Personnel in the Dachau concentration camp

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The RFSS Heinrich Himmler visits his camp

Personnel in the Dachau concentration camp includes, as the title of this article, the members of the camp SS of the Dachau concentration camp who were involved in the crimes committed there under the leadership of the Schutzstaffel ( SS-Totenkopfverband ) during the Nazi era . The division of personnel and tasks were later given uniformly for all SS concentration camps , largely following the example of the Dachau concentration camp, through the concentration camp inspection (IKL) as the central authority.

overview

Jourhaus , the building in which the adjutant and camp Gestapo was located

There were mainly five departments under the leadership of the camp commandant who shared the tasks. The strict hierarchy made it possible for the members of the camp SS to be educated, to advance within the concentration camp system and to create competition within the departments. In addition to the five departments, the actual SS guards, the guards, were in charge.

  • Department I: Adjutantur

The commandant's office was the highest authority, the camp commandant was in command of all SS personnel. The post censorship office was also here.

This department II could work quite independently. It made decisions about admission, transfer, release, punishment and execution of the prisoners. The leader was always a member of the SS Security Service (SD) or an officer of the Gestapo or the criminal police. The department was responsible for questioning inmates, keeping the inmate files with pictures, descriptions of people and fingerprints, and registering newcomers. The escape or death of camp inmates were also processed by this office. The interrogations by the Gestapo and the SD were feared by all prisoners. Numerous abuse of prisoners was found in these concentration camp offices after 1945.

  • Department III: Management of protective custody camps

The head of the protective custody camp was also the commandant's deputy. As a rule, he conducted official correspondence with superordinate and subordinate SS agencies. The report leaders, block leaders and command leaders were subordinate to him within the camp. They guarded the forced labor inside the camp and in the external detachments and sub-camps. They had authority over functionaries and inmates. The system of promotion, tiered power and competition was also used with prisoner functionaries.

At the head was the SS administrator. Department IV regulated the supply of clothing and food. The confiscated property of the inmates was administered here.

Department V included the concentration camp and camp doctors and the SS medical ranks in the infirmary. Her early job was to monitor the prisoners' health. In later years, admission to the infirmary developed increasingly as a death sentence. Killings by means of phenol injections, sometimes fatal series of medical tests, and unnecessary operations for exercise purposes were carried out in the barracks of the infirmary . After the murder of prisoners, the camp and SS on-site doctor issued death certificates with a natural cause of death. He arranged for the dead to be cremated immediately, which initially took place in Munich's municipal crematorium. During the war years it took place in the camp's own crematorium . For SS personnel, the camp doctor was also the local site doctor.

This troop formed the actual guards of the concentration camp. The guard was responsible for the external security of the concentration camp and was partly also deployed in the inner camp area. The SS-Totenkopfwachsturmbann often used the executioners for official prisoner executions.

Camp commanders

Himmler in the SS area of ​​the camp.
  • Hilmar Wäckerle first commandant, March 1933 to June 1933, previously estate manager and SS member, then SS staff leader. Dismissed after the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office investigated the three murders on April 12, 1933.
  • Theodor Eicke was SS Oberführer from late June 1933 to July 7, 1934

After Röhm's murder , Eicke was promoted and was able to set up the inspection of the concentration camps and head SS guards. This time after the SA was overthrown in the summer of 1934 was also a transitional period with regard to the camp commanders. On December 6, 1934, Himmler appointed SS-Oberführer and dentist Alexander Reiner as the new commandant. Reiner initially took leave and was removed from his position "for improper behavior at his former place of work in Danzig". He never took up the command post.

During the days of the liberation of the camp , some of the staff fled and the camp management changed: Martin Weiß from April 26 to April 28, 1945, Johannes Otto on April 28, 1945, and Heinrich Wicker on April 28, 1945 and April 29, 1945 The handover to the American troops was carried out by the 23-year-old SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker .

Political Department (Camp Gestapo)

  • Johann Kick , Head of the Political Department from 1937 to September 1944
  • Otto Kloppmann , Head of the Political Department from September 1944 to the end of April 1945

Management of the protective custody camp (prisoner area)

SS guards and prisoners
  • Günther Tamaschke , 1st protective custody camp leader, SS standard leader . Deputy of camp commandant Eicke
  • Michel Lippert , SS-Standartenführer. Leader of the SS-Sturmbann "D" , the Dachau guards. In addition to Günther Tamaschke, he was Eicke's deputy camp commandant.
  • Albert Lütkemeyer , 1936–1940 report leader, death sentence 1947, Hameln
  • Karl d'Angelo , 1st protective custody camp leader, SS standard leader
  • Jakob Weiseborn , 1st Protective Custody Camp Leader , SS Sturmbannführer
  • Hermann Baranowski , 1st Protective Custody Camp Leader, SS Standartenführer
  • Adam Grünewald , 1st protective custody camp leader, SS-Sturmbannführer
  • Egon Zill , 1st Schutzhaftlagerführer, SS-Sturmbannführer
  • Michael Redwitz , 1st Protective Custody Camp Leader, SS-Hauptsturmführer
  • Franz Hofmann , 1st Schutzhaftlagerführer, SS-Hauptsturmführer
  • Friedrich Ruppert , 1st Protective Custody Camp Leader, SS Obersturmbannführer
  • Josef Jarolin , report leader and later 3rd protective custody camp leader, SS-Obersturmbannführer
  • Josef Seuss , report leader and deputy protective custody camp leader, SS-Hauptscharführer
  • Franz Trenkle , report leader and deputy protective custody camp leader, SS-Hauptscharführer
  • Leonhard Eichberger , report leader and deputy protective custody camp leader, SS-Hauptscharführer
  • Franz Böttger , report leader and deputy protective custody camp leader, SS-Oberscharführer
  • Johann Kantschuster , arrest commandant in the Dachau concentration camp (1933–1939) and camp commandant in the Fort Breendonk concentration camp, SS-Obersturmbannführer
  • Hans Steinbrenner (SS member) , concentration camp overseer responsible for the “welcome ceremony” and the flogging, SS Untersturmführer
  • Robert Erspenmüller , leader of the watch command and as "deputy commandant", SS-Sturmbannführer

SS doctors

The infirmary for the SS members was led by an SS chief physician, the individual departments were led by SS doctors. Most of them were graduates from the SS Medical Academy in Graz. Internists and dentists also learned surgical interventions in Dachau, as the war times resulted in an increased need for surgeons.

  1. Karl Babor , assistant doctor in the "Biochemical Experimental Station", found dead in 1964 near Addis Ababa.
  2. Wilhelm Beiglböck , died in 1963.
  3. Rudolf Brachtel , SS-Hauptsturmführer, from April 1941 in the Dachau camp, acquittal, died in 1988.
  4. Karl Brandt , surgeon, death penalty.
  5. Hans Eisele , SS Untersturmführer. Death penalty, pardon.
  6. Hans Eppinger , Vienna Suizid in 1946, before being questioned at the Nuremberg medical trial, see Wilhelm Beiglböck.
  7. Erich Finke , Air Force doctor, carried out hypothermia experiments with Rascher and Holzlöhner
  8. Fritz Hintermayer , first camp doctor, SS-Obersturmführer. Death penalty.
  9. Ernst wood laborer
  10. Wilhelm Jäger , convicted in the Nuremberg doctors trial .
  11. Dr. Rudolph Kießwetter, (different spelling: Kiesewetter), biochemist from Magdeburg, injected pus into the thighs or veins of 10 prisoners, 7 died. (Experiments with inflammation: see sulfonamide experiments by Karl Gebhardt )
  12. Dr. Lang, SS chief physician in the infirmary, predecessor of Dr. Mürmelstatt
  13. Dr. Lauk, for some time assistant doctor in the malaria research station of Schilling
  14. Enno Lolling , SS-Standartenführer, suicide in 1945.
  15. Joachim Mrugowsky , death penalty.
  16. Hans Münch , from January 1945 in the Dachau camp. Was acquitted in the Auschwitz trial in Kraków.
  17. Helmut Mürmelstatt ,
  18. Hans Nachtsheim
  19. Dr. Nuernbergk, one of the first camp doctors
  20. Kurt Plötner
  21. Helmut Poppendick
  22. Fridolin Puhr , SS-Hauptsturmführer.
  23. Sigmund Rascher , SS-Untersturmführer, shot dead by the SS.
  24. Hans Romberg , acquittal.
  25. Paul Rostock , surgeon, acquittal.
  26. Siegfried Ruff
  27. Ernst Schenck , SS doctor. Died 1998.
  28. Claus Schilling , tropical medicine specialist, camp doctor, death penalty.
  29. Oskar Schröder , (Prof. Dr. Schröder was head of the Air Force's medical services and was involved in seawater experiments)
  30. Heinrich Schütz , head of the "Biochemical Experimental Station" (sulfonamides), SS-Sturmbannführer. 1975 convicted but never in custody. (see Karl Gebhardt's sulfonamide experiments )
  31. Horst Schumann , SS-Sturmbannführer, trial 1970, 2 years imprisonment. 1983 died.
  32. Walter Sonntag , in the autumn of 1942 in Dachau. SS-Hauptsturmführer.
  33. Hellmuth Vetter , death penalty 1949.
  34. Wilhelm Witteler , SS-Sturmbannführer.
  35. Waldemar Wolter , SS-Sturmbannführer.
  36. Georg Weltz , acquittal. (Prof. Weltz, carried out hypothermia experiments on animals for the Air Force in Munich, and was present at a lecture by Rascher, i.e. he was informed about the experiments on humans.)
  37. from Weyherns

For selections of prisoners who were subsequently evacuated e.g. B. in the Nazi killing center Hartheim , various doctors came as assessors in the main camp and in the sub-camps, z. B. the doctor Erika Flocken (Organization Todt), or Friedrich Mennecke ( T4 , Aktion 14f13 , euthanasia murders).

The direct treatment and care of sick inmates, insofar as it took place, was mainly carried out by the inmate doctors and nurses (see prisoner functionaries) following the instructions of the SS doctors and SS medical ranks. This sometimes led to medical action against direct orders from the SS in order to save the lives of sick prisoners. Some of them were doctors or nurses by profession.

More staff

SS Men in the First Months of the Camp (May 27, 1933)

Dachau was the first large camp of the SS; numerous later "SS greats" had been trained there.

Special position

  • Eleonore Baur , nurse with the rank of SS honorary leader with her own work command

Function prisoners

See: Prisoners in Dachau Concentration Camp

The Dachau Trials

Dock in the first Dachau trial

The US military used the former prisoner camp and the SS barracks to detain NSDAP functionaries and members of the SS. 489 trials were carried out in Dachau, while the Dachau trials were US military trials with 672 charges.

The first trial, the Dachau main trial ( United States of America v. Martin Gottfried Weiss et al. ) Was directed against parts of the Dachau concentration camp team and was carried out from November 15 to December 13, 1945. Also concentration camp doctors and O. Schulz , representing the German Equipment Works (DAW, exploitation of slave labor) were there under indictment. The 40 accused were all found guilty and 36 of them were sentenced to death; 28 were hanged in Landsberg's war crimes prison in 1946 . The Dachau main proceedings were followed by 121 follow-up trials with around 500 suspects.

See also

swell

  1. ↑ a b c Guido Knopp: The SS. A warning of history. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 2002, p. 201 ff.
  2. ^ Stanislav Zámečník: (Ed. Comité International de Dachau): That was Dachau. Luxembourg, 2002, p. 84.
  3. ↑ Zámečník, pp. 390–396.
    HW - Born on June 30, 1921 in Gausbach near Gernsheim (Baden)
    Sandhofen Memorial: The SS leaders Ahrens and Wicker ( Memento from May 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), cf. Bruttig-Treis concentration camp (June – September 1944) and Hessental death march .
  4. ↑ Die SS-Ärztliche Akademie  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.uni-graz.at  
  5. ↑ Zámečník, p. 160.
  6. ↑ Medical experiments in the Dachau concentration camp ( memento from March 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future"
  7. ↑ Zámečník, p. 289.
  8. ↑ Zámečník, p. 264.
  9. ↑ Zámečník: p. 265.
  10. ↑ [1]
  11. ↑ United States. Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality: Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume 3 ( en ). US Government Printing Office, Washington DC 1946.
  12. ↑ See Hilmar Wäckerle's murder charge
  13. ↑ Barbara Diestel, Wolfgang Benz: The Dachau Concentration Camp 1933-1945. History and meaning . Ed .: Bavarian State Center for Political Education. Munich 1994 ( Chronicle of the Dachau Concentration Camp ( Memento of March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )). The Dachau Concentration Camp 1933 - 1945. History and meaning ( Memento of the original from March 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.km.bayern.de

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