Willi Schatz (dentist)

Willi Schatz (born February 1, 1905 in Hanover ; † February 17, 1985 there ) was a German dentist and worked as a camp dentist in the Auschwitz and Neuengamme concentration camps .

Life

Schatz was born in 1905 as the son of a dentist. He first attended elementary school and then a grammar school in Hanover, where he passed the Abitur. Like his father, he then studied dentistry at the University of Göttingen and received his doctorate in 1933. In 1933, Schatz joined the NSDAP and the SA . However, in 1939 he was expelled from the party because of the abortion aid. Until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht on June 10, 1940, he worked as a dentist in Hanover. On July 3, 1943, he resigned from the Wehrmacht and from July 22, 1943, he was a member of the Waffen SS .

Bearing use

Schatz was deployed in the SS headquarters in Oranienburg in 1943 and completed a medical course at the SS Medical Academy in Graz in autumn 1943. From January 20, 1944 until autumn 1944, Schatz was the second SS camp dentist under his superior Willy Frank in Auschwitz. He was then transferred to Neuengamme concentration camp , where he held the same position until the end of the war. In 1945 he was promoted again to SS-Obersturmführer . At the end of the war he became a British prisoner of war, from which he was released in January 1946. Schatz then reopened a dental practice in Hanover. During the first Auschwitz trial, he stood before the jury court in Frankfurt am Main because of his actions in the camps . He was accused of having selected prisoners in Auschwitz . Since this could not be proven beyond doubt, he was acquitted on August 20, 1965.

By comparing photos from the Auschwitz album with a series of photos from the so-called Höcker album , which was handed over to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at the end of 2006 , Schatz could be identified as the selective doctor on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau .

literature

Ernst Klee : Auschwitz. Perpetrators, accomplices, victims and what became of them. A dictionary of persons . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-039333-3 .

Web links

Short biography and picture of Willi Schatz at www.auschwitz-prozess-frankfurt.de
Brief portrait of Willi Schatz on www.auschwitz-prozess-frankfurt.de

Individual evidence

^ Stefan Hördler et al .: Auschwitz in Pictures - For the critical analysis of the Auschwitz albums. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 63 (2015), H. 7/8, p. 625.

personal data
SURNAME	Honey, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German dentist in Auschwitz concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH	February 1, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hanover
DATE OF DEATH	17th February 1985
Place of death	Hanover

[1] Stefan Hördler et al .: Auschwitz in Pictures - For the critical analysis of the Auschwitz albums. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 63 (2015), H. 7/8, p. 625.