Edwin Katzenellenbogen

Edwin Katzenellenbogen in April 1947 as a defendant in the main Buchenwald trial

Edwin Maria Katzenellenbogen (born May 22, 1882 in Stanislau ; † after 1955; also Katzen-Elbogen or just elbow ) was a psychiatrist and employed as a prisoner doctor in Buchenwald concentration camp .

Life

Edwin Katzenellenbogen, son of a lawyer , grew up in Stanislau and Lemberg . After successfully completing his school career and passing his Abitur in 1900, he began his studies at the Jesuit University in Lviv . After briefly studying general , he moved to the University of Leipzig in April 1901 and studied medicine and philosophy .

After successfully completing his studies, he emigrated to the USA in 1905 and married Marie A. Pierce, the daughter of a prominent American judge. He then briefly returned to the University of Leipzig. He received his doctorate in 1907 with a dissertation on "The central and peripheral visual acuity of the light and dark-adapted eye" as a student of Wilhelm Wundt and then traveled back to the USA. Katzenellenbogen specialized in psychiatry and learned the method of hypnosis . He has worked at Massachusetts State Hospitals and New Jersey , among others , where he worked on a bill to sterilize epilepsy , criminals and terminally ill people. He taught abnormal psychology at Harvard University from 1909 to 1910 and published an article in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology on bogus symptoms.

Katzenellenbogen also acted as an expert witness in legal proceedings, including a trial against a murderer who claimed to have been less criminally responsible due to epilepsy. Also due to Katzenellenbogen's report, the accused was executed by the electric chair in 1912 . He actively supported the campaign of the eugenics movement in the USA and became a member of the Eugenics Research Association. In 1915 he left the USA and spent the following years in European capitals.

On August 28, 1916, Katzenellenbogen was arrested in Vienna for engaging in defrauded dollar bills. The investigations revealed that he had previously embezzled money by allegedly arranging contacts between prisoners of war and their relatives. While in custody, he attempted suicide.

He returned to Germany in 1920 at the latest, where he took up residence in Berlin. There he was indicted on December 15, 1924 in the criminal chamber of the lay judge's court in Lichterfelde for fraud , marriage fraud and theft in 27 cases. In a report in the Berliner Tageblatt on December 15, 1924, the following was reported:

"A fraud genius in court - The crimes of the doctor Dr. Cat elbow.
A trial that was very interesting for the public due to the personality of the defendant began this morning in front of the criminal chamber of the lay judge's court in Lichterfelde. This is where one of the most dangerous marriage and founding fraudsters of our time, the 42-year-old doctor Dr. Edwin Maria Katzenellenbogen, responsible for fraud, marriage fraud and theft in 27 cases. District court counselor Dr. Feußner, while lawyer Dr. Frey is approved. Dr. Several years ago Katzenellenbogen bought a villa in Zehlendorf, in which he set up a pension. He rented his rooms only to foreigners with strong currency values ​​and his dexterous demeanor attracted a large number of people. He knew how to convince his guests that he could invest their money extremely cheaply in Germany. In this way, he raised large sums of money in foreign currency and bought a villa in Baden-Baden and another in Flensburg. He also soon owned an elegant automobile. He knew how to put his financiers off skillfully and rented an empty room in Lützowstrasse in order to obtain further loans. He set up this as the office of the alleged GmbH. During this time, the fraudster met the wife of the Dutch State Secretary in the Colonial Ministry, Van Brink, in an elegant hotel in Berlin. Dr. Katzenellenbogen knew how to influence Frau van Brink through his lavish demeanor that she turned her back on her husband and went to the villa of Dr. Katzenellenbogen moved to Zehlendorf. He did not marry the meanwhile divorced woman, but lived with her in a wild marriage. He knew how to appropriate the great fortune of Mrs. van Brink and also had the father of his lover, to whom he pretended that he had meanwhile married his daughter, give him large amounts for speculative purposes. The father was a wholesale merchant in Norway and paid Dr. Katzenellenbogen in kronen the money. In today's hearing, the defendant stated that he had speculated with these sums on the stock market and had consistently achieved good results. He claims to have lost all of his assets through an unexpected government decree, which made the borrowing of foreign currencies by the banks a punishable offense. The other donors too, mainly Greeks, Swedes, Turks and Norwegians, had gotten rid of their money, as Dr. Katzenellenbogen, the Öl- und Fettverwertungsgesellschaft mbH and a beauty institute GmbH, had collapsed. In the meantime, Katzenellenbogen had thrown himself on the marriage fraud and was putting out marriage advertisements in the daily newspapers. He now called himself 'Dr. Rießer 'and gained the trust of numerous women through his appearance. The whole glory came to an abrupt end when the illegitimate marriage with Mrs. van Brink had a child. The father went to the responsible registry office in Zehlendorf to register his son. There, however, the officials made him difficult because there was a couple Dr. Cat's elbow not known. Investigations were made which revealed that a year ago a certain cat's elbow from Galicia had been entered in the official lists. The criminal police arrested him at the time, but he was released after making a confession and paying bail. Since his release, Dr. Cat's elbow gone. But now the well-known writer Karin Michaëlis , who had come to Germany from Denmark especially for this purpose, had taken on her betrayed friend, Mrs. van Brink, and made the public prosecutor's office II in Berlin aware of Katzenellenbogen's dangerous activities. It turned out that he had kidnapped the illegitimate child, so that all investigations into this have so far been unsuccessful. That's why Dr. Katzenellenbogen arrested again and initiated special child abduction proceedings against him. Even today the swindler explained to the court that Mrs. van Brink was still his wife according to American law, because he had lived with her for years. He allegedly claims to have taken care of the child in England, but refuses to give the address. The interrogation of the accused dragged on until noon, who defends himself in a rather skilful manner and denies the frauds of which he is accused. "

A procedure to withdraw his doctorate because of unworthy behavior was discontinued in 1927 without any further consequences. He was sentenced again to six months in prison in Berlin in 1935 for fraud and forgery. Due to the conviction of Katzenellenbogen, the public prosecutor also applied for his expulsion from Germany. His doctorate was finally revoked by the University of Leipzig, probably mainly because of his presumed Jewish origin.

Then Katzenellenbogen emigrated to Czechoslovakia , where he again became a criminal. Then he came to France via Italy at the end of 1939 . From 1940 onwards there were several arrests in Paris and subsequent questioning by the Gestapo . Due to his psychiatric knowledge, Katzenellenbogen was used several times to examine German Wehrmacht soldiers in the military prison to determine a possible mental illness.

Because of his eugenic background, his supposed American citizenship and despite his supposed Jewish descent, Katzenellenbogen worked as a doctor under arrest for the Wehrmacht.

Prisoner doctor in Buchenwald concentration camp

In September 1943, on the basis of an order from Berlin, Katzenellenbogen was admitted to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he initially acted as the senior prisoner doctor (prison number 20.103) in the small camp. In October 1944 Katzenellenbogen was transferred to the main camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp and worked in the local camp hospital as a prisoner doctor until the camp was liberated in April 1945. As a privileged prisoner functionary could Katzenellenbogen of his own civilian clothes wearing: a three-piece suit with a tie, a hat and medical armband that identified him as an inmate doctor.

Katzenellenbogen's pro-German activities, his eugenic background and his medical skills were well known to the camp staff. He therefore cultivated a familiar and cooperative relationship with the camp staff, especially with the camp doctors and the medical ranks . To Gerhard Schiedlausky built Katzenellenbogen a special relationship of trust on. In mid-1944, Schiedlausky asked Katzenellenbogen for psychotherapeutic help. Schiedlausky reported to Katzenellenbogen that he suffered from insomnia and that self-medication had not helped. Schiedlausky then successfully treated Katzenellenbogen with the method of hypnosis and the analysis of his dreams and thus gained a considerable influence on Schiedlausky.

Katzenellenbogen is said to have treated inmates with his hypnotic abilities in order to pass on information to the camp Gestapo about resistance activities in the camp.

Because of the collaboration with the camp staff, there were repeated arguments with the internal camp resistance movement. Necessary medicine, which was easily accessible to him due to his position as a prisoner doctor, sold Katzenellenbogen to sick prisoners at a premium. Katzenellenbogen allegedly refused to admit seriously ill prisoners, especially French ones, to the prisoner infirmary. He is also said to have been involved in the killing of inmates using phenol injections and to have mistreated inmates. Katzenellenbogen also took part in pseudo-medical research with the camp doctor Werner Greunuss .

Buchenwald main process

Edwin Katzenellenbogen during the interrogation before the US military tribunal in the main Buchenwald trial on August 5, 1947

In mid-September 1945 the wanted man was arrested in Marburg. Katzenellenbogen was charged with 30 other suspects in the main Buchenwald trial in the Dachau trials .

Katzenellenbogen was accused of ill-treating Allied prisoners, but the killing of prisoners could not be proven. On August 14, 1947, Katzenellenbogen was sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence was later commuted to 15 years' imprisonment. Katzenellenbogen was originally an Austrian citizen , who received American citizenship in 1910 through his long stay in the USA . Since he left the USA permanently in 1915 and only entered the USA sporadically until 1933, he assumed in court that he had lost American citizenship. Katzenellenbogen was released prematurely from the Landsberg war crimes prison in September 1953 and died after 1955.

literature

• Buchenwald main trial: Deputy Judge Advocate's Office 7708 War Crimes Group European Command APO 407 (United States of America v. Josias Prince zu Waldeck et al. - Case 000-50-9), November 1947. ( Original document in English, PDF file ) .
• Jens Blecher: From the privilege to award doctorates to the right to award doctorates. The Leipzig right to award doctorates between 1409 and 1945 as a constitutive and formative element of academic self-administration. Dissertation. Martin Luther University , Halle-Wittenberg 2006. (online)
• Joshua M. Greene: Justice at Dachau. The Trials of an American Prosecutor. Broadway Books, New York 2003, ISBN 0-7679-0879-1 .
• House of Harkness: The Life and Times of RNAS Bomber Pilot Donald E. Harkness. Author House, Bloomington 2014, ISBN 978-1-4969-1409-5 .

Web links

Commons : Edwin Katzenellenbogen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Photo by Edwin Katzenellenbogen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jens Blecher: From the privilege to award doctorates to the right to award doctorates. The Leipzig right to award doctorates between 1409 and 1945 as a constitutive and formative element of academic self-administration. Dissertation. Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg 2006, p. 242 f.
2. ^ Miles A. Tinker: Wundt's Doctorate Students and their Theses 1875-1929. In: American Journal of Psychology. 44, 1932, p. 637.
3. ^ ^{A b c} Edwin Black: The Story of the New Jersey Doctor Who Helped Kill Prisoners at Buchenwald in the Name of Eugenics. 2003 - Article based on the book War Against the Weak by Edwin Black.
4. ↑ The New Newspaper. (Vienna), No. 224, September 3, 1916, p. 7.
5. ↑ Jens Blecher, 2006, p. 243 f.
6. ↑ Berliner Tageblatt . December 15, 1924, quoted in Blecher 2006.
7. ↑ Jens Blecher, 2006, p. 245 ff.
8. ↑ ^{a b} See Buchenwald main process: Deputy Judge Advocate's Office 7708 War Crimes Group European Command APO 407, November 1947. P. 58 ff.
9. ↑ The last of forty-five. In:  Weltpresse. Independent news and voices from all over the world / world press , September 18, 1945, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
10. ↑ The executioners from the forest of the dead. In: Der Spiegel . 1947, no. 16.
11. ↑ FX Charet: Spiritualism and the foundations of Jung's psychology. State University of New York Press, New York 1993, p. 271, note 11.