Bernhard Bonitz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinrich Bernhard Bonitz (born June 11, 1907 in Chemnitz ; † in the 20th or 21st century) was a German prisoner function in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and was one of the first 30 prisoners in Auschwitz . He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in the third Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt .

Life

Bonitz had been arrested repeatedly for theft. As part of preventive detention by the police , he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in March 1937, where he wore the green triangle and served as a block elder. Together with 29 other prisoners, so-called professional criminals , he was transferred from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp to Auschwitz on May 20, 1940, accompanied by the report leader Gerhard Palitzsch . There, the prisoners were as a function inmates used. Bonitz was given prisoner number 6. Initially, as a foreman, he had to supervise Jewish residents of Oświęcim during clean-up work in the newly established main camp of Auschwitz. In mid-June 1940 he became block elder of the first Polish prisoners sent to the camp. In August 1941 he became senior kapo in the Buna camp . From February 1944 he was camp elder in the Günthergrube satellite camp and from June 1944 in the same position in the Fürstengrube satellite camp . He was considered a very "strict and tough" prison functionary. In June 1944 he was drafted into the SS Dirlewanger special unit .

After the end of the war, Bonitz was investigated in Berlin as early as 1949 for crimes in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Fürstengrube satellite camp. He admitted that he had been mistreated and gave the reason that he had avoided “harsher arbitrary measures after reporting to the SS”. After the inmate who filed the complaint committed suicide, the proceedings were discontinued.

From August 30, 1967 to June 14, 1968, the third Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt was brought before the jury court at the Frankfurt am Main regional court. The former prisoner functionaries Bonitz and Windeck were charged with violent crimes. The subject matter of the proceedings contained the killing of fellow prisoners by drowning, strangling, killing and kicking. Windeck was charged with the murder of 117 people and Bonitz with the murder of 72 people. The 130 witnesses also reported other murders committed by the two defendants. However, due to the time lag after the crimes, it was mostly impossible for the witnesses to remember details, so that it was often not possible to prove individual guilt. However, the court found that both of them had been subjected to cruel torture against fellow prisoners. Ultimately, Windeck was found to be two and Bonitz to be a murder. Bonitz had killed a fellow inmate with a special blow , "a two-handed club blow in the neck". While Windeck was sentenced to life imprisonment and an additional 15 years, Bonitz received a life sentence. In addition, both lost their civil rights .

literature

  • Ernst Klee : Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3 .
  • Bernd C. Wagner: IG Auschwitz. Forced labor and extermination of prisoners in the Monowitz camp 1941–1945 (= Institute for Contemporary History : Representations and sources on the history of Auschwitz. Vol. 3). Saur, Munich 2000, 378 pages, ISBN 3-598-24032-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bernd C. Wagner: IG Auschwitz. Forced labor and extermination of prisoners from the Monowitz camp 1941–1945. Munich 2000, p. 114 f.
  2. ^ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons. Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 59
  3. ^ Edith Raim: Justice between dictatorship and democracy. Reconstruction and prosecution of Nazi crimes in Germany 1945–1949. Verlag Oldenbourg, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-70411-2 , p. 1163
  4. ^ Contemporary history: Lifelong for Nazi murderers. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . June 14, 2008
  5. ^ Justice and Nazi crimes. ( Memento of October 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) University of Amsterdam
personal data
SURNAME Bonitz, Bernhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bonitz, Heinrich Bernhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German prisoner functionary in concentration camps and convicted murderer
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH 20th century or 21st century