Otto Kleingünther

Otto Friedrich Kleingünther (born August 19, 1896 in Schlotheim , † November 27, 1962 in Passau ) was a German SS-Unterscharfuhrer and was employed as an SS medical officer (SDG) in Mauthausen concentration camp .

Life

Kleingünther grew up in Austria from the age of three . At the First World War Klein Günther participated as a medic. Kleingünther, a metal worker by profession, became a member of the NSDAP and the SS, which were banned in Austria . In the course of the July coup , Kleingünther had to leave Austria for illegal activities for the NSDAP in 1934. Then he belonged to the SS relief organization in Munich and Dachau . He then worked as a paramedic in Schleissheim and was finally called up as a paramedic in Mauthausen after the start of the Second World War .

From June 1940, Kleingünther was a member of the Waffen SS, initially as a medic in the Mauthausen concentration camp. He then worked temporarily as a security guard in Mauthausen. From the end of 1941 Kleingünther SDG was in the Mauthausen troop area. In June 1943 he was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp Loibl added, and was also used there as in the Mauthausen main camp as a medic, where he administered lethal injections. According to his own statement, he was transferred to Berlin in June 1944 .

"In the case of cardiac injections, the number of prisoners he killed is likely to far exceed 1,000."

- Testimony of the doctor's clerk in the Mauthausen concentration camp Ernst Martin about Otto Kleingünther

After the end of the war, Kleingünther was interned in America. On August 19, 1947, Kleingünther and six other accused were indicted as war criminals by an American military court in a subsidiary trial to the Mauthausen main trial , which took place as part of the Dachau trials . On September 9, 1947, Kleingünther was sentenced to death by hanging for killing prisoners . The sentence was later commuted to imprisonment. On February 14, 1955, Kleingünther was released from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison .

On April 12, 1962, Kleingünther testified at the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office about the camp conditions in Mauthausen and about the concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim .

literature

Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
Stefan Klemp : Concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim. The history of a manhunt , Prospero Verlag , Münster / Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941688-09-4 .
Case No. 000-50-5-21 (US vs. Josef Kattner et al) Feb. 18, 1948 in eng. Language (PDF file; 3.0 MB)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Stefan Klemp: Concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim. The story of a manhunt , Prospero Verlag, Münster / Berlin 2010, p. 177 f.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Case No. 000-50-5-21 (US vs. Josef Kattner et al) February 18, 1948.
↑ Quoted in: Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 314.
^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 314 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Kleingünther, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kleingünther, Otto Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German SS sergeant and paramedic in Mauthausen concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH	August 19, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH	Schlotheim
DATE OF DEATH	November 27, 1962
Place of death	Passau

[Klemp177f-1] Stefan Klemp: Concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim. The story of a manhunt , Prospero Verlag, Münster / Berlin 2010, p. 177 f.

[Case000-50-5-21-2] Case No. 000-50-5-21 (US vs. Josef Kattner et al) February 18, 1948.

[3] Quoted in: Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 314.

[Klee314f-4] Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 314 f.