Pery Broad

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Pery Broad (1964)

Pery Broad (born April 25, 1921 in Rio de Janeiro , † November 28, 1993 in Düsseldorf ) was an SS-Unterscharfuhrer and member of the security team and later in the political department at Auschwitz-Birkenau .

Life

Broad, the son of a Brazilian businessman and a German, moved with his mother from Brazil to Germany when he was five, but also kept his Brazilian citizenship. He spent his youth in Freiburg im Breisgau , and later in Berlin , where he attended elementary school and secondary school. In 1940 he passed his Abitur and then studied at the Technical University of Berlin .

As early as 1931, Broad was a member of the Hitler Youth and therefore later wore the golden badge of the Hitler Youth. In 1941 he joined the SS and, after voluntarily enrolling in the Waffen SS in early 1942, after a brief military training, he went to the front. Because of his shortsightedness, Broad was transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp in April 1942, as he was no longer fit for military service . There he initially worked as a security guard, later he volunteered as an employee of the Political Department (camp Gestapo) and came to the Investigations and Interrogations department. Auschwitz survivors portray Broad as ambivalent, on the one hand cold and inscrutable and on the other hand as extremely intelligent and sometimes even turned towards him. Broad, educated and well read, was also musically gifted and spoke several languages ​​fluently. Broad is said to have regularly participated in executions in the bunker. After the evacuation of the concentration camp in January 1945, a two-month period of service in the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp followed; This was followed by guard duties during evacuation marches by concentration camp prisoners and, at the end of the war, a short frontline deployment.

On May 6, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British and was interned in the Gorleben reception camp. During his imprisonment, he wrote the so-called Broad report of his own volition on the events in the Auschwitz concentration camp, which he openly condemned, without, however, going into his own person or function. As an informant for the British Army, Broad was housed as an alleged “traitor” separately from the other German prisoners. His detailed statements were also used in the Bergen-Belsen trials , as former members of the Auschwitz camp staff were also on trial there. Broad was granted considerable privileges in captivity, and he also acted as an interpreter during interrogations and at the Nuremberg trials . He was released from British captivity in 1947 and then worked as a commercial clerk in a sawmill in Munster (Örtze) and other private companies.

Auschwitz trial

On April 30, 1959, he was arrested in connection with the investigation for the first Auschwitz trial , but released at the end of 1960 on bail of 50,000 DM . In the trial, where he was represented by lawyers Hans Laternser and Fritz Steinacker , Broad took a radical turn. In contrast to his report, he now behaved like the other defendants. He denied the crimes, did not want to be able to remember anything, incriminated the other accused and found no word of remorse. When presented with his own record, it came as a shock to his defense. He also could n't deny his presence at the ramp and the infamous Block 11 . Witnesses also incriminated him heavily. The jury court of Frankfurt am Main sentenced Broad on August 19, 1965 to four years in prison .

In February 1966 he was released from custody as pre-trial detention was counted towards the sentence. In the same year the Auschwitz State Museum published the Broad Report .

In the trial, Broad's involvement in the liquidation of the gypsy camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau , namely in the murder of 3,000 prisoners in the camp, was of secondary importance, separated from the main proceedings and not relevant for the verdict. The Hessian Justice Minister Lauritz Lauritzen had promised the Secretary of the International Buchenwald Camp Committee that these murders would be dealt with in a separate procedure, which never happened.

After his imprisonment, Broad lived an inconspicuous life and died in November 1993 in Düsseldorf.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. So was Pery Broad . In: Hefte von Auschwitz , Heft 9, 1966, pp. 3–6.
  2. ^ First printed in: Hefte von Auschwitz , Vol. 9, Krakau, Muzeum w Oswiecimiu 1966.
  3. Änneke Winckel: Antiziganism. Racism against Roma and Sinti in United Germany , Münster 2002, p. 68.