Martin Knittler

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Martin Knittler (born July 10, 1916 in Pietling , † July 13, 1958 in Bonn ) was a German SS Oberscharführer and block leader in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

Life

Martin Knittler was the son of a farmer. At the age of one he came to an uncle's farm because of his mother's illness, where he stayed and worked until he was 18. In 1934 he volunteered in the military. In 1935 he became a member of the SS . In January 1936 he joined the SS-Totenkopfverband . In 1937 he joined the NSDAP .

From April 1938 he belonged to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he initially worked in the post censorship in "Tower A". He then became a block leader in the "isolation", a screened area in which prisoners were exposed to particular violence. In the summer he drowned an inmate in a water barrel. He appeared at roll calls with a German shepherd , which he chased on prisoners. He also had inmates beat on the goat and hung on the stake. In autumn 1941 he took part in the murder of at least 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Later trials proved that he personally killed 50 prisoners.

According to his own statement, Knittler was at times report leader in the “Heinkel-Werke” sub- camp . In 1942 he was a command leader in the Glau satellite camp for a few months . In 1943 he was employed in the “Speer Command”, where prisoners had to dismantle cables and batteries. From January 1944, Knittler became rapport leader in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp , where prisoners work in arms production. There he took part in executions .

On May 4, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Americans, but was extradited to the Soviet occupation forces in June 1946. On October 31, 1947, he was sentenced to life in forced labor by the Soviet military court in the Sachsenhausen trial . He served part of his sentence in the Vorkuta prison camp . In January 1956 he returned to Germany as a non-amnesty war criminal . From October 1956 he was retrained as a technical draftsman. In January 1957, he came into custody . In July 1958 he committed suicide in the Bonn remand prison.

literature

  • Günter Morsch (Ed.): The Concentration Camp SS 1936–1945: Excess and direct offenders in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86331-823-9

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Morsch: The Concentration Camp SS 1936–1945: Excess and direct offenders in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Berlin, 2016, p. 243.
  2. ^ A b c d Günter Morsch: The Concentration Camp SS 1936-1945: Excess and direct offenders in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Berlin, 2016, p. 244.
  3. ^ A b Günter Morsch: The Concentration Camp SS 1936–1945: Excess and direct offenders in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Berlin, 2016, p. 245.
personal data
SURNAME Knittler, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS Oberscharführer
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Pietling
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1958
Place of death Bonn