Josef Kestel

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Josef Kestel in April 1947

Josef Kestel (born October 29, 1904 in Kronach , † November 19, 1948 in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison ) was a German SS-Hauptscharführer and was employed in the Dachau concentration camp , the Buchenwald concentration camp and a satellite camp of the Mittelbau concentration camp .

Life

After attending school, Kestel did odd jobs, worked in a shoe factory from 1919 to 1928 and then worked as a construction worker until 1933. Kestel joined the NSDAP and SS in 1933 . From 1933 he was a member of the security team at the Dachau concentration camp and became a block leader there in 1937 . From October 1940 to April 11, 1945, Kestel was a member of the camp crew in Buchenwald concentration camp.

There he was employed as a block leader, among other things, and from February 1941 to January 1942 as a command leader of a prisoner detachment made up of members of the penal company in the quarry.

At the beginning of 1945, Kestel became deputy camp manager of the Boelcke barracks subcamp of the Mittelbau concentration camp under Heinrich Josten . Thousands of inmates died in this camp due to malnutrition, neglect, and unsanitary conditions.

After the end of the war, Kestel was charged with 30 other accused in the main Buchenwald trial , which took place as part of the Dachau trials . Kestel was accused of mistreating and killing Allied prisoners. Kestel admitted that he punished prisoners within the framework of the camp regulations , but never killed any prisoner. On August 14, 1947, Kestel was sentenced to death by hanging because of his direct and indirect responsibility for the killing of prisoners in the quarry command for “helping and participating in the operations of the Buchenwald concentration camp” . After two requests for clemency had been rejected, Kestel was executed on November 19, 1948 in the Landsberg war crimes prison .

literature

  • 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 Original document in English (PDF file )
  • Harry Stein, Buchenwald Memorial (ed.): Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937 - 1945 , volume accompanying the permanent historical exhibition, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 978-3-89244-222-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Stein, Buchenwald Memorial (ed.): Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937 - 1945 , volume accompanying the permanent historical exhibition, Göttingen 1999, p. 308
  2. ^ Jens Christian Wagner: Nordhausen (Boelcke barracks). In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 7: Niederhagen / Wewelsburg, Lublin-Majdanek, Arbeitsdorf, Herzogenbusch (Vught), Bergen-Belsen, Mittelbau-Dora. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-52967-2 , p. 320 f.
personal data
SURNAME Kestel, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German command leader in the quarry of the Buchenwald concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Kronach
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1948
Place of death Landsberg War Crimes Prison