Horst Fischer (doctor)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Horst Paul Silvester Fischer (born December 31, 1912 in Dresden , † July 8, 1966 in Leipzig ) was a German medic and camp doctor in the Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp .

Career

After the death of his parents, Horst Fischer grew up as an orphan with his uncle in Berlin, who raised him in a nationalist and ethnic way. He belonged to the Bündische Jugend . In 1932, after finishing his school career, Fischer began studying medicine at the University of Berlin , which he completed in 1937 with the state examination.

On November 1, 1933 he joined the SS (SS No. 293.937) and on May 1, 1937 the NSDAP ( membership number 5.370.071).

After the beginning of the Second World War , Fischer was initially employed as a troop doctor for the Waffen SS in Oranienburg, Dachau and Stralsund. He took part in the attack on the Soviet Union . The disease of pulmonary tuberculosis led to his transfer from the front troops. In the rest home, Fischer made the acquaintance of Enno Lolling , the head of Office D III of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (sanitation and camp hygiene), to which all camp doctors were subordinate. Fischer agreed to Lolling's offer to be used in a concentration camp to expand his surgical expertise, and a few months later he was called to Auschwitz.

Camp doctor in Monowitz

Horst Fischer began his service in the Auschwitz concentration camp on November 6, 1942. Here he was directly subordinate to Eduard Wirth's on- site doctor , a personal friend. Initially a troop doctor, he was employed as the successor to Friedrich Entress in his function as camp doctor in the labor camp and the production facility of IG Farben on the grounds of the Buna-Werke in Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp from November 1943 at the latest.

In this position it was up to Fischer to select the prisoner transports and to decide whether or not they were able to work, and thus their murder in the Birkenau part of the concentration camp . In the end, Horst Fischer was promoted to deputy site doctor for Auschwitz. In September 1944, he was followed by Hans Wilhelm König as a camp doctor in Monowitz .

In 1943 he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer . After the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, he worked in the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office from February 1945 .

post war period

After the end of the war, Fischer practiced initially unmolested under his real name in Golzow near Brandenburg an der Havel and later in Spreenhagen , Fürstenwalde district, as a country doctor. However, because of his contacts with the West and his “political unreliability” towards the GDR regime , Horst Fischer was constantly observed by the Ministry for State Security (MfS) for years.

In April 1964, the Ministry for State Security became aware of Fischer's activity as a camp doctor in Auschwitz 1943/44. On June 11, 1965, Horst Fischer was arrested and interrogated by the Stasi over a period of several months.

Show trial

Horst Fischer (on the board), March 11, 1966

The proceedings against Fischer before the Supreme Court of the GDR , chaired by President Heinrich Toeplitz , had a clear show trial character from the start . The course of the process was specified by special directives from the MfS. Nevertheless, it was not Fischer's individual condemnation that was in the foreground, rather the GDR justice hoped to be able to reveal a burden on German industry in general and the former IG Farben company in particular by exposing Fischer's activities in the Monowitz labor camp , as this was after its dissolution by the Allies continued in the form of various successor companies in West Germany. Fischer was accused of conducting selections, overseeing gassings, and requesting Zyklon B.

The main trial began on March 10, 1966. During the ten-day trial, Horst Fischer presented practically no defense, without hesitation affirmed all the prosecution's accusations and sometimes incriminated himself, which further reinforced the character of the show trial. Wolfgang Vogel , the state commissioner for the ransom and exchange of political prisoners and for the exchange of spies , acted as Horst Fischer's legal advisor .

On March 25, 1966, guilty of "continuing crimes against humanity" and death sentence were handed down . Following the rejection of clemency to the Council of State Walter Ulbricht Horst Fischer was born on July 8, 1966 by the "Fall sword machine" in the central place of execution of the GDR in Leipzig Prison executed .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices and victims and what became of them. An encyclopedia of persons , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 117
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Horst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fischer, Horst Paul Silvester (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medic and camp doctor in the Auschwitz III Monowitz concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden , Germany
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1966
Place of death Leipzig , Germany