Anton Ganz

Julius Anton Ganz (born February 6, 1899 in Kettershausen ; † July 25, 1973 in Boos ) was a German SS-Hauptsturmführer and camp leader of the Ebensee concentration camp .

Life

Anton Ganz was the son of the farmer and shoemaker Joachim Ganz and his wife Rosina. After seven years of elementary school , he attended the advanced training school in Kettershausen for three years.

In June 1917, Ganz was drafted into the army and received military training in Munich . In the spring of 1918 he came to the Western Front as a member of the Royal Bavarian 16th Reserve Infantry Regiment "List" . In August 1918, Ganz was captured by the British in France . After his release from captivity, he returned to his home town in 1919. In October 1921, Ganz joined the Württemberg police force , where he signed up for 12 years.

In October 1931 he joined the NSDAP (membership number 672.421) and SA . In April 1932, Ganz resigned from the SA and joined the SS (SS No. 34,572). In 1934 he finally got a job in the courier of the city of Stuttgart . In 1936 he became a caretaker in a school in Stuttgart. From 1934 he acted as leader of the pioneer storm of the SS standard . In 1937 he switched to the Southwest branch as SS leader . In January 1940, Ganz was drafted into the Waffen SS , he began his service in the SS special camp in Hinzert on January 15 . Immediately after the start of the western campaign , he was deployed from May 15, 1940 as a commando in the expansion of the bolt position in the Saarburg / Tier area. On September 30th he was ordered back to Hinzert, where he was given the leadership of the 1st guard company.

On October 9, 1942, he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp . After his arrival in Mauthausen, Ganz acted briefly as a company commander, but was sent 14 days later by Commander Franz Ziereis to lead the local subcamp in Ternberg . In May or June 1943 he was transferred to Wiener Neustadt , where he commanded the construction of a new satellite camp. After the camp was closed, he was transferred back to Mauthausen, where he trained around 130 ethnic German recruits as a company commander . After that, Ganz was transferred to the Ebensee concentration camp as a camp leader. The former concentration camp inmate Drahomir Bárta also remembered Ganz as a "brutal murderer and sadist":

"In the camp he only walked with a whip, when he met prisoners he hit them for no reason, otherwise he boxed them."

After the war he went into hiding with a farmer in Austria . In 1949 he returned to Germany. In the same year, Ganz found a job under his real name with a construction company, where he worked until 1963. He retired in 1965. In November 1967 he was in custody taken, however, came after seven months against a deposit of 20,000 German marks again. The trial against him was opened on October 26, 1972. On November 15, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Memmingen district court for murder in four cases . He was released on the basis of a medical certificate. In July 1973 he died of cancer .

literature

• Gregor Holzinger (Ed.): The second row: perpetrator biographies from the Mauthausen concentration camp . new academic press, Vienna, 2016 ISBN 978-3700319788

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Gregor Holzinger: The second series: perpetrator biographies from the Mauthausen concentration camp , Vienna, 2016, p. 89.
2. ^ ^{A b} Gregor Holzinger: The second series: perpetrator biographies from the Mauthausen concentration camp , Vienna, 2016, p. 90.
3. ^ Gregor Holzinger: The second series: perpetrator biographies from the Mauthausen concentration camp , Vienna, 2016, p. 91.
4. ^ Gregor Holzinger: The second series: perpetrators biographies from the Mauthausen concentration camp , Vienna, 2016, p. 92.
5. ^ ^{A b} Gregor Holzinger: The second series: perpetrator biographies from the Mauthausen concentration camp , Vienna, 2016, p. 94.
6. ↑ Christian Rabl : Mauthausen in front of the court: Post-war trials in international comparison . new academic press, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3700321149 , p. 231.