Ernst Mettbach

Ernst Mettbach on June 21, 1947 during his testimony at the Nuremberg doctors trial

Ernst Mettbach (born April 30, 1920 in Fürth ; † January 1, 1972 in Fürth) was a German Sinto and survivor of the Porajmos . He served as a test subject in the seawater experiments, a Nazi medical crime, and testified about it at the Nuremberg trials .

Life under National Socialism

Mettbach was arrested on June 6, 1944 in Fürth and taken to the " Auschwitz Gypsy Camp " via the Nuremberg Police Prison. It was registered there under the number Z 10061, the last entry (Z 10053) with a date of receipt in the camp is dated June 7, 1944.

From Auschwitz he was taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp , where he and other prisoners reported to a "special detachment", to the Dachau concentration camp . August 1944 arrived. After a period in quarantine, he was supposed to serve as a test subject for medical experiments, which, however, did not occur in his case due to illness. After he was released from the hospital, he was admitted to Block 22 and later transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp . In the meantime he had to do forced labor in the Melk concentration camp and was liberated in Mauthausen on May 5, 1945 at the end of the war. Then he lived in Fürth and worked as a trader. On June 21, 1947, he testified as a witness in the Wilhelm Beiglböck case at the Nuremberg medical trial .

The prisoner registered in Auschwitz immediately after Mettbach was Karl Höllenreiner (Z 10062), also born in Fürth, who was also an involuntary subject in the seawater experiments and a witness at the Nuremberg trials.

swell

The Nuremberg Medical Trial. Index volume for the microfiche edition: With an introduction by Angelika Ebbinghaus to the history of the process and short biographies of those involved in the process. Walter de Gruyter, 2000 , p. 122f.

Web link

Paul Weindling: "Our own 'Austrian way'": The sea water drinking experiments in Dachau 1944 on www.doew.at

Individual evidence

^ Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in cooperation with the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, Heidelberg: Memorial book: The Sinti and Roma in the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. Saur-Verlag, Munich a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-598-11162-2 . P. 1326f (print version) = P. 299 of the document.
^ Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in cooperation with the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, Heidelberg: Memorial book: The Sinti and Roma in the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. Saur-Verlag, Munich a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-598-11162-2 . P. 1326f (print version) = P. 299 of the document.

personal data
SURNAME	Mettbach, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Sinto and survivor of the Porajmos
DATE OF BIRTH	April 30, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fuerth
DATE OF DEATH	after 1947

[1] Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in cooperation with the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, Heidelberg: Memorial book: The Sinti and Roma in the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. Saur-Verlag, Munich a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-598-11162-2 . P. 1326f (print version) = P. 299 of the document.

[2] Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in cooperation with the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma, Heidelberg: Memorial book: The Sinti and Roma in the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. Saur-Verlag, Munich a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-598-11162-2 . P. 1326f (print version) = P. 299 of the document.