Wilhelm Henkel (dentist)

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Wilhelm Henkel (born June 14, 1909 in Odenhausen , † May 28, 1947 in Landsberg ) was a German SS-Hauptsturmführer and was employed as the chief dentist in the Mauthausen concentration camp .

biography

Henkel, who had a doctorate in dentistry, was a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 5.629.125) and the SS (membership number 244.628). He had been a member of the Waffen-SS since May 15, 1942 , was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer in 1943 and was chief dentist in the Mauthausen concentration camp between July 1, 1941 and July 6, 1943. Henkel belonged to the SS Totenkopfverband and the SS Division Nordland .

Dachau trial

After the end of the war, he was indicted in an American military court in the main Mauthausen trial , part of the Dachau trials : A witness testified that he had been mistreated with a stick in 1942. The same witness testified that in February or March 1942 he saw Henkel come out of the heart injection room covered in blood. Other inmates who were used in the room reported that Henkel had performed heart injections himself. Another witness testified that he learned from a Czech inmate that Henkel had beaten him so badly that it took him six months to recover. His eardrum was torn. According to a further testimony, Henkel was seen pulling out the gold teeth of gassed inmates and sending it to Berlin once a month.

Henkel admitted to taking dental gold on orders and sending it to Berlin. He confirmed the statement that he had beaten an inmate, but pointed out that the inmate had disobeyed. Henkel denied the testimony. He said it would never happen to him being smeared with blood during a heart injection.

Due to the burden of proof, the Court Henkel were convicted and sentenced to death by the strand . The reasons for the judgment stated that the establishment and operation of the Mauthausen concentration camp had been a criminal act. Everyone who worked there was able to recognize this criminal character. The concentration camp staff were particularly aware of the numerous types of murder by shooting, gassing , hanging, willful death from starvation and other types of killing . Henkel was hanged on May 28, 1947 in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison .

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 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the reasons for the judgment, see: Robert Sigl: In the interest of justice. The Dachau war crimes trials 1945-1948. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 1992, ISBN 3-593-34641-9 , pp. 105f.
personal data
SURNAME Henkel, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dentist in Mauthausen concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Odenhausen (Lahn)
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1947
Place of death Landsberg am Lech