Heinrich Schmitz (doctor)

Heinrich Schmitz (born July 3, 1896 , † November 26, 1948 in Landsberg am Lech (executed)) was a German medic and doctor in the Flossenbürg concentration camp .

Life

Schmitz was a member of the NSDAP from 1932 to 1937 , but was not a member of the SS.

In June 1943 Schmitz was sterilized after a decision by the Jena Hereditary Health Court . The basis of the court decision was the " Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring " of 1933, which made forced sterilization possible against the will of the person concerned. The court ruling was based on " manic-depressive insanity ". Schmitz had attempted suicide, in his life there were "times of extremely manic restlessness and pathologically increased activity." Because of this diagnosis Schmitz was dismissed from his military service in September 1943 as "completely unfit for service in the Wehrmacht" . Schmitz turned to the Reichsarzt SS and Police , Ernst-Robert Grawitz, through a former superior . In December 1943, Himmler's personal staff asked Grawitz “to use the Dr. To examine Schmitz as a camp doctor in a concentration camp ” . In April 1944 Schmitz was hired by contract as a civilian "doctor without appointment" for the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Flossenbürg

When Schmitz arrived in Flossenbürg, the “most catastrophic phase of medical activity, medical failure and medical killing practice” began for the prisoners there . Statements made by prisoners after the end of the war prove numerous unnecessary operations that Schmitz carried out on prisoners. The operations were not, as in other concentration camps, part of an experimental program ordered by the SS, but were tolerated by Schmitz's superiors in Flossenbürg. "Most of all, Dr. Schmitz on the body, but also carried out amputations. Once he even practiced a skull operation without having the appropriate instruments. Sometimes he removed pieces of tissue and sent them to Erlangen for examination. About fifty percent of the operations carried out were unnecessary because negative results came back and there was no ulcer or anything else, ” said one inmate. A French prisoner doctor kept an operation book unnoticed. According to this information, Schmitz performed 400 operations in six months, including 300 amputations. According to the records, around 250 of the operated prisoners died. According to the inmate's doctor , 14 operations, 11 of which were fatal, “just for fun by Dr. Schmitz takes place. "

In autumn 1944 Schmitz was involved in the targeted killing of the terminally ill in Flossenbürg. Enno Lolling from Amt D III of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office had previously ordered that these prisoners should be killed medically. In this second phase of Operation 14f13 , Schmitz selected the prisoners to be killed without first conducting a detailed investigation. In a specially furnished room, the prisoners were murdered with overdosed phenol , novocaine or tuberculin preparations. Schmitz denied direct involvement in the murders in post-war statements, but admitted that around 70 prisoners were killed with phenol under his leadership. Other testimonies spoke of up to 300 killings.

At the end of September 1944, a typhus epidemic broke out in Flossenbürg. Schmitz ignored the diagnosis of typhus made by inmate doctors. When this diagnosis was confirmed in a bacteriological examination, Schmitz falsified the results. 200 prisoners died during the epidemic, a number Schmitz described as "normal" in his later trial. After Hermann Fischer replaced the previous on-site doctor in October 1944, Schmitz's powers were gradually withdrawn. He got typhoid himself. Shortly after the end of the war, he was arrested by American soldiers in the hospital in Weiden .

Trial after the end of the war

Schmitz and five other people were accused in the follow-up trial to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, "Ewald Heerde et al." (File number 000-50-46-3). This procedure, part of the Dachau Trials , took place from November 10, 1947. The US military tribunal sentenced Heinrich Schmitz to death on December 12, 1947 . Schmitz refrained from submitting a petition for clemency. The sentence was carried out on November 26, 1948 in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison .

literature

• Toni Siegert: The Flossenbürg concentration camp. Founded for so-called anti-social and criminals. In: Martin Broszat , Elke Fröhlich (Ed.): Bavaria in the Nazi era. Domination and society in conflict. Volume II, Part A, Oldenbourg, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-486-49371-X .
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stefan Hördler: Rationalization of the concentration camp system 1943–1945 , in: Michael Wildt, u. a. (Ed.): Work in National Socialism , 2014, p. 357.
2. ^ Judgment of the Jena Hereditary Health Court, quoted from Siegert, Flossenbürg , p. 472.
3. ↑ quoted from Siegert, Flossenbürg , p. 472.
4. ↑ this assessment in Siegert, Flossenbürg , p. 472.
5. ^ Statement by Kurt Goltz, quoted in Siegert, Flossenbürg , p. 472f. Ibid notes on further statements.
6. ↑ quoted in Siegert, Flossenbürg , p. 473.
7. ^ Siegert, Flossenbürg , p. 473.
8. ^ Siegert, Flossenbürg , p. 474.

Web links

Review and Recommendations after the trial against Schmitz (PDF, 8.3 MB, English)