Robert Waitz

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Robert Elie Waitz (born May 20, 1900 in Neuvy-sur-Barangeon ; † January 21, 1978 ) was a French professor of medicine, a member of the Resistance and a prisoner doctor in the Auschwitz concentration camp .

Life

Waitz graduated after 1917 passed high school a medical school in Paris . After receiving his doctorate in 1931 as Dr. med. Waitz was appointed associate professor of medicine at the University of Strasbourg in 1933 .

After the occupation of France by the Wehrmacht , he joined the French resistance in 1940. In the Auvergne he headed the cell of the Franc-Tireur there . Waitz was arrested by the Gestapo in Clermont-Ferrand on July 3, 1943 and taken to Moulin prison. From there, Waitz was transferred to the Drancy assembly camp on September 10, 1943, sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp on October 10, 1943, and immediately transferred to the Auschwitz-Monowitz concentration camp .

In the infirmary of the Auschwitz-Monowitz concentration camp, Waitz was employed as a prisoner doctor for the internal ambulance. Waitz treated the sick prisoners under the most adverse working and living conditions. Waitz resisted the request to participate in selections of so-called disabled and sick prisoners.

After the "evacuation" of the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945, Waitz and other prisoners had to go on a death march to Gleiwitz . From there they were transported by train to Buchenwald concentration camp . In Buchenwald, Waitz had to work in the typhus block.

After the Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated in April 1945, Waitz returned to Strasbourg and in 1946 became a full professor at the University of Strasbourg. Waitz began to write down his camp experiences in Auschwitz-Monowitz, which appeared in 1947.

Waitz eventually also became president of the International Auschwitz Committee (IAK). As President of the IAK, Waitz was to give the opening speech for the traveling exhibition Auschwitz - Pictures and Documents of the Frankfurt Association for International Understanding in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in 1964 . However, this was denied him. The official reason given was that the IAK was viewed as a co-organizer of the exhibition. Possibly the reason for the rejection was due to Waitz's communist attitude. Waitz finally declined an invitation as a guest of honor. Waitz, who was the only former Jewish concentration camp inmate invited to the event, justified this with the ban on speaking.

Honors

After the end of the Second World War, Waitz became a member of the Legion of Honor , received the Médaille de la Résistance and the French Croix de guerre .

literature

  • Hermann Langbein : People in Auschwitz ; Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Vienna: Ullstein, 1980; ISBN 3-548-33014-2 .
  • Robert Waitz: Auschwitz III, Monowitz , in: Leon Poliakov / Joseph Wulf (eds.): The Third Reich and the Jews, Arani, Berlin 1955

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Torben Fischer, Matthias N. Lorenz: Lexicon of "Coping with the Past" in Germany - Debate and Discourse History of National Socialism after 1945 , Transcript Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3899427734 , p. 167f.
personal data
SURNAME Waitz, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Waitz, Robert Elie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French professor of medicine, resistance fighter and prisoner doctor
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuvy-sur-Barangeon
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1978