Egon Zill

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Egon Gustav Adolf Zill (born March 28, 1906 in Plauen , † October 23, 1974 in Dachau ) was SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of various concentration camps .

Life

The son of a brewery worker completed an apprenticeship as a baker after eight years of attending elementary school, which he completed with the journeyman's examination in 1923. After changing activities as an assistant, he became a porter in a textile factory in 1927.

In 1923 Zill became a member of the NSDAP and the SA . After the temporary NSDAP ban , he rejoined the party (membership no. 20.063) on October 25, 1925. On August 1, 1926, he became a member of the SS and had one of the lowest membership numbers, number 535. Zill was an SS member "from the very beginning".

He married in 1934; his wife had been a member of various National Socialist organizations since the mid-1920s. The marriage had three children.

Activity in National Socialist camps

From May 1934, Zill worked full-time for the SS, initially with the guards in the Hohnstein and Sachsenburg concentration camps . From October 12, 1934, Zill was in charge of the guards at the Lichtenburg concentration camp . From November 1, 1936 to July 31, 1937 he was the head of the protective custody camp in Lichtenburg. The camp commandant there, Hans Helwig , left the camp management to Zill. Among the inmates, Zill was considered brutal and arbitrary. From August 1937, Zill served as the second protective custody camp leader in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps for three months each . From February 1, 1938, he was the adjutant of the commandant in the Lichtenburg concentration camp, which at that time had become a women's concentration camp. He worked in the same position from May to December 1939 in the Ravensbrück concentration camp .

Zill's SS ranks
date rank
April 15, 1931 SS squad leader
November 15, 1933 SS-Oberscharführer
April 20, 1934 SS-Untersturmführer
September 15, 1935 SS-Obersturmführer
January 30, 1937 SS-Hauptsturmführer
January 30, 1942 SS-Sturmbannführer

On December 1, 1939, Zill was appointed First Protective Custody Camp Leader at Dachau. Zill was Hermann Pister's successor from December 1941 to April 1942, in command of the SS special camp in Hinzert . Then Zill was the first camp commandant of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp . From mid-September 1942 to the end of July 1943, Zill was the successor to Karl Fritzsch as the camp commandant of the Flossenbürg concentration camp .

Worked with the Waffen SS

In August 1943 Zill switched to the Waffen SS ; he was transferred to a supply unit of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" . Later he served in the 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Kama" and a depot of the Waffen SS in Danzig. From the point of view of his military superiors, Zill did not prove himself: In assessments, he was certified the lack of basic training and lack of military and tactical skills. At the beginning of October 1944, Zill submitted the proposal to place selected concentration camp prisoners in the service of the Waffen SS. The suggestion was taken up by Oskar Dirlewanger and led to the transfer of prisoners to the special formation under Dirlewanger.

Post-war investigation and first court judgment

There are contradicting information about Zill's whereabouts at the end of the war. He either stayed in Danzig or moved to Flensburg. Zill used the nickname "Willi Sonntag" and worked in a motor vehicle division of the British Army. In 1951 he gave up his false name when he was recognized as a father, and later he worked as a groundskeeper on a sports field in Hamburg.

Zill's name was mentioned on November 17, 1948 in a letter that the “State Committee of Politically Persecuted People in Bavaria” handed over to the Munich public prosecutor's office, describing numerous crimes committed in the Dachau concentration camp.

On August 26, 1952, an arrest warrant was issued against Zill. After eight months of searching, Zill was arrested on April 24, 1953 in Hamburg.

According to the post-war investigations by the Munich public prosecutor's office, Zill tortured numerous prisoners in Dachau; some of the prisoners died from the mistreatment. The witnesses testified in the jury that Zill had repeatedly requested the killing of prisoners or had initiated the killing himself.

In 1955, on January 14th , the jury court of Munich II regional court passed a verdict: life imprisonment for "inciting murder in Dachau concentration camp". Zill found this verdict guilty of various crimes, including the following cases as proven:

  • As SS camp leader, Zill selected a Soviet prisoner of war from a group at the end of 1941 because he had a lichen on his face. Zill personally led him to the execution at the Hebertshausen firing range . The group in which the Soviet prisoner of war was was initially to be executed, but was then pardoned and assigned to work in the quarries. Zill made a selection here on his own initiative.
  • Karl Kapp was senior capo in the garage construction work detail. When the troops of the work detail passed the camp gate in the morning on November 18, 1940, Zill pointed to two prisoners and said that he no longer wanted to see them in the evening. On their return in the evening, the troops of this work detail drove the two dead back to the camp on wheelbarrows. When Kapp reported the arrival of the two dead, Zill is said to have replied: “That's what I call a prompt execution of orders”. A little later, Kapp became a camp elder and thus reached the highest position a prison functionary could have.

Retrial

Karl Kapp was tried in 1960, fifteen years after the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp . Kapp confessed, thereby confirming that he had received that order from Zill and that Zill had commented on the event that evening. But Kapp claimed that he did not murder the two inmates. The two died accidentally within the day without any external intervention. Twenty years after the day of the November 18, 1940 incident, nothing to the contrary could be proven to the former prisoner functionary Kapp; he was acquitted on all charges.

In 1961, based on this statement by Kapp and his acquittal, Zill was retried. On December 14, 1961, the Munich II Regional Court reduced Zill's life imprisonment to 15 years. In 1963, Zill was fired.

In the penitentiary system, Zill was conspicuous for violent actions against fellow prisoners; he behaved "decently and modestly" towards the law enforcement officers. Shortly before Zill's release in April 1963, the prison came to the following assessment of Zill's personality:

“He is a mentally clumsy person of simple stature, poorly equipped with comfort. His striving for effectiveness is directed towards external appearance, he has also maintained his military behavior in the institution, for example by striking his heels together when speaking. The stiff demeanor and the hard determination displayed is only a facade; in times of crisis he can be very sorry. B. at the doctor. He is tense inside and quickly becomes violent, showing no insight or atonement. In addition, he immediately lapsed into self-defense and is still trying to trivialize or even justify the conditions in the KL. He gives the impression that Nazi ideas are still firmly anchored in him today. "

Zill lived in the city of Dachau until his death.

literature

  • Karin Orth : Egon Zill - a typical representative of the concentration camp SS. In: Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Gerhard Paul (Ed.): Careers of violence. National Socialist perpetrator biographies ; Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2004, ISBN 3-534-16654-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 .
  • Tom Segev : The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-499-18826-0 .
  • Johannes Tuchel : Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934–1938. (= Writings of the Federal Archives, Volume 39). H. Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 .
  • Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002 (Dissertation TU Berlin), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 83-opus-4303 , doi : 10.14279 / depositonce-528 .
  • LG Munich II of December 14, 1961 , in: Justiz und NS-Verbrechen , Volume 18, 1978, pp. 27-63

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. Reinbek near Hamburg 1995, p. 168f.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Johannes Tuchel: Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934-1938. H. Boldt, 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 , p. 396.
  3. ↑ Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002, p. 173.
  4. ^ Johannes Tuchel: Concentration Camp. Organizational history and function of the “Inspection of the Concentration Camps” 1934–1938. (Writings of the Federal Archives, 39). Harald Boldt, Boppard 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 , p. 172.
  5. ^ Orth: Zill. P. 265.
  6. ↑ a b Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 695.
  7. ↑ Assessments of December 17, 1943 and September 30, 1944 in Zill's personal file in the Berlin Document Center , see Orth, Zill. P. 269.
  8. ^ Orth: Zill. P. 269f.
  9. ^ Orth: Zill. P. 269.
  10. ↑ Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002, p. 173.
  11. ↑ Universiteit van Amsterdam, Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid ( Memento from February 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Summary of the proceedings in justice and Nazi crimes . Detailed example at Orth, Zill. P. 267.
  12. ↑ Universiteit van Amsterdam, Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid ( Memento from February 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Summary of the proceedings in justice and Nazi crimes.
  13. ^ Judgment of the jury court at the regional court Munich II against Zill, Egon of January 14, 1955, pp. 17-24. --- Copy of the judgment in the Dachau archive DA-6528. ---- Source taken from Stanislav Zámečník: (Ed. Comité International de Dachau): That was Dachau. Luxembourg 2002, p. 151.
  14. ↑ see e.g. B .: Nikolaus Wachsmann : KL: The history of the National Socialist concentration camps . Siedler Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 9783886808274 , pp. 595–598
  15. ^ Stanislav Zámečník: (Ed. Comité International de Dachau): That was Dachau. Luxembourg, 2002, p. 154.
  16. ↑ DA-21956, judgment against Karl Kapp of October 14, 1960.
  17. ↑ DA-20429/2, documents on the judgment of December 14, 1961.
  18. ^ Orth: Zill. P. 271 with reference to reports from the Straubing prison .
  19. ^ Report of the Straubing prison dated March 22, 1963, quoted in Orth: Zill. P. 271.
personal data
SURNAME Zill, Egon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sunday, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of various concentration camps
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Plauen
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1974
Place of death Dachau