Hans Merbach
Hans Erich Merbach (born May 10, 1910 in Gotha ; † January 14, 1949 in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison ) was a German SS-Obersturmführer and worked as a protective custody camp leader and adjutant in the Buchenwald concentration camp and as the commander of the dog squadron in the Auschwitz concentration camp . From April 7, 1945, Merbach led the so-called evacuation train from Buchenwald to the Flossenbürg concentration camp , which finally arrived at the Dachau concentration camp on April 28 as a death transport .
Life
Hans Merbach, a trained locksmith, worked as an office messenger from 1928 and later as a bank clerk at Gothaer Lebensversicherungs-Bank until 1939.
From June 1930 Merbach was a member of the SS (SS No. 3.387) and the NSDAP ( membership number 259.233). Merbach belonged to the 14th SS Standard as an SS man and was drafted into the Waffen SS on September 15, 1939 . From Berlin-Lichterfelde he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp in December 1939, where he worked as an adjutant of the guard block until May 1941. Due to cardiac muscle paralysis, he went to hospital in Weimar and Gotha on May 12, 1941, after which Merbach was allowed to go home to recover until autumn 1941. From late 1941 to mid-May 1942 and again from October to December 1942, Merbach served as the commander of the Buchenwald concentration camp guard. On the orders of the camp commandant Hermann Pister , Merbach completed an officer training course at the Army Dog School in Berlin-Sperenberg from May to September 1942. From January 1943 to January 1945, Merbach served as the commander of the dog squadron in Auschwitz . After the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Merbach became the second protective custody camp leader in the Buchenwald concentration camp on February 1, 1945.
On April 7, 1945, Merbach commanded an evacuation transport from the Buchenwald concentration camp with the original destination of the Flossenbürg concentration camp . Around 5,000 concentration camp prisoners initially had to travel twelve kilometers on a death march to Weimar . Merbach himself is said to have shot ten prisoners on the death march. In Weimar, the prisoners were crammed into partially open freight cars for transport. Since the Flossenbürg concentration camp was also evacuated from April 20, 1945, the train continued on branch lines in the direction of Dachau, whereby Merbach and other SS men were said to have shot 20 prisoners outside of Pilsen . The train only reached the Dachau concentration camp - after 21 days - on April 28, 1945 , one day before the concentration camp was liberated. Before that, over 1,500 bodies had been burned during a stop near Munich. Between 30 and 50 prisoners who had to help with the cremation are said to have been shot by SS men. Due to the blatant lack of food and water (combined with the cold and poor hygiene), less than half of the approximately 5,000 prisoners arrived at the destination Dachau alive . American soldiers took photographs of the prisoners who had died of starvation and exhaustion in the freight cars after the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp , which document the horrific circumstances of this "evacuation transport".
After the war Merbach was during the Dachau trials in Buchenwald Trial because of "assistance and participation in the operations of the Buchenwald concentration camp" - in particular because of its responsibility for the deaths during the evacuation transport - on 14 August 1947 to death by train condemned and on 14 January 1949 war criminals prison Landsberg executed .
literature
- Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
- Buchenwald Main Trial: Deputy Judge Advocate's Office 7708 War Crimes Group European Command APO 407: United States of America v. Josias Prince zu Waldeck et al. - Case 000-50-9 , November 1947 (English, PDF, 33.0 MB)
- Hans Hübl: Last days in Buchenwald. In: Dachau terminus, the death train from Buchenwald. Dachauer Documents , 5; 2003.
- Hans Hübl: I'll never forget ... Documentation about the Buchenwald-Nammering-Dachau concentration camp transport from April 7 to April 28, 1945. Tittling 1994. Online edition of the book
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The SS occupation in KL Auschwitz. In: Aleksander Lasik, Franciszek Piper, Piotr Setkiewicz, Irena Strzelecka: Auschwitz 1940–1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. Volume I: Structure and Structure of the Camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum , Oświęcim 1999, p. 353.
- ↑ See IfZ archive, Nürnberger Documents, NO 2192, statement by Hans Merbach from February 24, 1947
- ↑ See Buchenwald main process: Deputy Judge Advocate's Office 7708 War Crimes Group European Command APO 407: (United States of America v. Josias Prince zu Waldeck et al. - Case 000-50-9), November 1947, pp. 69ff.
- ^ Cf. Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 404
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merbach, Hans |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Merbach, Hans Erich (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German protective custody camp leader in Buchenwald concentration camp |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 10, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gotha |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 14, 1949 |
| Place of death | Landsberg War Crimes Prison |