 2nd Edition. Directmedia Publishing , Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89853-501-0 ; under: Selected evidence as diary of Johannes Paul Kremer (1940/1945) p. 138.
personal data
SURNAME Kremer, Johann Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anatomist and concentration camp doctor
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Stelberg near Cologne
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1965
Place of death Muenster