Victor Capesius

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Victor Capesius (born February 7, 1907 in Reussmarkt , Transylvania , Austria-Hungary , † March 20, 1985 in Göppingen ) was a pharmacist who, as SS leader, ran the camp pharmacy in the Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps . Capesius was involved in war crimes in Auschwitz and was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1965 in the 1st Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt .

Childhood, education

Capesius was born in Reussmarkt, today's Miercurea Sibiului in Transylvania, the son of a doctor and pharmacist. He attended the German grammar school in Sibiu and, after graduating from high school in 1924, began studying pharmacy at the University of Cluj , which he successfully completed at the University of Vienna . He then did his one-year military service as a captain in the Romanian army in 1931 and received his doctorate in 1933. pharm.

Professional life, 1934–1940

From 1934 he worked as a sales representative for IG Farben and in this role got to know many practices and pharmacies in Romania.

After the beginning of the Second World War , Capesius was drafted into the Romanian army in 1940 and headed the hospital pharmacy at an army location with the rank of captain.

SS career, 1943–1945

As a “ Volksdeutscher ” Capesius was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943 and soon afterwards placed under the Waffen-SS . In the same year he was trained in the SS central medical camp in Warsaw . In September 1943 he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp , where he headed the camp pharmacy until February 1944.

In February 1944, Capesius moved to Germany's largest extermination camp , Auschwitz , where he succeeded Adolf Krömer as head of the concentration camp pharmacy until the camp was evacuated in January 1945. Among other things, he overlooked the procurement and use of Zyklon B , in whose production his old employer, IG Farben, was involved through participation in the Degesch company . He worked closely with Josef Mengele , who carried out inhuman medical experiments on prisoners . He was also personally involved in the selection of prisoners for the gas chamber . He was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer in November 1944 . He enriched himself on personal jewelry and broken teeth of his victims. He used the gold he gained as start-up capital for his later entrepreneurial career.

“On the basis of numerous testimonies it could be proven to him that the 'innocent' pharmacist enriched himself in an unspeakably brazen way on the murdered prisoners in Auschwitz, above all by regularly 'in' the gold teeth that prisoner doctors had to tear out of the gassed people the Reich 'was transported. With the proceeds from the dental gold and other valuables, he built up his post-war existence. "

- Wolfgang Schlott

Post-war period, 1945–1959

After the camp was liberated, he went into hiding and at the end of the war in Schleswig-Holstein he was taken prisoner by the British, from which he was released after a year. In 1946 he began studying electrical engineering at the University of Stuttgart . During a visit to Munich in 1946, Capesius was recognized by a former Auschwitz prisoner. He was then arrested by the American military police and taken to the Dachau internment camp and Flak barracks in Ludwigsburg . In August 1947 Capesius was released from the internment camp because the responsible American authorities could not prove that he had committed any criminal offenses.

He then worked as an employee in a pharmacy in Stuttgart . In the same year he was classified as "not encumbered by the law" in the denazification procedure carried out by the Stuttgart Chamber of Justice on October 9, 1947. In October 1950 the 43-year-old opened the market pharmacy in Göppingen and also a cosmetics store in Reutlingen . He lived undisturbed in considerable prosperity until 1959.

Detained 1959–1968

At the beginning of December 1959 Capesius was arrested in Göppingen and was in custody until 1965. On August 20, 1965, in the first Auschwitz trial, the Frankfurt am Main regional court sentenced him to nine years in prison for joint aiding and abetting in joint murder in four cases of at least 2,000 people each .

Retired in freedom, 1968–1985

He was released from prison in January 1968 (after a total of 8 years). On the day of his release, he attended a city concert and was greeted with applause.

On March 20, 1985, Capesius died of natural causes in Göppingen at the age of 78. He left behind his wife and three daughters.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Schlott, University of Bremen, in the "Germany Archive", at http://www.dieterschlesak.de/auschwitzapotheker.html ( Memento from September 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ See procedural files (web links).
  3. ↑ Biography and picture of Capesius on www.auschwitz-prozess-frankfurt.de
personal data
SURNAME Capesius, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Capesius, Victor Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacist in Auschwitz concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Reuss market
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1985
Place of death Goeppingen