Erwin Ding-Schuler

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Erwin Ding-Schuler

Erwin-Oskar Ding-Schuler (born September 19, 1912 in Bitterfeld , † August 11, 1945 in Freising ) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer and first camp doctor of the Buchenwald concentration camp .

Life

Diary of the department for typhus and virus research at the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen-SS, page 23 (March - June 1944)

Ding-Schuler, illegitimate son of a colonial medic named Carl Freiherr von Schuler, was adopted by Heinrich Ding in 1915. After successfully completing his school career, he began studying medicine and, at the age of 20, joined the NSDAP in 1932 ( membership number 1.318.211) and later also the SS (SS number 280.163). In 1937, after completing his medical exam, he received his doctorate and attended an SS medical junker school.

From 1938 he was a camp doctor in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In July 1939, Ding-Schuler murdered Pastor Paul Schneider, who later became a martyr , with an overdose of the drug g-strophanthin .

After the beginning of the Second World War he was adjutant of the division doctor of the SS division Totenkopf . From 1940, Ding-Schuler worked as an adjutant at the SS Medical Academy in Graz. From autumn 1941 he worked at the hygiene institute of the Waffen SS under Joachim Mrugowsky in Berlin.

In December 1941, Ding-Schuler also became head of the typhus testing department of the hygiene institute of the Waffen-SS in Buchenwald concentration camp. The background to this measure was the spread of this disease in the Reich territory in autumn 1941. In December 1941, several meetings were held between representatives of the Wehrmacht, manufacturers and representatives of the Reich Ministry of the Interior , responsible for health issues, in search of a suitable vaccine . It was agreed to test novel but not yet tested vaccines from various manufacturers on prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp. From January 1942 to March 1945, more than nine test series with typhus vaccines were carried out on concentration camp inmates . By January 1945, 988 prisoners had been victims of these medical experiments, many of which suffered consequential physical damage or even died as a result of the experiments. On January 9, 1943, the typhus research station was renamed "Department for typhus and virus research". As of January 1943, was chief medical officer of Buchenwald Concentration Camp Waldemar Hoven temporarily Ding-Schuler's deputy. The senior inmate nurse at the typhus ward in Block 46 was Arthur Dietzsch , Ding-Schuler's doctor clerk Eugen Kogon .

Also gas fire -, typhoid - and yellow fever vaccines tested Ding-Schuler by human experiments on Buchenwald prisoners. He published the research results in specialist articles, which, however, are said to have been written by the concentration camp inmate Eugen Kogon. In September 1944, Ding-Schuler changed his last name to "Schuler".

According to his own account, Kogon was able to build an almost trusting relationship with Ding-Schuler after he became his doctor's clerk in 1943. Over time, even conversations about family issues, the political situation and the course of the front are said to have arisen. According to Kogon, his influence on Ding-Schuler saved the lives of many prisoners. Kogon describes Ding-Schuler as a capricious but approachable person who on the one hand was responsible for the death of hundreds of prisoners due to human experiments, but on the other hand also made it possible for prisoners to survive.

At the beginning of April 1945, Kogon and Dietzsch learned from Ding-Schuler that they were on a list of 46 named prisoners whom the SS wanted to execute shortly before the camp was liberated. Ding-Schuler saved Kogon's life towards the end of the war by smuggling him out of Buchenwald in a box. Arthur Dietzsch also survived the Buchenwald concentration camp because of this warning.

On April 25, 1945 Ding-Schuler by US troops was arrested and committed suicide in prison on August 11, 1945 suicide .

According to his information, Ding-Schuler had a diary made by the doctor scribes Arthur Gaczinski and later Eugen Kogon, in which the typhus tests in particular were documented. The diary was kept from December 1941 to January 1945. After the war ended, it was handed over to the US military by Eugen Kogon. It is probably a copy, as Kogon stated that he had rewritten the diary at the instigation of Ding-Schuler towards the end of the war, and on the other hand Arthur Dietzsch later stated that he had burned the original towards the end of the war on Ding-Schuler's orders. Nevertheless, it was used as evidence in several trials, for example in the Nuremberg medical trial and later in a trial against the physician Gerhard Rose who was involved in the typhus experiments . The tests documented in the station diary were demonstrably carried out.

literature

Web links

Commons : Erwin Ding-Schuler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Buchenwald typhus experiments documents  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, Nazi medicine and its victims. 1997, p. 291.
  2. ^ Walter Poller: Doctor's writer in Buchenwald, Offenbach a. M .: Verlag Das Segel, 1960; (Quoted from / after: Prediger in der Hölle, memorial booklet for the 25th anniversary of the death of Paul Schneider, Verlag Kirche und Mann, Gütersloh).
  3. ↑ http://www.gdw-berlin.de/de/vertiefung/biographien/biografie/view-bio/schneider-1/
  4. ↑ Holm Kirsten, Wulf Kirsten: Voices from Buchenwald. A reader. 2002, p. 109.
  5. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. 2007, p. 111.
  6. ↑ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, Nazi medicine and its victims. 1997, p. 287ff.
  7. ↑ ... from aniline to forced labor - a documentation of the IGFarben working group of the federal symposium of chemical faculties ( memento of the original from October 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bufata-chemie.de
  8. ↑ Eugen Kogon: The SS State. The system of the German concentration camps. 1974, p. 172ff.
    Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, Nazi medicine and its victims. 1997, pp. 291, 327.
  9. ↑ See: Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. 2007, p. 112.
  10. ↑ Eugen Kogon: The SS State. The system of the German concentration camps. 1974, p. 318ff.
  11. ↑ Eugen Kogon: The SS State. The system of the German concentration camps. 1974, pp. 338f.
  12. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. 2007, p. 111.
    Eugen Kogon: Der SS-Staat. The system of the German concentration camps. 1974, p. 320.
  13. ↑ Cf. Institut für Zeitgeschichte München: Nachlass Arthur Dietzsch, archive inventory ED 112, Volume 17: Interview with Arthur Dietzsch, tape recordings by Ernst Thape 1972.
    Dietzsch's statement of April 3, 1947 in the Nuremberg Trials Project ( Memento of the original from 25. July 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Ernst Klee: Auschwitz, Nazi medicine and its victims. 1997, p. 321ff. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
personal data
SURNAME Ding-Schuler, Erwin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ding-Schuler, Erwin-Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German concentration camp doctor
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Bitterfeld
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1945
Place of death Freising