Gerhard Peters

This article covers the chemist and manager Gerhard Peters. On the art historian, see Gerhard Peters (art historian) ; on the cyclist see Gerard Peters .

Gerhard Friedrich Peters (born March 16, 1900 in Brussels ; † May 2, 1974 ) was a German chemist and managing director of Degesch / HeLi, which had Zyklon B manufactured as the patent holder . The distribution of the disinfestation particular agent was carried out in the area east of the Elbe by Tesch and Stabenow ; this company supplied the Auschwitz concentration camp with it, where it was used extensively for mass murder in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp .

Life

Peters completed a degree in chemistry and worked as a student trainee in the hydrogen cyanide department at Degussa from 1921 onwards . After completing his studies in 1924, he took over the management of the prussic acid department there (Zyklon B) and received his doctorate in 1925 at the University of Frankfurt . From 1928 he was employed by the German Society for Pest Control (Degesch) as head of a research laboratory. There he became an authorized signatory in 1932.

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists , he became a member of the SA in November 1933 and of the NSDAP in May 1937 . At the beginning of 1939 Peters became managing director of Degesch and in 1940 general director . In 1941 he also took over the management of Heerdt-Lingler GmbH (HeLi). According to historian Michael Thad Allen, Peters is said to have pointed out to the SS that Zyklon B could be used for mass killing. From May 1942 he headed the “Working Committee for Spatial Disinfestation and Epidemic Defense” in the Reich Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition . At the beginning of 1944 he took over the chairmanship of the "Production Committee for Plant Protection and Pesticides in the Chemical Industry Economic Group".

Shortly after the end of the Second World War , Peters' employment with Degesch and HeLi ended in 1945. Then he built up the Friedberg General Disinfestation Service. In early April 1948, Peters testified as a defense witness in the IG Farben trial . Since his statements made it clear that he knew about the purpose of Zyklon B, a case was brought against him and two other senior employees of Degesch in 1949. Due to the deliveries of Zyklon B and the resulting mass murders, he was sentenced on March 29, 1949 to a five-year prison term for aiding and abetting manslaughter and three years of loss of honor . The two co-defendants were acquitted. Peters appealed several times and made a " pardon that was signed by over 200 people from science and public life". On May 27, 1955, he was acquitted of the allegations by the Frankfurt am Main regional court . However, he received no compensation for the multi-year pre- trial detention and legal costs.

He then became a partner and managing director at Lahn-Kunststoff GmbH and operations manager in the hydrocyanic acid production of a chemical factory that is mainly owned by Degussa. He was also a member of the Federal Commission to Combat Air Pollution in the Ruhr Area.

literature

• Peter Hayes: Degussa in the Third Reich. From cooperation to complicity. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52204-1 .
• 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 .
• LG Frankfurt am Main, May 27, 1955 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, Vol. XIII, edited by Irene Sagel-Grande, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1975, No. 415, pp. 101–225 Subject matter of the proceedings: Participation in the gassing of Jews from all parts of Europe, of gypsies, prisoners of war and prisoners unable to work in KL Auschwitz in 1941–1944 through continued delivery of the poison gas Zyklon B
• Gerhard Peters: Chemical warfare agents and air protection chemistry for everyone - properties, dangers and defense of chemical warfare agents , Ferdinand Enke Verlag, Stuttgart 1939. DNB 575358106

Web links

• Short biography
• Questioning of Dr. Peters on October 26, 1947 as part of the Nuremberg Trials (PDF; 5.2 MB)
• Newspaper article in the 20th century press kit (search for "Peters, Gerhard")

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Hayes: Degussa in the Third Reich. From cooperation to complicity , Munich 2004, pp. 288f.
2. ↑ Peter Hayes: Degussa in the Third Reich. From cooperation to complicity , Munich 2004, p. 303.
3. ↑ Peter Hayes: Degussa in the Third Reich. From cooperation to complicity , Munich 2004, p. 302.
4. ↑ The Spy from Pariser Platz. How the Americans found out about Hitler's poison gas
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 455.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Short biography on www.zyklon-b.info ( Memento of the original from June 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Nurenberg Military Tribunal, Vol VIII, p. 1358 ( Memento of October 31, 2004 in the Internet Archive ).
8. ↑ Judgments in: Justice and Nazi Crimes , Volume XIII, Procedure No. 415: The judgments against the suppliers of the Zyklon-B ( memento of the original from October 29, 2013 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.