Karl Otto Koch

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Karl Otto Koch (born August 2, 1897 in Darmstadt ; † April 5, 1945 in Buchenwald concentration camp ) was a German SS leader and camp commandant of various German concentration camps . He was eventually charged by the SS with murder and several economic offenses (stolen goods, fraud, embezzlement), sentenced to death and executed.

Life

Koch was the son of a registrar. After graduating from middle school, he completed an apprenticeship as an accountant. Against the wishes of his mother, Koch announced during the First World War as a volunteer to the German army and served from March 1916 as a gunner in the 153rd Infantry Regiment . Koch was wounded twice on the Western Front and, after scouting enemy lines towards the end of the war , was taken prisoner by the British , from which he was released in October 1919. He then worked briefly as an accountant and in the early 1920s initially got a permanent job as a bank clerk at the Deutsche Landwirtschafts- und Handelsbank. From 1922 to 1930, Koch was employed by at least seven companies, and in 1928 he was found to have stolen postage accounts. Due to forgery and embezzlement , Koch was sentenced to a short term in prison in 1930 and was unemployed after his release from prison. After their marriage in 1924, Koch had a son; the marriage was divorced in 1931.

He joined the NSDAP ( membership number 475.586) on March 1, 1931, and in September 1931 he also became a member of the SS (SS number 14.830). At first he acted on a voluntary basis as treasurer of his local NSDAP group and from 1932 worked as an instructor for SS Standard 33 in Kassel . His task there included the establishment of an auxiliary police (Hipo), which in mid-1933 was subordinated to the SS death's head associations . Koch was temporarily excluded from the party in 1932 for reasons unknown.

Koch's SS ranks
date rank
March 15, 1934 SS-Obersturmführer
November 1934 SS-Hauptsturmführer
September 13, 1935 SS-Sturmbannführer
November 9, 1936 SS-Obersturmbannführer
September 12, 1937 SS standard leader

From September 1933 he set up the special command in Saxony in SS Section II. From the end of June 1934 he was in command of the Hohnstein concentration camp and then, from October 1, 1934, for a short time in command of the Sachsenburg concentration camp . From November 8, 1934, he acted as leader of the guards in the Esterwegen concentration camp . From the end of February 1935 he was officer in charge at the Lichtenburg concentration camp and from 1 April 1935 adjutant in the Dachau concentration camp . On April 21, 1935, he became the commandant of the Columbia-Haus concentration camp in Berlin. On March 31, 1936, he became the commandant of the Esterwegen concentration camp, in July 1936 the first commandant of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and finally in mid-July 1937 the first commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp .

In his second marriage, Koch was married to Ilse Koch , nee Köhler, from May 1937 . He had met her in 1934 while working in Sachsenburg, where she had worked as his secretary. With his wife Ilse, who became known as the "Witch of Buchenwald" after the war, Karl Otto Koch moved into the Buchenwald villa of the SS Führer settlement there. Their three children were born between 1938 and 1941 and grew up in the immediate vicinity of the camp. The marriage should not have been a happy one, since Koch cheated and Ilse Koch had affairs with Hermann Florstedt and Waldemar Hoven .

From 1941 a short stay in Norway followed in order to build up the concentration camp system there . Koch was commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp until December 1941.

The Buchenwald corruption affair

In November 1941, Josias zu Waldeck and Pyrmont , Higher SS and Police Leader for Wehrkreis IX and thus also responsible for the Buchenwald concentration camp, had Koch summoned to him. There he confronted Koch with allegations of corruption , as he was said to have enriched himself with the assets of Jewish prisoners who were brought to the Buchenwald concentration camp . After that, Koch was disarmed and arrested. Investigations before the SS and Police Court XXII in Kassel were opened. However , on the intervention of Oswald Pohl and Richard Glücks , the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler ordered Koch to be released immediately from custody, and decreed that in the future no high SS leader could be arrested without his order ("Lex Waldeck"). After the crackdown on the case, Koch received a letter of congratulations from Pohl, in which he assured him that he would intervene in a protective manner, "if an unemployed lawyer should once again stretch out his executioner's hands to the white body of Koch."

At the end of 1941, as a result of Himmler's intervention, Koch was transferred from the Buchenwald concentration camp to the Majdanek concentration camp , where he again became camp commandant. After 86 Soviet prisoners had escaped from Majdanek on July 14, 1942, he was initially given leave of absence in August 1942 due to negligent release of prisoners . Afterwards, Koch was transferred to Eger as a liaison officer for the postal protection department . The proceedings against Koch for negligent release of prisoners were discontinued on February 17, 1943, but his sentence from the Waffen SS to the general SS remained in place.

In the meantime, Josias zu Waldeck and Pyrmont had carried out further investigations into the corruption affair surrounding Koch, by having documents from the camp administration, if they still exist, sift through and evaluated. While exploring the Buchenwald concentration camp death lists, he came across the names of Walter Krämer and Karl Peix , both inmate attendants who had allegedly been shot while trying to escape in the Goslar field detachment on November 6, 1941. Kramer was known to Josias zu Waldeck and Pyrmont, as the latter had successfully treated him for furunculosis . Later investigations revealed that Koch had also been treated by Kramer for syphilis because, like many other SS leaders, he preferred treatment by prison attendants to SS doctors. Kramer and Peix were therefore unwelcome witnesses. In addition, Krämer knew about Koch's embezzlement. These murders ordered by Koch were later to be proven and were ultimately the main reason for the murder charge.

Josias zu Waldeck and Pyrmont also interviewed members of the security team and prisoners. He sent the results of the investigation to Heinrich Himmler, who allowed him to continue the investigation, but initially with reference to the personal enrichment of Koch and his wife. Finally, with Heinrich Himmler's consent, the SS and Police Court in Kassel transferred the investigation to SS judge Konrad Morgen , who was already monitoring the account movements and the correspondence between the Kochs. After extensive investigations in Buchenwald concentration camp, Morgen uncovered a corruption scandal of immense proportions that went far beyond the Koch case. During searches of the accommodations of Koch's former employees, Morgen found large amounts of money, jewelry and lumps of gold from the teeth of murdered inmates with the help of the criminal police . In addition, further murders and attempted murders of prisoners were uncovered, which may have taken place on Koch's orders due to their knowledge or willingness to give evidence.

On August 24, 1943, Koch was arrested again by the Gestapo for corruption and the murder of three prisoners together with his wife in his service accommodation in Buchenwald concentration camp. The couple was taken to the Weimar police prison. The arrests were made with the participation of Konrad Morgen. After a thorough interrogation with Konrad Morgen, Koch confirmed the allegations made against him. In addition, other members of the commandant's staff and the security team were arrested as accomplices, such as the adjutant Kochs, Hermann Hackmann , the head of the arrest block, Martin Sommer , the camp doctor Waldemar Hoven , SS-Hauptscharführer Johannes Blank and Hermann Florstedt . In the late summer of 1943, potential witnesses had been treated in hospitals for acute symptoms of intoxication, such as Hackmann's wife and the father of an SS-Unterscharfuhrer arrested as part of this crime complex. Another witness, Hauptscharführer Koehler, was brought from the Buchenwald detention bunker to the Weimar military hospital with symptoms of poisoning, where he died shortly afterwards. Despite the autopsy of the deceased and further investigations, the poisoning could not initially be assigned to a perpetrator, nor could it be proven that this was due to Koch's order. According to a later testimony of Eugen Kogon , in the course of the investigation into Waldemar Hoven in connection with the death of Koehler, four Soviet prisoners of war were administered the substance that had been found in Koehler's stomach by order of the morning. The forensic experiment ended with the deaths of the prisoners in the presence of Morgen, two other investigators and other witnesses. The death of the prisoners convinced Morgen of Hoven's guilt for Koehler's death, whereupon he had him arrested. Hoven was ultimately imprisoned in Buchenwald for 18 months. Sommer later confessed to having killed at least 40 prisoners by Evipan and air injections on Hoven's orders .

After the investigation results of the Buchenwald corruption affair were available on April 11, 1944, the indictment order against the accused was issued on August 17, 1944. In September 1944, the trial against the accused began before the “SS and Police Court” in Kassel, which was now “at special disposal” for the investigation and trial of unauthorized concentration camp crimes. The trial was held in camera and a total of 22 witnesses, SS men and prisoners, were heard. The proceedings against the couple Koch were later negotiated separately.

“I can't find an explanation for my behavior unless I was spoiled by my superiors. Everything I suggested and did was approved. I received nothing but praise and laurels. This went into my head. At that time I was megalomaniac. "

- Karl Otto Koch : Testimony during the trial at the end of 1944

The charges were corruption, murder and bodily harm with fatal outcome. The verdicts against the Kochs were announced in December 1944. Koch was sentenced to death twice for murder, stolen goods , fraud , embezzlement and incitement . Other participants, Hermann Hackmann and Hermann Florstedt, were also sentenced to death; possibly Hoven too. Johann Blank is said to have hanged himself in the Buchenwald concentration camp bunker in February 1944 after his arrest. Waldemar Hoven and Martin Sommer were released from prison towards the end of the war. Sommer was still on parole at the front, where he was badly wounded. Ilse Koch was acquitted and released from prison in this process. Shortly before the end of the war , Karl Otto Koch was executed by an SS firing squad on April 5, 1945 in the Buchenwald concentration camp . According to the written memoirs of August Bender , who was present at the execution as a doctor, Koch's last words were: “Boys, shoot well!” Hackmann's death sentence was not carried out, however. The execution of Hermann Florstedt has not been proven.

Koch's photo album as an outstanding source

In historical research, Koch's photo album , which was only rediscovered many years later in Moscow , about the construction phase of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp occupies a special position. It is one of the few sources written by the perpetrators about everyday life in the concentration camps after 1936.

literature

  • Benoît Cazenave: L'Exemplarité du commandant SS Karl Otto Koch. (The commandant Karl Otto Koch, the model of an SS commandant.) Biography. Auschwitz Foundation, Brussels 2005.
  • Pierre Durand: The Beast of Buchenwald. Berlin 1985 (Licensed edition by: Pierre Durand: La chienne de Buchenwald . Paris 1982. The book refers to Ilse K., the so-called commanding officer ).
  • Tom Segev : The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-499-18826-0 .
  • 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 .
  • Eugen Kogon : The SS state . The system of the German concentration camps. 31st edition. Komet, Frechen 2000, ISBN 3-89836-107-1 (= Heyne, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-02978-X ; Kindler, Munich 1974).
  • Karin Orth : The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. Pendo Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-85842-450-1 .
  • Karin Orth: The concentration camp SS . dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-34085-1 .
  • Heinz Höhne : The order under the skull - the history of the SS. Weltbild-Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-549-0 .
  • Johannes Tuchel : Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934–1938. (= Writings of the Federal Archives, Volume 39). H. Boldt, 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 .
  • Günter Morsch (Ed.): From the Sachsenburg to Sachsenhausen. Pictures from the photo album of a concentration camp commandant. (= Series of publications by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation . Volume 19). Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938690-36-9 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lady with lampshade In: Der Spiegel , February 16, 1950, accessed on July 30, 2019.
  2. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 183f.
  3. ^ Klaus Drobisch , Günther Wieland : System of Nazi concentration camps: 1933–1939. Akademie Verlag, 1993, pp. 257f.
  4. ↑ Dinaric with a twist . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1976, p. 41-42 ( Online - Apr. 19, 1976 ).
  5. ↑ a b c d Johannes Tuchel: Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934–1938. Boppard am Rhein 1991, p. 379f.
  6. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. P. 183f. Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 184.
  7. ↑ a b Eugen Kogon: The SS State. The system of the German concentration camps. Reinbek near Hamburg 1974, p. 353.
  8. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 175f.
  9. ^ A b Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 323 f.
  10. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS. Munich 2004, p. 189f.
  11. ↑ Raul Hilberg: The Destruction of European Jews, Volume 2 . Frankfurt am Main 1990, p. 969 f./Footnote: Affidavit by Dr. Werner Paulmann, former judge and later head of the SS and Police Court in Kassel, on July 11, 1946.
  12. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. P. 183f. Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 177f.
  13. ↑ a b Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS. Munich 2004, p. 209.
  14. ↑ Eugen Kogon: The SS State. The system of the German concentration camps. Reinbek near Hamburg 1974, 304f.
  15. ↑ a b The game is over - Arthur Nebe . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1950, p. 23-28 ( Online - Feb. 23, 1950 ).
  16. ↑ Heinz Höhne: The Order under the Skull - The History of the SS. Augsburg 1998, p. 353.
  17. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. P. 183f. Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 179f.
  18. ↑ David A. Hackett (ed.): The Buchenwald Report: Report on the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar. Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-47598-1 .
  19. ↑ a b Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. P. 183f. Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 181.
  20. ↑ Heinz Höhne: The order under the skull - The history of the SS. Augsburg 1998, p. 353f.
  21. ↑ Raul Hilberg: The Destruction of European Jews, Volume 2 . Frankfurt am Main 1990, p. 969 f./ footnote: testimony of Eugen Kogon, case 1, tr. Pp. 1838-84.
  22. ↑ Heinz Höhne: The Order under the Skull - The History of the SS. Augsburg 1998, p. 354.
  23. ↑ Quoted from Eugen Kogon: Der SS-Staat. The system of the German concentration camps. Reinbek near Hamburg 1974, p. 361.
  24. ↑ See André Meier: Ilse Koch - The witch of Buchenwald . mdr documentation, here: 00:33:31 ( online on YouTube).
  25. ↑ Eugen Kogon: The SS State. The system of the German concentration camps. Kindler, Munich 1974, p. 306.
  26. ↑ Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. Reinbek near Hamburg 1992, p. 180f.
  27. ↑ Karin Orth: The Concentration Camp SS. Munich 2004, p. 208.
  28. ↑ cf. plus Auschwitz album
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Karl Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS standard leader and camp commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1945
Place of death Buchenwald concentration camp