Franz Eirenschmalz

Franz Eirenschmalz during the Nuremberg Trials. Photo taken in January 1947.

Franz Eirenschmalz (born October 20, 1901 in Munich ; † unknown) was a German architect , site manager and SS leader . Eirenschmalz was indicted in the Nuremberg Trials and convicted as a war criminal.

Education, occupation and political activity

After attending primary and secondary school in Munich, Eirenschmalz completed an apprenticeship at the local higher technical college for civil engineering. After graduation, Eirenschmalz worked as an architect in Bad Reichenhall from the beginning of August 1925 to the beginning of April 1928 . He then worked briefly as site manager in Donauwörth until he was site manager from the beginning of November 1928 to October 1930 during the construction of the hospital in Bad Reichenhall. After that he was unemployed for over a year.

As early as 1920 he joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) and in 1922 also became a member of the Bund Oberland . In November 1923, Eirenschmalz took part in the Hitler putsch . In June 1931, Eirenschmalz joined the SS (SS No. 10.051) and in October 1931 the NSDAP ( membership number 644.902).

Full-time activity in SS offices

From February 1932 Eirenschmalz was a full-time employee of the SS and from the beginning of October 1932 was a technical draftsman for Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler . From July 1933 Eirenschmalz worked for a year at the NSDAP in the construction management, where he was employed as a construction manager for Führerbauten (including the Tölz Driving School ). From the beginning of July 1934 he headed the construction department in the SS administration office and at the beginning of April 1936 became head of the main department V 5 - construction until Oswald Pohl took over this department in mid-April 1937. Then Eirenschmaz changed to the command staff of the SS-available troops and then headed the main household and buildings department. In this function, Eirenschmalz was again active as a site manager (including SS barracks in Klagenfurt). After the end of the war , Gustav Kaufmann , the former head of the inspection department at the T4 Central Office , testified that Eirenschmalz had also been the site manager for the construction of the Brandenburg killing center . From the beginning of February 1942 to the beginning of May 1945 Eirenschmalz headed Office C VI in the newly created Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA). From February 1943 at the latest, Eirenschmalz was at times the deputy of Hans Kammler . In the meantime, Eirenschmalz was released from his duties from May 1943 to January 1944 due to a hospital stay.

post war period

The defendants' closing remarks on September 22, 1947, at the microphone Oswald Pohl . Franz Eirenschmalz in the back row on the left.

After his arrest, Eirenschmalz was charged with 17 other accused from January 13, 1947 before the United States Military Tribunal II in the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS . Eirenschmalz was particularly responsible for the construction management and maintenance of the gas chambers and the like. a. accused in Auschwitz concentration camp . He himself gave unclear information in court and was only reluctant to admit his involvement in building concentration camps . Eirenschmalz was found guilty of war crimes , crimes against humanity and membership in criminal organizations . Eirenschmalz was sentenced to death on November 3, 1947 . However, the sentence was later commuted to a nine-year prison term. After serving a partial sentence, he was released from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison in May 1951 . Eirenschmalz then worked as a construction engineer in Bayrischzell . Eirenschmalz was questioned on April 10, 1964 in the course of the Auschwitz trials before the Frankfurt am Main district court : “ I saw the Auschwitz crematoria there on the occasion of my visit. I don't know how the witness Siebenlist came to claim that I watched the gassings ”.

SS ranks from Eirenschmalz
date	rank
March 28, 1934	SS-Untersturmführer
November 9, 1934	SS-Obersturmführer
April 20, 1935	SS-Hauptsturmführer
April 20, 1936	SS-Sturmbannführer
April 20, 1937	SS-Obersturmbannführer
January 30, 1942	SS standard leader

literature

Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3 .
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 .
Jan Erik Schulte : Forced Labor and Extermination: The Economic Empire of the SS. Oswald Pohl and the SS Economic Administration Main Office 1933–1945. Paderborn 2001, ISBN 3-506-78245-2 .
Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Vol. V. United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950. (Volume 5 of the " Green Series ").

Web links

Introduction to NMT Case 4 - USA v. Pohl et al. on www. nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
Questioning of Franz Eirenschmalz on December 21, 1946 by Mr. Ortmann. In: Archives of the Institute for Contemporary History . Munich, signature ZS-881−1 1948/56 ( online , PDF, 5.21 MB; minutes of the interrogations of Eirenschmalz in the context of the Nuremberg trials).

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g 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. 373.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 132.
^ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. V. District of Columbia 1950, p. 1024.
^ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. V. District of Columbia 1950, p. 1031.
↑ Johannes Tuchel: "Case 4: The trial against Oswald Pohl and others." In: Gerd R. Ueberschär : The allied trials against war criminals and soldiers 1943–1952. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13589-3 , p. 117.
^ Statement by Franz Eirenschmalz in the course of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Quoted in: Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons. Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 105.

personal data
SURNAME	Eirenschmalz, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German architect, site manager, SS leader and convict of the Nuremberg trials
DATE OF BIRTH	October 20, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH	Munich
DATE OF DEATH	after 1964

[Tuchel373-1] A ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g 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. 373.

[Klee132-2] Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 132.

[3] Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. V. District of Columbia 1950, p. 1024.

[4] Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. V. District of Columbia 1950, p. 1031.

[5] Johannes Tuchel: "Case 4: The trial against Oswald Pohl and others." In: Gerd R. Ueberschär : The allied trials against war criminals and soldiers 1943–1952. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-596-13589-3 , p. 117.

[6] Statement by Franz Eirenschmalz in the course of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Quoted in: Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons. Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 105.