Erich Zoddel
Erich Zoddel (born August 9, 1913 in Berlin , † November 30, 1945 in Wolfenbüttel ) was a prisoner functionary and camp elder in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp .
Life
The Norwegian Belsen survivor Arne Moi describes Zoddel as a so-called “violent professional criminal ” who had served several sentences before being transferred to the concentration camps. Because of a theft, Zoddel was sentenced to one year in prison in 1941 and then, towards the end of 1942, he was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp for two weeks . From there he was used for forced labor at the Heinkel works in Oranienburg until the end of October 1943 and finally, after a short stay in Buchenwald , was sent to the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp in November 1943 . On March 27, 1944, Zoddel was transferred with about 1,000 other Dora prisoners to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he had his accommodation in Block 4 of the prisoner camp. Just three days after his arrival he was there as a block elder in the camp hospital and from January 1945 held the position of camp elder in the prisoner camp (camp section no. 1). His job there was to monitor the camp and distribute the food rations in the prisoner blocks. Zoddel was sentenced to death by a British military tribunal in Celle on August 31, 1945 for the murder of a female prisoner on the evening of April 17, 1945, two days after the camp was liberated by the British army . In a second trial, Zoddel was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bergen-Belsen trial on November 17 in Lüneburg for his actions (mistreatment of prisoners) in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The death sentence of his trial in Celle was carried out on November 30, 1945 in Wolfenbüttel.
literature
- United Nations War Crimes Commission (Ed.): Law reports of trials of war criminals, selected and prepared by the United Nations War Crimes Commission. 3 volumes, William S. Hein Publishing, Buffalo (New York) 1997, ISBN 1-57588-403-8 (reprint of the original edition from 1947 to 1949)
- Arne Moi: The camp - a Norwegian in Bergen-Belsen. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-35133-X
Web links
- Mazal: First Bergen-Belsen Trial: Protocols ( Memento from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (eng)
- Photos and features of the defendants
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Zoddel, Erich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German camp elder in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 9, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 30, 1945 |
| Place of death | Wolfenbüttel |