Eduard Wirths

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Eduard Wirths

Eduard Wirths (born September 4, 1909 in Geroldshausen near Würzburg , † September 20, 1945 in the Staumühle internment camp ) was a German SS medical officer and concentration camp doctor in Auschwitz .

Life

Wirths, who came from an entrepreneurial family, began studying medicine at the University of Würzburg in 1930 , which he completed in 1935. With the dissertation published in 1936, Today's Status of Pseudarthroses , he earned his doctorate. med .; Wirths married a fellow student in 1936 and the couple had four children.

In May 1933 he became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 3,139,549) and the SA . Wirths switched from the SA to the SS at the beginning of October 1934 (SS no. 311.594).

During his medical internship he worked in the Thuringian State Office for Racial Science from 1936 . From December 1936 to March 1937, Wirths worked in the health department in Sonneberg and then moved to the University Women's Clinic in Jena as an assistant , where he was employed until September 1938. He then became a country doctor in Merchingen after his uncle left the practice. In 1940 he worked for the Reich Medical Association .

After the outbreak of World War II , Wirths belonged to a medical replacement company of the Waffen-SS from the beginning of May 1940 . From the end of July 1940 to the beginning of February 1941 Wirths was active in the medical inspection of the Waffen SS and then deployed to the 6th SS Mountain Division "North" .

Doctor in concentration camps

Wirths, awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class , was unfit for war in the spring of 1942 due to a heart disease. In April 1942 he began his medical career in the National Socialist concentration camps . The first station was the Dachau concentration camp , in July 1942 Wirths became the first camp doctor in the Neuengamme concentration camp . From September 1, 1942, he was a medical officer in the Auschwitz concentration camp . All doctors in the camp were subordinate to him. Thus he was also the immediate superior of the concentration camp doctors Josef Mengele , Horst Fischer and Horst Schumann .

As the medical director in Auschwitz, Wirths was organizationally involved in the murder of old, sick and weak prisoners as part of Operation 14 f 13 . He assigned the remaining camp doctors to the selections for newly arriving prisoner transports and also selected personally. He was also responsible for the selection of prisoners for use in series of medical experiments . The execution of these experiments was the responsibility of the personnel subordinate to him. Wirths was also personally involved in experimental gynecological operations on captured Jewish women in Block 10 for the purpose of early cancer detection. He also commissioned inmate doctors, namely Adélaïde Hautval and, in particular, Maximilian Samuel, to carry out the experiments . He also had four Jewish prisoners deliberately infected with typhus to test a new vaccine serum, two of whom did not survive the attempts.

On the other hand, Wirths used his medical right of appeal several times in court proceedings by the camp Gestapo in order to rescue prisoners. He also ensured, among other things, by improving the catastrophic hygiene conditions in the camp, to contain the epidemics of typhus and typhoid that were rampant in the camp . He also forbade the SS medical ranks in the prisoners ' infirmary to "spray down" prisoners who were unable to work or seriously ill by means of fatal injections of phenol into the heart, pointing out that they should keep to the official channels. From this point onwards, infected inmates also reported to the inmate infirmary, as there was no longer any risk of being "hosed down" immediately afterwards. According to statements made by Hermann Langbein, a survivor of Auschwitz, Wirths was only "reluctantly involved in the extermination apparatus" of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Wirths is also said to have used responsible prisoners as prison functionaries in the prisoner infirmary and prevented the abuse of prisoners, insofar as this was in his power.

Langbein, who had already got to know Wirths as a camp doctor in the infirmary of the Dachau concentration camp , was the prisoner clerk in the main camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp for almost two years from September 1942 . Langbein was a manager in the camp resistance at the Auschwitz combat group . After consulting with members of the camp resistance, Langbein gradually built up a relationship of trust with Wirths. Langbein Wirths also indirectly indicated that he was part of the camp resistance movement. Langbein informed him in this connection that the Allied Forces had been sentenced to death against the SS medical officer and his family , but that this had been revoked by the camp resistance. The Auschwitz combat group was able to influence Wirths.

On September 1, 1944, Wirths was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer of the reserve and received the War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords. After the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945, Wirths worked in the Mittelbau concentration camp from the beginning of February 1945 to the beginning of April 1945. After that, Wirths was still employed in the Bergen-Belsen and Neuengamme concentration camps .

After the end of the war

After the war ended, Wirths went into hiding with his brother Helmut in Hamburg . In a letter to his wife dated May 24, 1945, he stated “that we can answer to our Lord God and people with a clear conscience” and further “What have I done wrong? I really do not know it!". In July 1945 Wirths was arrested by the British and imprisoned in the Neuengamme internment camp . Wirths was transferred from Neuengamme to the Staumühle internment camp. Before Wirths' interrogation, the officer of the British Army, Colonel Draper, greeted Wirths with a handshake and said: “Now I have shaken hands with the person who, as the chief doctor of Auschwitz, is responsible for the deaths of four million people. I'll question you about it tomorrow. Think about your responsibilities during the night, watch your hands. "

The following night Wirths tried to kill himself by hanging in his cell. However, this did not go unnoticed and Wirths was cut off from the strand while still alive. A few days later, on September 20, 1945, he died of injuries from his attempted suicide.

Immediately before his death, he left a written justification in which he might a. said: "I tried, according to my Christian and medical conscience, to help the sick prisoners ..."

See also

literature

  • Robert Jay Lifton : Doctors in the Third Reich . Translated from the American v. Annegret Lösch. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1988
  • Ulrich Völklein : Dr. med. Eduard Wirths: A Doctor in Auschwitz: A Source Edition. Norderstedt: Books on Demand 2005, ISBN 3-8334-3598-4 .
  • Ulrich Völklein: The 'Prince Charming'. Eduard Wirths. From follower to resistance. As an SS doctor in the Auschwitz extermination camp. Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-89806-924-9 . ( Review and criticism of the author )
  • Konrad Beischl: Dr. med. Eduard Wirths and his work as an SS medical officer in KL Auschwitz. Würzburg: Königshausen and Neumann 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3010-9 . Content ( review )
  • Wacław Długoborski , Franciszek Piper (eds.): Auschwitz 1940-1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Verlag Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oswiecim 1999, 5 volumes: I. Construction and structure of the camp. II. The prisoners - conditions of existence, work and death. III. Destruction. IV. Resistance. V. Epilog., ISBN 83-85047-76-X .
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
  • Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3 .
  • Hans Strobel: Supplement to: Dr. Eduard Wirths, on-site doctor at Auschwitz: Documentary. Netherlands, 1975; Director: Rolf Orthel. Düsseldorf: State Center for Political Education 1979
  • German transcript of the documentary film (1975) Dr. Eduard Wirths - on-site physician for Auschwitz for Dutch filmmaker Roland Orthel and others: PDF ( Memento from April 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  • Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Vienna, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980, ISBN 3-548-33014-2 .
  • Hans-Joachim Lang : The women from Block 10. Medical experiments in Auschwitz. Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-455-50222-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Timo Sauer: Eduard Wirths (1909-1945) - SS-Sturmbannführer, site doctor for Auschwitz at www.zukunft-brauch-erinnerung.de
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 681 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of KL Auschwitz , in: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940-1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Volume I: Construction and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum , Oświęcim 1999, p. 287.
  4. ↑ a b Sven Keller: Review: Konrad Beischl: Dr. med. Eduard Wirths
  5. ↑ Hans-Joachim Lang: The women of Block 10. Medical experiments in Auschwitz. Hamburg 2011, pp. 144–166.
  6. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Vienna 1980, 425.
  7. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Vienna 1980, 411 ff., 426 ff.
  8. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora , Göttingen 2001, p. 652.
  9. ^ A b Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Vienna 1980, p. 432.
  10. ^ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. An encyclopedia of persons , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 439f.
  11. ↑ "Fight against cervical cancer" Statements-Life Paths-Careers (PDF)
  12. ↑ Quoted in: Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Vienna 1980, 432.
  13. ↑ Quoted from Danuta Czech : Calendar of events in the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945. Reinbek near Hamburg 1989, p. 1020.
personal data
SURNAME Wirths, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS medical officer in Auschwitz
DATE OF BIRTH 4th September 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Geroldshausen
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1945
Place of death Dump chairs