August Walling

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August Karl Walling (born February 1, 1911 in Schleswig , † after 1968) was SS-Hauptscharführer and commandant of the Hessental concentration camp near Schwäbisch Hall .

biography

Walling had been a musician and concertmaster since 1926 and a member of the SA since 1934/35 (according to his own statements, "passive") . He was married and had three children.

Joined the Air Force at the start of the war , he was deployed in the music corps until it was dissolved. In the spring of 1944 he was assigned to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp , where he served as the entrance gate guard. There he was accepted into the Waffen SS on May 1, 1944 ; in his testimony, he later stated only succinctly that he had left Natzweiler "in the uniform of the SS". The guard tower banner of the Natzweiler camp had been reorganized by a special order and numerous officers from the Wehrmacht and Air Force had been taken over into the Waffen SS; Contrary to numerous later statements, however, these were not only responsible for the security service.

October 17, 1944 to the eviction in April 1945 ( Hessentaler death march ) Walling commander of belonging to the administrative building of the concentration camp Natzweiler was subcamp Hessental. The camp leaders of the satellite camps were solely responsible for all prisoner affairs and reported directly to the Natzweiler commandant. As the commander of the Hessental concentration camp, Walling showed an extremely changeable character: on the one hand, witnesses report outbreaks of violence, on the other hand, he sometimes "showed himself to be human". Walling was "overwhelmed with the situation"; In a self-pitying, cynical and dehumanizing manner , he led the conditions in the camp under his command to external circumstances (“I couldn't help it”) and the prisoners themselves (“They were lousy and malnourished and arrived like the corpses themselves”).

The health and nutritional situation was desolate. Prisoners who accepted or begged food from the population were regularly brutally punished or murdered. Over 100 prisoners fell victim to a typhus epidemic in February 1945 . Inmate Zmul Ackermann testified that Walling threw food among the prisoners and then "was amused by their struggle for food". He "often hit prisoners with a stick". According to the testimony of three witnesses, he "shot" inmate Joseph Kirchen in the body because he was bringing begging food into the camp. Walling is said to have regretted the act later. (Kirchen survived by caring for fellow inmates and inmate doctors.)

Walling allowed the dead to be buried in mass graves at the Steinbach Jewish cemetery . This was later held against him in the process, as it would prove that such behavior was within his discretion.

Trial and Post War

On October 6, 1947, criminal case No. 93 of the Rastatt Trials was opened with the reading of the indictment. It dealt with the Vaihingen , Unterriexingen , Kochendorf and Hessental satellite camps - a total of 42 people were charged, including Walling. On 11 December 1947 he was the French Tribunal Général chaired by Yves Lemerle for war crimes and crimes against humanity to twenty years' imprisonment with hard labor convicted. The court made Walling responsible for the "high death rate and excesses"; During the relatively short existence of the Hessental subcamp, at least 182 to 200 people died. He served only ten years of his sentence in the Wittlich war crimes prison .

After his release from prison, August Walling became a choirmaster and conductor of various music associations, including 1958 in Schnittlingen and 1965 in Treffelhausen . He lived in Geislingen an der Steige .

literature

  • Yveline Pendrais: Les Procès de Rastatt (1946–1954). Le jugement des crimes de guerre en zone français d'occupation en Allemagne (= Collection Contacts, Série II - Gallo-Germanica, Volume 16). Lang, Bern 1995, ISBN 3-906754-18-9 .
  • Arno Huth: Documentation: The double end of the "KL Natzweiler" on both sides of the Rhine. State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg (ed.), Neckarelz 2013.
  • Federal Archives , B 162/4342, p. 254A: Walling was questioned on November 22, 1968 in Geislingen

Web links

  • Guards on the website of the Hessental Concentration Camp Memorial

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Arno Huth: The double end of the "KL Natzweiler" on both sides of the Rhine. P. 243.
  2. ^ A b Arno Huth: The double end of the "KL Natzweiler" on both sides of the Rhine. P. 244.
  3. ^ A b Arno Huth: The double end of the "KL Natzweiler" on both sides of the Rhine. P. 43.
  4. ↑ 200 new signs will be attached to the steles of the Hessental concentration camp memorial on swp.de.
  5. ↑ a b Nutrition and Health on the website of the Hessental Concentration Camp Memorial
  6. ↑ a b Abuses and murders on the website of the Hessental Concentration Camp Memorial
  7. ↑ Arno Huth: The double end of the "KL Natzweiler" on both sides of the Rhine. P. 92 f.
  8. ↑ Club history on mv.schnittlingen.de
  9. ↑ Association Chronicle on mvtreffelhausen.de
personal data
SURNAME Walling, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walling, August Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German camp commandant of the Hessental concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Schleswig
DATE OF DEATH after 1968