Friedrich Opitz
Friedrich Opitz (born August 7, 1898 in Bergen , † February 26, 1948 in Hameln ) was German SS-Hauptsturmführer and plant manager of Texled GmbH in the Ravensbrück concentration camp .
Life
Friedrich Opitz, a master tailor by trade, was married and had three children. He joined the NSDAP (membership number 170.897) in 1929 and that of the SS in 1930 (membership number 3.533). From 1936 Opitz was employed in the tailoring (clothing store) in the Dachau concentration camp and was transferred from there to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in June 1940 in order to set up a branch of the Dachau clothing factory. As a result, Opitz became plant manager of the SS company " Society for Textile and Leather Utilization (Texled)" (from 1944 "Deutsche Textil- und Bekleidungswerke GmbH"), which in 1940 officially took over the prisoner tailoring of the Ravensbrück concentration camp. There, female inmates had to produce concentration camp inmate clothing and later uniforms for the Waffen SS in shifts. Operations manager was SS-Oberscharführer Joseph Graf and his deputy Gustav Binder . Opitz remained in this position until April 1945.
He was supposed to be charged in the first Ravensbrück trial , but managed to escape. After he was arrested again shortly afterwards, he was the only accused in the second Ravensbrück trial (November 5 to 27, 1947) to answer for the crimes committed in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Opitz stated the following about his activities in court: “In the beginning it was my job in Ravensbrück to produce the prisoner's clothing for all concentration camps. 150–200 prisoners from the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp were made available to me for this purpose. At that time, no workload was set. When making trousers and jackets, 150 prisoners made around 200 pieces of clothing every day. The company was later expanded and I employed up to 4,500 women in two shifts in tailoring, skinning and weaving. "
According to former female prisoners in the tailoring shop, Opitz is said to have regularly carried out or ordered serious abuse of the prisoners. Friedrich Opitz was sentenced to death on November 24, 1947 and executed by hanging on February 26, 1948 in Hameln prison.
literature
- Bärbel Schmidt: History and symbolism of the striped concentration camp inmate clothing. Dissertation. Oldenburg 2000 ( short version )
- Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002 (Dissertation TU Berlin), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 83-opus-4303 , doi : 10.14279 / depositonce-528 .
- Helga Schwarz, Gerda Szepansky, Brandenburg State Center for Political Education in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (eds.): ... and yet flowers were in bloom: Ravensbrück women's concentration camp; Documents, reports, poems and drawings from everyday life in the camp 1939–1945 . Brandenburg State Center for Political Education, Potsdam 2000, ISBN 3-932502-25-6 . (Report on the industrial yard department of the former prisoners Hildegard Fischer, Helene Potetz, Rosa Jochmann in May 1945)
Individual evidence
- ^ Statement by Opitz in court, quoted from Silke Schäfer: On the self-image of women in the concentration camp. The Ravensbrück camp. Berlin 2002 (Dissertation TU Berlin), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 83-opus-4303 , doi : 10.14279 / depositonce-528 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Opitz, Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German plant manager in the Ravensbrück concentration camp |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 7, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bergen (Middle Franconia) |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 26, 1948 |
| Place of death | Hamelin |