Karl Fritzsch

Karl Fritzsch in Auschwitz concentration camp

Karl Fritzsch (* 10. July 1903 in wet Grub , † 2. May 1945 , often mistakenly Fritsch written) was a German hauptsturmführer in the function of a protective custody camp leader , who in 1941 at the concentration camp Auschwitz I (main camp) that the disinfestation certain Zyklon B trial used for the gassing of prisoners.

Life

Born as the son of a stove maker in Bohemia, Fritzsch was unable to complete an orderly school career due to the work-related relocation of his father. Fritzsch became a sailor for the Danube Shipping Company . A marriage entered into in 1928 that resulted in three children, was divorced in 1942. In 1930 he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 261.135) and SS (SS number 7.287). From 1934 Fritzsch was assigned to the Dachau concentration camp as a member of the 1st SS Death's Head Regiment "Upper Bavaria" as a company commander. At the beginning of September 1939, Fritzsch moved to the camp commandant's office in the Dachau concentration camp and headed the post censorship office there. Fritzsch - known as Dust because of his small stature - was employed in the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer as the first protective custody camp leader from June 14, 1940 to February 1, 1942 in the main camp Auschwitz. His deputy from June 1940 to November 1941 was Franz Xaver Maier and then Fritz Seidler . While the camp commandant Rudolf Höß was absent , he presumably ordered in August 1941 that an unspecified number of Soviet prisoners of war be gassed with the hydrocyanic acid-containing insecticide Zyklon B, which was intended for delousing of clothing . At the end of 1941 - the date often mentioned at the beginning of September 1941 is controversial - the first mass gassing took place in the main camp, in which hundreds of Soviet officers and selected sick people were killed with Zyklon B.

According to the SS-Hauptsturmführer and concentration camp doctor Karl Kahr at the Nuremberg Military Court , Fritzsch considered himself to be the real inventor of both the mass gassing by hydrogen cyanide and the gas chambers in Auschwitz because of the experiments with Zyklon B. The concentration camp commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höß , confirmed this statement in the notes he wrote in custody.

Fritzsch accepted the offer of the Catholic priest Maximilian Kolbe at the end of July 1941 and had him locked up in the "hunger bunker" instead of the initially chosen father Franciszek Gajowniczek , where Kolbe was later killed.

From February 1942 to March 1944 Karl Fritzsch was the head of the protective custody camp in the Flossenbürg concentration camp , where he represented the camp commandant from August to October 1942.

At the beginning of April 1944, Fritzsch was transferred to the Harzungen subcamp ("Hans") of the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp as a camp leader and from August 1944 also took over the management of the Ellrich-Juliushütte subcamp ("Erich"). In October 1944 at the latest, he was transferred to the front, where he was presumably killed in the fighting for Berlin in spring 1945.

Quote

“There are only two ways for an inmate to get out of this camp. Either he is released [...] or he wanders through the chimney. Most of you will go the latter way! "

- At roll call

literature

• Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oświęcim 1998, ISBN 83-85047-35-2 .
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .
• Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Vienna, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980, ISBN 3-548-33014-2 .
• Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-89244-439-0 .
• Wacław Długoborski, Franciszek Piper (eds.): Auschwitz 1940-1945. Studies on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. , Verlag Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oswiecim 1999, 5 volumes: I. Construction and structure of the camp. II. The prisoners - living conditions, work and death. III. Destruction. IV. Resistance. V. Epilog., ISBN 83-85047-76-X .

Web links

Commons : Karl Fritzsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Auschwitz criminal
• Use of Zyklon B by Fritzsch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short biography on ARC main page
2. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of 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: Construction and structure of the camp , Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum , Oświęcim 1999, p. 228f.
3. ↑ Aleksander Lasik: The organizational structure of 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. 230.
4. ↑ State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Auschwitz in the eyes of the SS. Oswiecim 1998, p. 64f.
5. ↑ Martin Broszat (ed.): Commandant in Auschwitz , Munich 1963, p. 159 / Footnote entry: Nuremberg documents NO-1948.
6. ↑ Rudolf Höss: Commandant in Auschwitz - autobiographical notes of Rudolf Höss . Ed .: Martin Broszat. dtv, Munich 1998, ISBN 978-3-423-30127-5 .
7. ^ Hermann Langbein: People in Auschwitz , Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 277.
8. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 169.
9. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora , Göttingen 2001, pp. 653f., 667.
10. ↑ The phrase “to go through the chimney” was used by inmates and guards to describe cremation in the crematorium . Quoted from 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 , p. 169.