Walter Höhler

Walter Höhler (born April 11, 1907 in Hildburghausen ; † June 4, 1967 in Hopfgarten ) was a German SS-Hauptsturmführer and worked as a chief dentist in Mauthausen concentration camp .

biography

Höhler, who holds a doctorate in dentistry, was a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 514.230) and the SS (membership number 295.116). He had been a member of the Waffen-SS since November 9, 1939 , was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer in 1943 and was the chief dentist at Mauthausen between May 1, 1944 and November 23, 1944 .

Dachau trial

After the end of the war, he was indicted before an American military court in the main Mauthausen trial , part of the Dachau trials : According to witness statements, Höhler is said to have removed the gold teeth from dead inmates and sent it to Berlin once a month. Höhler denied the removal of dental gold, but admitted that he had received it from the head of the crematorium and had sent it to Berlin on orders. The court found Höhler guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging on May 13, 1946 . However, following the review process, US Forces Commander in Chief General Clay commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment . Höhler was released from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison in April 1950 and then ran a dental practice in Alsfeld . Walter Höhler died in Hopfgarten in 1967.

literature

• Ernst Klee : Auschwitz, Nazi medicine and its victims. 3. Edition. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1997, ISBN 3-596-14906-1 .
• Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
• Florian Freund : The Dachau Mauthausen Trial, in: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. Yearbook 2001, Vienna 2001, pp. 35–66.

Web links

• Review and Recommendations of the Deputy Judge Advocate for War Crimes (pdf) on the Mauthausen main process at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org (13.16 MB)