Emil Mahl

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Emil Mahl in American internment. Photo from 1945.

Emil Erwin Mahl (born November 9, 1900 , † April 1, 1967 in Heidelberg ) was a Kapo prisoner function in the crematorium of the Dachau concentration camp .

biography

Mahl, divorced and father of one child, was a mechanic by profession. From 1940 to the end of April 1945 he was a so-called professional criminal inmate in the Dachau concentration camp. He was first used there in various work detachments, including a construction detachment and for clearing rubble. In addition, he was temporarily block elder of the punishment block in Dachau. From 1943 he worked in the camp crematorium and from July 1944 served as Kapo under Theodor Heinrich Bongartz until the camp was liberated at the end of April 1945.

His tasks in the crematorium included the transport of the corpses to the crematorium and their cremation. After the end of the war, Mahl reported that the Jewish prisoners of the crematorium command were replaced from time to time and, after their work in the crematorium , were eliminated as potential witnesses. Two months after his work in the crematorium detail, Mahl was also called in to participate and assist in 800 to 1,000 hangings . This earned him the title " Executioner of Dachau". After the war, grinding said that, for executions Wilhelm Ruppert , Rudolf Heinrich Suttrop , Josef Jarolin , Franz Xaver Trenkle , William Wagner , Franz Boettger , Alfred Kramer , Josef Seuss , Johann Viktor cherry and Theodor Heinrich Bongartz were present in different compositions. Among the camp doctors he named Fritz Hintermayer , Fridolin Karl Puhr and Hans Eisele . Johann Kick is said to have brought the prisoners to the crematorium and Leonhard Anselm Eichberger is said to have been the present reporter. According to him, the executions were carried out by hanging, shooting or injecting poison. Mahl himself is said to have been partially kicked by the SS officers present in order to carry out the executions more quickly. He also stated that Trenkle is said to have knocked out his teeth once. Mahl said the following about the execution of the Hitler bomber Georg Elser on April 9, 1945 in the early 1950s:

“One evening in April […] the administrator of the crematorium, SS-Oberscharführer Bongartz , came to my living room in the new crematorium. He told me that we (inmates from the crematorium) were not allowed to go out of the crematorium that evening, but if we hear shooting we should come out immediately with a stretcher. […] Around 11 p.m. Geiger told me that he had heard shooting. I too had heard this and therefore asked Geiger and Ziegler to go out with me on a stretcher. In front of the crematorium, the two hesitated because they were afraid, but then slowly walked with me to a place where an electric flashlight shone. […] At the scene of the crime I saw a man lying dead on the ground, his face to the ground. The administrator Bongartz stood next to him. […] At the same time I saw three men leaving by the little iron door that led into the crematorium area. As I must have recognized, there were three SS officers. […] Elser had a single shot, namely a shot in the neck, and was already dead when we arrived. In my opinion, the shot had been fired from very close range. We had to take the Elser straight away to the New Crematorium and then burn it in the oven. "

Before the camp was liberated, Mahl left for Munich, where he was tracked down and arrested by Michel Thomas , who worked for the Counter Intelligence Corps , in early May 1945 . On November 15, 1945, Mahl was tried in the main Dachau trial, which took place as part of the Dachau trials , on charges of war crimes before an American military court . During the trial, Mahl wore the striped concentration camp inmate clothing . On December 13, 1945, Mahl and 35 other co-defendants were sentenced to death by hanging . In the judgment, participation in executions was taken into account as individual acts of excess at Mahl. In his defense, Mahl stated that he had forcibly taken part in the executions out of fear for his life and that he had actively taken care of the post in the crematorium only out of fear of being transferred to another concentration camp . The death sentence was later reduced to ten years' imprisonment and then further reduced. Mahl was imprisoned in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison and released in February 1952.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hellmut G. Haasis: I'll blow up Hitler. The assassin Georg Elser. Edition Nautilus, 2009, p. 377 ( limited preview on Google books ).
  2. ↑ Testimony of Emil Mahl, former prisoner captain in the crematorium of the Dachau concentration camp , source: State Archives Munich under 'Staatsanwaltschaften 34475 / 1-5, quoted in: Georg Elser: Murder .
  3. ^ The LA Times law suit - Michel Thomas
  4. ^ Holger Lessing: The first Dachau trial (1945/46). , Baden-Baden 1993, p. 322
personal data
SURNAME Meal, Emil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mahl, Emil Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kapo in the crematorium detachment of the Dachau concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1900
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1967
Place of death Heidelberg