Theophil Hackethal

Theophil Hackethal (born December 13, 1883 in Mönchengladbach , † June 24, 1959 in Hermeskeil ) was a German physician. He was a member of the SS and from 1941 to 1945 contract doctor in the SS special camp in Hinzert . Initially convicted as a war criminal, he was pardoned in 1952.

Life

After graduating from high school in 1904, Hackethal originally wanted to study Catholic theology , but then decided to study medicine , which he completed at the universities of Bonn and Kiel . In April 1914 he passed the state examination and then worked as a military doctor during the First World War . After serving in the Balkans and on the Western Front , he headed a naval hospital in Hermeskeil from 1918. After the end of the war he became a senior doctor at the local St. Josef Hospital. In January 1919 he passed the doctoral examination. On March 1, 1933, he joined the SS, a month later also the NSDAP . In addition to his work as a hospital doctor, he was from 1935 a medical officer of the Reich Labor Service and district director of the Office for Public Health.

After the beginning of the Second World War , Hackethal was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer on September 10, 1939 . In mid-1941 he also took over the position of camp doctor in the SS special camp in Hinzert. There was a medical station with 20 beds, in which the guards were given preferential treatment, as well as a sick barrack with 60 beds for prisoners. Hackethal was only personally present in the camp about once a week and otherwise left the treatment of the patients to an SS Oberscharführer, who was actually a bricklayer by profession. Among other things, he performed operations when he was drunk, without using anesthetics, and sent the seriously ill back to forced labor on the grounds that they were simulators. Hackethal did nothing to counter the conditions in the camp and in several cases refused to have sick or injured prisoners admitted to the hospital he directed. From 1942 onwards he signed numerous forged death certificates without examining the corpses, thereby covering violent crimes committed by the camp staff. In September 1942 and February 1944 Hackethal was involved in the shooting of a total of 43 people as the secretary of an execution squad.

At the end of February 1945, Hackethal settled in his holiday home near Fulda . There he was arrested by American soldiers on April 16, 1945. In 1947 he was extradited to the French occupation zone . On October 28, he was sentenced to seven years in prison in Rastatt ; on appeal proceedings, the sentence was increased to 15 years on May 25, 1949. His admission that he did not sign any death certificates could be refuted on the basis of evidence. As a result , several requests for clemency were submitted for Hackethal, who was incarcerated in the Wittlich correctional facility . He benefited from the fact that he had a good reputation as a hospital doctor and was also able to present several letters of discharge. In 1935, for example, he had only faked a court-ordered compulsory sterilization , and after the November 1938 pogroms he continued to treat members of Jewish families in his neighborhood, even though he was threatened with exclusion proceedings. Both the Trier auxiliary bishop Bernhard Stein and the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Peter Altmeier campaigned for him. Hackethal was released in April 1952 and was able to claim financial benefits under the Homecoming Act. He returned to Hermeskeil and continued to practice there as a doctor until his death. He was married and had eight children.

literature

• Thomas Schnitzler: An inexplicable contradiction. A doctor in Hermeskeil and in the Hinzert concentration camp . In: Trier-Saarburg District Yearbook 2007, pp. 226–235.