Kurt Engels

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Kurt Engels (born August 3, 1915 in Cologne , † December 31, 1958 in Hamburg ) was the commandant of the Izbica Ghetto near Lublin .

Life

Kurt Hans Josef Christian Engels was born on August 3, 1915 in Cologne. He lived on Geisbergstrasse in Cologne-Klettenberg . He joined the Hitler Youth (HJ) in 1929 . In Cologne he worked as a police officer before the Second World War . He was a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA) from September 20, 1933 to April 12, 1938 and then switched to the Schutzstaffel (SS). He was a member of the Secret State Police (Gestapo) from February 1937, initially in Cologne, later he was transferred as Gestapo chief to the Lublin district in Izbica. His representative there was SS-Unterscharfuhrer Ludwig Klemm (1917 in Odessa ; † 1979). Engels was head of the Izbica branch of the Zamosc state police station . This branch was responsible for the entire Krasnystaw district. The Gestapo headquarters in Izbica was also the residence of SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Engels from 1941 to 1944 .

He is charged with various murders and abuse. Among other things, he had banned the possession of money or valuables and trade between Jews and Poles and made them a criminal offense. Valuables had to be returned to Engels. If he found funds or valuables on victims, he executed them immediately. He also arbitrarily shot people in the street. It is said of him that he could not have had breakfast until he shot a Jew. He killed Jews as well as Poles and is said to have laughed at the killings. He committed many of the murders together with Ludwig Klemm. One of their first acts was the destruction of the Jewish cemetery in Izbica. Engels had the cell of the Gestapo prison, the so-called "bunker", walled off from the most beautiful Jewish gravestones in the cemetery. Behind this building, Engels and Klemm organized shootings of Poles and Jews.

During the last deportation on November 2, 1942, it turned out that there was not enough space in the wagons. When the train finally left, many remained on the meadow. Kurt Engels, who was in charge of the “action”, then ordered all remaining Jews to be locked in the cinema building. With more than 1000 people, the building was completely overcrowded, many suffocating in the tightness or losing their minds. They were held in this building for days until SS men finally led them out in groups to shoot them in the Jewish cemetery. Engels was also involved in " Aktion Reinhardt ". He was also called the "Devil of Izbica".

After the end of the war

After the war he first changed his name. In 1955, however, he opened “Café Engels” in Hamburg under his real name and lived at Gerhofstrasse 12.

Tracked down by Sobibor survivor Thomas Blatt , an arrest warrant was issued against Engels on October 31, 1958 in Hamburg for an unknown number of murders. Before his case could be closed in court, he killed himself on New Year's Eve on December 31, 1958 in the remand prison on Holstenglacis (today Hamburg remand prison ) in Hamburg by taking medication.

His trial file is in the State Archives of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg .

literature

  • Thomas Toivi Blatt: From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival. Northwestern University Press, 1997.
  • Hubert Schneider, Andrea Löw, Kerstin Robusch, Stefanie Walter: Germans - Jews - Poles: History of a checkered relationship in the 20th century. Campus, 2004, ISBN 3-593-37515-X .
  • Alicia Nitecki , Jack Terry : Jakub's World: A Boy's Story of Loss and Survival in the Holocaust. SUNY Press, 2005, ISBN 0-7914-6407-5 .
    German: Jakubs Welt. The memories of Jack Terry. Bavarian State Center for Political Education , Munich 2005.
  • Robert Kuwałek : The transit ghetto in Izbica. In: Terezin Studies and Documents. 10/2003.
  • Kassel district court : Other crimes of mass destruction Izbica near Lublin. Serial Signature No. 316.
  • Hanna Krall : The Woman from Hamburg: and Other True Stories . Translation from Polish by Madeline G. Levine. Other Press, New York 2006, ISBN 978-1-59051-223-4 .
  • Steffen Hänschen: The transit ghetto Izbica in the system of the Holocaust, Metropol-Verlag, Berlin, 2018, ISBN 978-3-86331-381-4 .

TV reports

  • Wolfgang Schoen, Frank Gutermuth: IZBICA - turnstile of death ("turnstile of death"). tvschoenfilm, 2007.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Engels, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Nazi criminal, commandant of the Ghetto Izbica concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1958
Place of death Hamburg