Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

 

Aktion Reinhard


 

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Aktion Reinhard

 SS, Police, Railroad and Civilian Personnel

 

 

 

 

 

The Commander of Aktion Reinhard

 

 

Globocnik, Odilo 

SS - Brigadefuhrer 

SS Number 292 776

 

Born on the 21st April 1904 in Trieste. The son of an Austrian Croat family of petty officials, and a builder by trade.  He joined the Nazi party in Carinthia in 1930 and became a radical leader of its factory cells in the province.  In 1933 Globocnik entered the SS and was appointed deputy district leader of the NSDAP in Austria.

 

After a spell in prison Globocnik re-emerged as a key liaison man between Hitler and leading Austrian National Socialists. Appointed Gauleiter of Vienna on 24th May 1938, but was dismissed from this post for illegal speculation in foreign exchange on 30th January 1939.

 

Pardoned by Himmler and appointed SS and Police Leader for the Lublin District in Poland on 9th November 1939. He was chosen to be the central figure in Operation Reinhard, the extermination of Polish Jewry, no doubt because of his scandalous past and well known virulent anti-semitism.

 

By November 1943 with Operation Reinhard being concluded Globocnik was appointed Higher SS Police Leader for the Adriatic Region, based in his hometown of Trieste. At the end of the war, Globocnik succeeded in evading capture by returning to his native country in the mountains south of Klagenfurt.

 

Arrested on the 31st May 1945 by a British patrol , he committed suicide by taking poison in Weissensee.

 

 

 

 

 

The Chief of Staff of Aktion Reinhard

 

Hofle, Herman Julius 

SS - Hauptsturmfuhrer 

SS Number Unknown

 

Born in Salzburg Austria, on 19th June 1911, Hofle joined the NSDAP on 1st August 1933, with a party number 307,469. As well as being a trained mechanic, he had been employed as a Salzburg taxi driver, and at one point even owned a taxi company.

 

After a brief spell in the Sudetenland before the war and after the conquest of Poland, he served in Nowy Sacz, in Southern Poland. In November 1940 he served as an overseer of a Jewish work camp associated with the Bug- Graben, a network of huge anti-tank ditches and tank traps southeast of Lublin, near Belzec.

Up to December 1941 Hofle was in Mogilew  Russia, in connection with Globocnik’s role, in building SS strong-points in the East. By mid 1942 he had emerged as Globocnik’s Chief of Staff for Aktion Reinhard, and was responsible for organising the mass deportations from Warsaw, and Bialystok. Hofle was a very poor speller, but was judged to be competent by Globocnik, with a good intellectual grasp of matters. He lived and worked from the Aktion Reinhard headquarters with the Julius Schreck Barracks, Ostland Strasse, in Lublin.

 

Hofle also played a key role in the infamous Harvest Festival massacre  in early November 1943, of Jewish inmates of the various labour camps in the Lublin district. Approximately 42,000 Jews were murdered during this operation. Hofle rejoined Globocnik in Trieste, after various spells in the Netherlands, and Belgium, and Orainienburg.

 

Hofle survived the war and lived in Italy and Austria, and like Globocnik he committed suicide on 21st August 1962, in a Vienna prison cell, awaiting trial.

 

 

 

 

Key Administration Staff of Aktion Reinhard

 

 

  • Lerch , Ernst 

  • Michaelsen , Georg   

  • Georg Wippern

     

 

  

Inspector of Aktion Reinhard Camps

 

Wirth, Christian 

SS-  Sturmbannfuhrer 

SS Number 345 464

 

Christian Wirth was born on the 24th November 1885 in Oberblazheim , Laupheim District Wurttenburg. After education at a primary school and vocational school in carpentry, he was employed as an apprentice carpenter, with the Buhler brothers timber firm in Oberbalzheim.

 

Undertook Military and Police service prior to World War One, and during the Great War he served in the Reserve Infantry Regiment 246 (Ulm).

 

He fought on the Western Front in Flanders, the Somme, and Aisne- Champagne, in October 1914 he was wounded in the upper right arm. Wirth won many medals for his front-line service, including the Iron Cross I and II class, and the Gold Wurttenberg Military Service medal.

 

In 1919 he joined the Stuttgart Kripo ( Criminal Police) and he rose through the ranks and at 1938 he became head of Kommissariat 5 (Serious Crimes – including murder).

 

Joined the NSDAP in 1931 and the SD in 1937 and the SS in 1939.

 

Following special police duties in Vienna and Olmitz, he was transferred to the Fuhrers Chancellery to help with the planning and organisation of the Euthanasia operation, from October 1939.  Wirth personally participated in the first gassing experiments in Brandenburg, and straight after that in February 1940 to May 1940 he served at Grafeneck castle killing centre, and then a brief stay at Hartheim castle in Austria killing centre.

 

Between June 1940 and August 1941 Wirth served as a roving inspector of all euthanasia institutions throughout the Third Reich. His whereabouts between September and December 1941 are unknown, but some sources say he was involved at Chelmno death camp.

 

On the 22nd December 1941 Wirth arrived in Belzec to inspect the construction of the Death Camp, and he returned with Adolf Eichmann and Hermann Hofle a week later. On the 1st January 1942 Wirth was appointed the first Commandant of the Belzec death camp. He was a brutal commander, who perfected the killing process, with ruthless efficiency.

 

After Belzec was established Wirth was appointed Inspektor of the SS Sonderkommado Aktion Reinhard, and after a temporary stay in the Aktion Reinhard Headquarters in the Julius Schreck Barracks, he moved to a new Headquarters on the old Lublin airfield.

 

Wirth frequently visited the three death camps( Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka) bringing fear and terror, which earned him the nickname from his subordinates of “ Christian the Terrible”.  Wirth was posted to Trieste in September 1943, but he did briefly return to Lublin for the 1943 Harvest Festival massacre.

 

In Trieste Wirth commanded the SS-Einsatzkommando R, which was composed of former Aktion Reinhard members. On the 26th May 1944 Wirth was shot and killed by Yugoslav partisans near Kozina, Istria. He was buried with full military honours in the German Military Cemetary in Opcina, near Trieste. His remains were transferred in 1959 to the German Military Cemetary at Costermano, near Lake Garda, northern Italy.

 

 

 

 

Aktion Reinhard Construction Expert

 

 

Thomalla, Richard

SS-  Hauptsturmfuhrer 

SS Number 41206

 

Born in Sabine –bei-  Annahof, Upper Silesia ( now Sowin n. Niemodlin) on the 23rd October 1903. A builder by profession.Joined the NSDAP 1st August 1932, joined the SS on 1st July 1932.

 

Married Margarete Bruckner on 5th October 1935. Military service in Falkenberg and Oppeln, and service in the SS in Wohlau and Breslau. On the 6th September transferred from Breslau to the Generalgouvernement. Saw service with the SS- Hilfspolizei in Czestochowa and Radom.

 

On the 22nd August 1940 transferred by Kruger HSSPF Ost to serve under Globocnik SSPF Lublin. From August 1940 to October 1940 was the Section Construction Leader of the SS-Border Defence Construction Brigade in Belzec.

 

Thomalla  was also in charge of constructing SS-Strong-points in the East at  branch offices in Zwiahel then Kiev. Recalled by Globocnik to Lublin, Thomalla in November 1941 he worked for the SS-Bauleitung in Zamosc. Supervised the construction of Belzec, with limited visits to the site.

 

Thomalla was the construction expert for Sobibor and Treblinka, and as such was the temporary Commandant of these 2 camps.  Thomalla was executed by the NKVD in Jicin Czechoslovakia on 12th May 1945.

 

 

 

 

Aktion Reinhard Camp Commandants

 

 

Eberl, Irmfried 

SS-  Obersturmfuhrer 

SS Number Unkown

 

Born in Bregenz Austria on 8th September 1910. Attended four years elementary school, then Gymnasium with final examinations on 8th December 1931.

 

Enrolled at Innsbruck University’s medical faculty in January 1933. Became Nazi Socialist representative of the student’s chamber. Member of Motorsturm 1 and SA- Sturm 14. Achieved his doctorate aged 24 years old as a medical doctor.

 

From 20th February 1935 to the 27th May 1935 at the second medical section of Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung. From 28th May 1935 to the 8th March 1936 at Lungenheilanstalt Grimmenstein. Was unemployed in Austria because the NSDAP was illegal there and went to Germany.

 

From 1st April 1936 at the Deutsches Hygiene – Institut in Dresden. From 1st May 1936 till the end of March 1937 chief of Amt fur Volkswohlfahrt in Dessau, near Magdeburg. Eberl then served at the Hauptgesundheitsamt in Berlin – section special hygene and from February 1940 served at Gemeinnutzige Stiftung fur Anstaltspfiege (code name for T4)

 

Recommended for special service from 1940 until 1944. Director of the Brandenburg euthanasia centre and in 1942 of the Bernburg euthanasia centre. After serving briefly at Sobibor,  Eberl was appointed as the first Commandant of Treblinka, and his ambition was to excel in the mass murder of Jews, but Treblinka’s capacity was unequal to the task, and this led to a complete breakdown at the death camp. Transports waited for days, thousands of corpses were not buried.

 

At the end of August 1942 Globocnik and Wirth went to Treblinka, and Eberl was relieved of his command and replaced by SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Franz Stangl.  From 1944 he served in the Wehrmacht and after the end of the war settled at Blaubeuren. His second marriage left him a widower

 

Imprisoned in 1947 he hanged himself in February 1948 during the pre-trial detention.

 

 
 

 

Franz , Kurt Hubert  

SS - Untersturmfuhrer 

SS Number 316909

 

Kurt Franz was born on the 17th January 1914 in Dusseldorf. He attended elementary school from 1920 to 1928 in Dusseldorf. From 1929 he trained as a cook, at first in the restaurant “Hirschquelle” , then in Hotel Wittelsbacher Hof” in Dusseldorf without passing the final examinations.

 

Franz served as a soldier during 1935 to 1937. In October 1937 he joined the Waffen-SS 3rd SS-Totenkopfstandarte Thuringen. At the end of 1939 he was summoned to the Fuhrers Chancellery and detailed for service as a cook in the euthanasia institutes at Grafeneck, Hartheim, Sonnestein and Brandenburg.

 

As a member of the 6th battalion he served at the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1941, in the SS Clothing Department. On the 30th January 1940 he was promoted to SS-Unterscharfuhrer, and in 1941 he was promoted to SS Scharfuhrer.

 

During the Spring of 1942 he was ordered to the Generalgouvernement. At Belzec death camp Franz worked as a cook, and trained the Ukrainian guards there. In late August / early September 1942 he was ordered to Treblinka and appointed Deputy Commander.

 

Franz was appointed to the post as the last Commandant of Treblinka, after the revolt in August 1943, and he was in charge of the dismantling of the camp in November 1943. He served in Sobibor death camp for a short time, before going to Italy.

 

Franz was the dominant personality in Treblinka when it came to the day to day running of the camp and especially with regard to the prisoners. Franz was the most cruel and inspired the most terror, he was known as Lalke, doll in Yiddish, as he was handsome, with a round almost baby- face. When he made his rounds of the Lower Camp in Treblinka , he was accompanied by his dog Barry, a  Saint Bernard, mixed breed, who would bite prisoners, and maul them to death.

 

Franz was transferred to Trieste, where he took part in killing partisans and Jews. Imprisoned by US Forces after the war, he managed to escape, and found work as a cook.

 

On 2nd December 1959 he was arrested and imprisoned again. Sentenced to life imprisonment by the German Landgericht Dusseldorf on 3rd September 1965.

 

Franz died in an old peoples home in Wuppertal on the 4th July 1998.

 

 

 
 

Hering, Gotlieb   

SS-  Hauptsturmfuhrer 

SS Number -  Hering never joined the SS

 

Hering was born in Warmbronn , Leonberg District Wurttenberg on 2nd June 1887. Following his education he worked on an agricultural labourer on estates in the Leonberg area. Following brief military and police service just prior to the First World War, in October 1915 he was conscripted into a Machine-Gun Company of Grenadier Regiment 123, where he fought on the Western Front in northern France.

 

He was decorated with the Iron Cross First Class, and other medals for frontline service. Hering then served as a career police officer with the Criminal Police in Goppingen, and Stuttgart, where he met Christian Wirth.

 

From December 1939 to December 1940 Hering was stationed in Gdynia, with other Kripo Officers attending to the resettlement of Reichs and Volksdeutsche on the Baltic Coast. Chief of the Registry offices of Bernburg, Sonnenstein, and Hadamar, liquidated the T4 killing centre at Bernburg.

 

In July 1942 Hering went to Belzec death camp and on the 1st August 1942 he was appointed as the second commandant, as a replacement for Christian Wirth, who had become the Inspector of Aktion Reinhard. After the liquidation of Belzec in the spring of 1943, Hering was appointed to take command of the forced labour camp at Poniatowa.

 

On 4th November 1943 all Jewish inmates of the camp were shot in the course of Aktion Erntefest. During November 1943 Hering was at Sobibor responsible for the dismantling of the death camp.   In 1944 he was ordered to Italy, where he again replaced Wirth, after his death, as chief of R-1 of Einsatz R based at San Sabba.  On the 9th October 1945.

 

Hering died in unknown circumstances in the waiting room of the Katherinen Hospital in Stetten- in – Remstal Wurttemberg

 

 

 

 

Reichleitner, Karl Franz 

SS -  Haupsturmfuhrer 

SS Number 357065

 

Reichleitner was born in Ried Austria, on the 2nd December 1906. He was Kriminalsekretar at the Gestapo in Linz. Reichleitner became a

member of the NSDAP (no 6369213) in 1936 and the SS in 1937. Served as chief of the office at the euthanasia killing centre at Hartheim, near Linz. Together with his colleague Stangl he was ordered to eastern Poland, in order to manage the extermination of the Jews.

 

He was known as a heavy drinker, and Sobibor survivor Stanislaw Szmajzner described him as obese, and nicknamed “Trottel”, (idiot), which was one of his most used expressions. He was appointed to the post of Commandant at the Sobibor death camp in September 1942, with the rank of  Polizeihauptmann to replace Stangl, who had been sent to Treblinka.

 

During his time at Sobibor more than a hundred thousand Jews were murdered. He ruled the camp very strictly, but was rarely seen in the Camp itself, only once witnessing the arrival of a transport. During the revolt in Sobibor on the 14th October 1943, he was absent from the camp, but returned to oversee the dismantling of the camp.

 

Ordered to Italy to fight partisans in the Fiume region, he was killed on the 3rd January 1944. Reichleitner is buried at the Costermano, near Lake Garda, grave number 1,192

 

 

 

 

Stangl, Franz Paul, 

SS -  Hauptsturmfuhrer 

SS Number 296569

 

Stangl was born on the 26th March 1898 in Altmunster Austria. After completing his education he trained as a master weaver, but then become a policeman in 1931 and in 1936 he joined the illegal Austrian Nazi party.

 

In 1940 he worked at the Hartheim euthanasia killing centre, as Police supervisor, and also spent some time at the Bernburg euthanasia centre. Stangl was appointed as the Commandant of Sobibor from March till August 1942. He had very little direct contact with the prisoners, apart from Stanislaw Szmajzner, who made gold jewellery for the SS.

 

At the end of August 1942 Stangl was transferred to Treblinka death camp to replace Irmfried Eberl. Stangl was commandant at Treblinka from late August 1942 until August 1943, just after the prisoner revolt.

 

Stangl received an official commendation as the “best camp commander” in Poland, and was responsible for clearing up the state of the camp after Eberl, and re-organising the killing capacity, with enlarged gas chambers.

 

After the Treblinka revolt he was posted to northern Italy. For a short time he was based at San Sabba concentration camp, but mainly served as commander of Einsatz R ll in the area of Fiume and Udine, where he was engaged in actions against partisans and local Jews.

 

At the end of the war Stangl fled to Austria, where he was interned by US Forces, because of his SS membership. From the late summer 1947 he was imprisoned in Linz, having been accused of killing mental patients at Hartheim.

 

In May 1948 he escaped from prison and made his way to Rome, where he was given help by Bishop Hudal to escape to Syria. In Damascus he found work as an engineer. In 1951 he migrated to Brazil where he was re-united with his family.

 

In Sao Paulo he worked in the Volkswagen factory, and it was not until the mid-60’s that the late Simon Wiesenthal learned of his whereabouts. For a total of $7,000 (one cent for every Jew killed) the informant agreed to divulge Stangl’s address, and Stangl was arrested in 1967.

 

Stangl was extradited to the then West Germany, where he was tried in Dusseldorf. At his trial Stangl declared that whilst it was true that he had been the the commandant of Treblinka, he had nothing to do with the killing of the Jews. His task he said had been solely to supervise the collection and shipment of valuables brought into the camp by the victims. The individual for the killings had been Wirth.

 

Stangl was the only commander of a death camp who had been brought to trial. He was tried in the second Treblinka trial in 1970 in Dusseldorf, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

 

Stangl died in Dusseldorf prison a few months after the end of the trial on 28th June 1971, of a heart attack, shortly after giving a series of interviews with Gitta Sereny.

 

 
 

 

 Lower Ranking NCO’S & Personnel serving in Aktion Reinhard Camps

 

Arndt, Kurt 

SS -  Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number unknown

 

Served at Hadamar euthanasia centre, as part of a police detachment. According to Kurt Franz his main duties were in Camp ll. He was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp for talking about their work in a bar.

 

No more details known

 
 

 

Bar, Rudolf 

SS - Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number Unknown

 

Born 28th March 1906. Carpenter from Halle. Cook at Bernburg euthanasia centre, perhaps also at Brandenburg. Belonged to the Waffen –SS, rank unknown.

 

Posted to Treblinka he worked as a book-keeper / accountant in the camp office, located in Stangl’s barracks. Replaced by Matzig, when Stangl took command of Treblinka in late August 1942. Bar also served in Belzec death camp as an auditor.

 

In May 1945 at the Prisoner of War camp Kirchbach in Karnten, Austria, went into hiding, no more details known.

 

 

 

 

Barbl, Heinrich 

SS- Scharfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Barbl was born on the 3rd March 1900 in Sarleinsbach , Austria. A metalworker by trade, he was a member of the NSDAP and SS. Served at the euthanasia killing centre of Hartheim preparing metal discs for the urns with the names of the deceased. He took the ashes from a big pile.

Therefore the relatives received urns with the right names, but the wrong contents.

 

Posted to the East in 1942 Barbl went to Belzec where he installed gas pipes for the gas chambers, a feat he repeated in Sobibor during the construction phase, together with Fuchs. Barbl called himself the “Hausklempner”, house plumber in Belzec and Sobibor.

 

Barbl  was only in Sobibor between April and June 1942, according to the testimony of Erich Bauer, he was constantly drunk, but did take part in test gassings at Sobibor. He went to Trieste at the end of Aktion Reinhard.

 

No further details known.

 
 

 

Bauch, Ernst 

SS –Unterscharfuhrer

 

Bauch was born on the 30th April 1911 in Berlin. Served at Bernburg and Sonnenstein euthanasia centres.

 

According to evidence of Frenzel and Ittner, he served at Sobibor. Committed suicide in Berlin in 1942, Frenzel attended his funeral.

 

 

 

Bauer , Erich  

SS –Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number

 

Bauer was born on the 26th March 1900 in Berlin. A tram conductor, he was a member of the SA and SS. A driver for T4. Bauer arrived in Sobibor in April 1942 and was there the whole time the camp was in operation.

 

Taught by Fuchs how to operate the gassing motor, he called himself the gasmeister (gas – expert) of Sobibor, and was in charge of operating the motor in Camp lll. In the last phase of the camp’s operation he was the lorry driver for the camp. He confirmed after the revolt he transported eight coffins to Chelm, the rest went by train.

 

After Sobibor had been closed down Bauer served in Italy. In 1946 he worked in Berlin, clearing the ruins. There he was recognised in the street by an ex-Sobibor prisoner , Samuel Lerer, who informed the police. He was arrested and sentenced to death on the 8th May 1950, in Berlin-Moabit for his crimes in Sobibor.

 

After capital punishment was abolished, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1971. He died in the Berlin –Tegel prison on the 4th February 1980.

 

 

 

Becher, Werner 

SS –Unterscharfuhrer   

SS Number

 

Becher was born on the 26th April 1912 in Annaberg/ Aue Sacchsen. Affiliation to squad or detachment unknown. Member of NSDAP.

 

Served as a driver at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. It was only in 1993 that a photograph appeared of him in the book “Der Euthanasia –Prozess Dresden”.

 

In Sobibor from August 1942 to November 1942, he was a supervisor of the sorting barracks, and he served to in Camp lll. Was posted to Italy, no further details known.

 

 

 

 

Beckmann, Rudolf  

SS –Oberscharfuhrer 

SS Number 305721 

 

Beckmann was born on the 20th February 1910 in Osnabruck, Germany.

 

He was posted to Sobibor in April 1942, he was in charge of the Sorting Commando in Camp ll and also in charge of the horses.

 

He was described by Dov Freiberg as a short thin German with a mousy face.

 

He also managed the camp administation based in the Foresters House, which was where he was killed during the prisoners revolt on the 14 October 1943.

 

Bauer testified after the war that he transported Beckmann's corpse to Lublin

 

 

 

Biela, Max 

SS – Scharfuhrer 

SS Number 37401

 

Born on the 5 August 1905 in Leschen, Kreis Calau

 

Max Biela was a farm worker in civilian life, after he joined the SS he served in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp from the 27 January 1940 as a Rottenfuhrer and he served at the Brandenburg and Bernburg euthanasia killing centres as a guard.

 

He was posted to Treblinka death camp and was deputy to Commandant Irmfried Eberl. He was stabbed to death by Jewish prisoner Meir Berliner, on the 11 September 1942, whilst carrying out a selection.

 

He died of his wounds in the military Reserve hospital at Ostrow – Mazowiecki, and in his honour, the Ukrainian barracks at Treblinka were named the “Max Biela Kaserne.”

 

 

 

 

Blaurock, Gunter Erich Werner 

SS – Unknown 

SS Number

 

In the middle of April 1942 when the building of Sobibor was close to completion, experimental killings were carried out there. About 250 Jews were brought from the Krychow Labour camp. Wirth arrived in Sobibor to attend these experimental gassings.

 

With Wirth came a chemist from the euthanasia program whose pseudonym was Dr Blaurock. No further details known.

 

 

 

Boelitz,  

SS – Scharfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Belonged to a police detachment. According to Kurt Franz Boelitz served mainly in Camp ll. Also part of the squad that received transports on the ramp, along with Gentz, they had to make absolutely sure that no-one was left in the cattle cars, after they were unloaded.

 

Boelitz was remembered by survivor Richard Glazar.Boelitz is quite another type, made of more solid stuff. He is strong, lean young man. Its not just that his hair is cut short, shaved high in the back, but its also the impression that the sun has bleached the eyebrows and lashes blond, on his oval, rosy pink face.

 

No more details are known

 

 

 

Bolender, Heinz, Kurt  

SS – Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number -

 

Born on 21st May 1912 in Duisberg. Served as a “Burner” at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, as well as Brandenburg, Hartheim and Hadamar.

 

Was a member of both the NSDAP and SS. Arrived at Sobibor on the 22nd April 1942 together with Stangl, Frenzel, Gomerski and others.

 

He testified at the Hagen trial “ I was during my service at Sobibor constantly in Camp lll, where I was a supervisor of the Jewish working command. It is correct that Jews were gassed there. I sorted the working prisoners into groups. After the gassing took place a group of them had to empty the gas chambers. Another group took the corpses to the mass graves”.

 

In July 1942 he was arrested for perjury during his divorce case. He was punished by an SS-court in Krakow on 19th December 1942, and was sent to the SS-penal camp Matzkau, near Gdansk. Shortly after the revolt in Sobibor he was called back to help with the dismantling of the death camp.

 

After Sobibor he was ordered to the Deutsche Ausrustungswerke (DAW) in Lublin, at the old airfield. For his part in Aktion Reinhard he was awarded the Iron Class second class on the 18th January 1945.

 

Posted to Italy he survived the war. After the war his wife declared him as dead, as he had a number of criminal offences to his name, he found it better to disappear off the records.

 

He lived under the false name of Heinz Brenner, the name he went by at Hartheim. The Justice Department became aware of him, and arrested him in May 1961.

 

Instead of confessing to his crimes Bolender claimed to be a fighter against partisans, in the Lublin area. During the trial he constantly maintained that there were sick and crippled people were not executed at Sobibor, but under cross-examination he admitted the truth about Sobibor.

 

During the first Hagen trial, he committed suicide shortly before his sentence was pronounced on the 10th October 1966.

 

 

 

Bootz, Helmut   

SS – Unknown   

SS Number -  Unknown

 

Born on 25th June 1907 in Stettin. After extended elementary school he worked as a security man at AEG. Member of NSDAP and SS since 1933, he was posted to T4 in the autumn of 1939.

 

Served at Bernburg euthanasia centre from late October 1940 until the spring of 1942, as a guard and at the post office, in Grafeneck euthanasia centre too. In early 1942 he was posted to Treblinka, where he worked as a supervisor of the camp guards.

 

Bootz was removed by Wirth because of illness. He survived the war.

 

 

 

Borner, Gerhardt   

SS – Untersturmfuhrer    

SS Number -  Unknown

 

Born on the 28th October 1905. Chief of economics at Sonnenstein, member of NSDAP and SS. At Sobibor no details are known of his role, but likely to be in administration, but served in Italy.

 

No further details known. 

 

 

 

 

Borowski, Werner   

SS – Untersturmfuhrer 

SS Number -  Unknown

 

Born on the 23rd October 1913 in Sprottischdorf (Silesia). Affiliation to squad or detachment unknown. Served at Bernburg euthanasia centre as economic chief. Posted to Belzec in early 1942 together with Niemann, Barbl and Graetschus. He was subsequently posted to Treblinka, as head of the economics section, because of a typhus epidemic he was sent back to Bernburg.

 

He served with the German Airforce, and was listed as missing, presumably killed in action.

 

 

 

 

Bredow, Paul    

SS – Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number -  Unknown

 

Born in 1902, apparently from Silesia, by profession a Male nurse, he served at Grafeneck and Hartheim euthanasia centres. He was posted to Sobibor in April 1942, along with Stangl and others, as the first group of SS-men in Sobibor.

 

Bredow was in charge of the Lazarett, at Sobibor, a former chapel. He was extremely brutal, his hobby was “target shooting”. He set himself a daily quota of killing 50 Jews a day with his pistol. In the spring of 1943 Bredow was posted to Treblinka where he was appointed the Head of Barracks A, the clothing sorting barracks, by the ramp.

 

After Aktion Reinhard was completed he served at San Sabba, Trieste, and after the war worked together with Karl Frenzel in Giessen as a carpenter until November 1945.

 

In December 1945 he was killed in an accident in Gottingen

 

 

 

Bree, Max  

 

SS – Scharfuhrer  

SS Number -  Unknown 

Born in Lubben (Spreewald).

 

Served at Grafeneck and Hadamar. After service in Treblinka, he came to Sobibor in June 1943. There he supervised the Ukrainian guards, and the Jews working in the sorting barracks.

 

Bree was killed on the 14th October 1943 during the prisoner uprising in Sobibor.

 

 

 

 

Dachsel, Artur    

Polizei Wachtmeister   

Polizei  Number -  12003

 

Born in 1890. Dachsel was a “burner” at Sonnestein. Served at Belzec and Sobibor, as Wachtmeister. Promoted to the rank of Oberwachtmeister by Himmler.

 

Remembered by Thomas Blatt as one of the less brutal SS men, he carried a whip but never used it. Served in Italy, but no further details known.

 

 

 

 

Dietze, Erich    

Polizei Rott -Wachtmeister   

Polizei  Number -  12010

 

Born on 2nd November 1905. Worked at the office in Sonnestein. Served in Sobibor

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

 

Dubois, Werner Karl   

SS - Oberscharfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Born in Wuppertal on 26th February 1913. Brought up by his grandmother. Educated in an elementary school for eight years. Worked as a joiner, brush-maker, printer and on a farm.

 

Member of the SA since July 1933, NSDAP and SS since January 1937. Driver at SS- Gruppenkommando Oranienburg, and a guard at Sachsenhausen.

 

In August 1939 to T4 – Bus driver in Brandenburg and Grafeneck, “Burner” and bus driver in Bernburg from early 1941 to mid 1941 and burner at Hadamar. In late 1941 he went to the Eastern front, as part of the Organisation Todt, as a driver for wounded soldiers in Viazma. In early April 1942 Dubois was ordered to Lublin for service in Aktion Reinhard.

 

He served at the Belzec death camp from April 1942 until June 1943. There he worked as a lorry driver and supervised the Jewish special commando at the gas chambers. During his trial he gave detailed evidence of how he killed six people in the camp – even remembering after 28 years that he used a 9mm Belgian FN-pistol. He also supervised the arrival of transports in one instance, he shot 6 incapacitated Jews on Wirth’s order and threw them into the ditch.

 

Early in June 1943, after the liquidation of Belzec, he was transferred to the Sobibor death camp. At Sobibor he supervised the Waldkommando (Forest Commando), served at the ramp and the Lazarett at the former Chapel.

 

A fellow SS-man typified him as a Draufganger – a daredevil who stopped at nothing and nobody and was always shooting a lot. He was in charge of the Waldkommando in which seven prisoners escaped and survived, on 20th July 1943.

 

During the revolt on 14th October 1943 he was heavily wounded at the armoury by blows from an axe, a knife attack and being shot in the lungs. He had to be treated at the hospital in Chelm- Lubelski. Posted to Italy to serve in Action –R to fight the partisans.

 

In May 1945 he was arrested by US troops, but released in December 1947. He worked as a locksmith, until his arrest to stand trial for his crimes at Belzec.

 

Notwithstanding the fact that he murdered six Jews, he was acquitted at the 1963-64 Belzec trial in Munich. However, in the Sobibor trial at Hagen in 1966, he was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment due to his involvement in the murder of at least 15,000 in Sobibor.

 

He died in Munster on the 22nd October 1971.

 

 

 

 

Eiselt, Karl   

Civilian – Excavator Operator   

SS Number

 

Operated the excavator at Treblinka, as a civilian employee of the SS. No further details known.

 

 

 

Eisold, Johannes 

Civilian – Excavator Operator   

SS Number

 

Born on 13th November 1907. Male nurse in Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Member of NSDAP and SS. Civilian appointed, he worked for the Wollenweber construction firm in Berlin.

 

Operated the excavator at Treblinka, in the extermination area, upper camp. After Treblinka he was posted to Trieste. No further details known.

 

 

 

Emmerich, Rudolf  

Deutsche Reichsbahn / Ostbahn    

No information on background

 

As a member of the German railways, Emmerich was responsible for shunting the deportation trains from Treblinka station to the camp some 4km distant.

 

The other German railway official who also shunted the deportation wagons was Willi Klinzmann. The two drivers played an integral part of the illegal smuggling of stolen Jewish property, out of the death camp.  No further details known.

 

 

 

Feix, Reinhold   

SS - Oberscharfuhrer 

SS Number 

 

Born in Gablonz ( now Jablonec nad Nisou , Czech Republic) on the Neisse river, on the 3rd July 1909. Described by Budzyn prisoner Ilse Domke “Feix 35 years of age, medium height, slim, dark hair.

 

Feix came to Belzec death camp from Trawniki, and he commanded the Ukrainian guard complement of 60-80 men. Feix was one of the most sadistic of all the SS-men at Belzec, even though he was a married man with two children. Rudolf Reder a survivor doubted the man’s sanity.

 

The cruelty he inflicted was of the most blatant kind, whipping and beating his victims about the face while screaming hysterically.

 

He considered himself musical and played the violin and under his instigation the camp orchestra was formed under Wassermann, a conductor.

 

Feix particularly liked the Polish melody “Highlander have you no regrets”. When Belzec ceased its operation Feix was transferred to the Budzyn labour camp as Lagerfuhrer in the spring of 1943.

 

At Budzyn Feix was equally brutal, and was guilty of many war crimes. Feix survived the war and died in Amberg in Bavaria on the 30th May 1969, aged 60.

 

 

 

Felfe, Hermann,  

SS  Unknown 

SS Number   

 

Born on the 4th January 1902. Member of NSDAP , Felfe was a slim, tall man with light blond hair. Male nurse at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, served at Grafeneck euthanasia centre as well.

 

A bricklayer by profession he probably was the builder of the first water tower in Camp l in Treblinka death camp. According to Mentz and Matthes  he only served for a short time in Treblinka. 

 

Arrested in 1945 by the NKVD, he was sentenced to death in the Dresdner Arzteprozess.on the 7th July 1947. Felfe committed suicide in the remand prison on the 15th October 1947.

 

 

 

 

Fichtner, Erwin   

SS Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number 206 977   

 

Born on the 12th January 1912 in Trachenberg. Member of SS, joined T4 in 1939, cook at Bernburg. Posted to Belzec where he worked as the camp quartermaster.

 

Fichtner was killed by partisans on the 23rd March 1943 near Tarnowatka. Buried at the German Military Cemetery in Przemysl, Poland.

 

 

 

Florian,    

SS unknown 

SS Number unknown     

No further details known.

 

Served at Treblinka, according to Matthes and Rum, he was only at Treblinka for a short while during the early stages of the camps operation.

 

Described as being about 40 years old at that time, being hefty heavy faced and blond. No further details known

 

 

 

 

Floss, Herbert    

SS Scharfuhrer 

SS Number 281582    

 

Born on the 25th August 1912 in Reinholdsheim. Attended extended elementary school, trained in textile dyeing, but could not secure a position, and consequently worked at other professions.

 

Became member of the NSDAP in 1930, joined the SA in 1931 and the SS in 1935. From 1st April 1935 he served in the 2 Totenkopfsturmbann Elbe, as an SS –Scarfuhrer. Served at KZ Buchenwald and Bernburg euthanasia centre.

 

Floss was a cremation expert and served at all three Aktion Reinhard camps, and saw service at Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor. Nicknamed by the Jews at Treblinka as Tadellos(perfect), as this was his favourite expression, “Thank God now the fire is perfect”.

 

Floss was killed on the 22nd October 1943 by Ukrainian guards in Zawadowka, near Chelm.

 

 

 

 

Forker, Alfred   

SS Unknown

SS Number Unknown 

 

Born on the 31st July 1904. Member of NSDAP. Served as a male nurse at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Served at Treblinka as a guard in the sorting yard and a guard in Camp ll.

 

Described during testimony of his colleague Otto Horn, as being small, with a tapering peaky face and dark blond hair. After Treblinka served in Italy. No further details known.

 

 

 

 

Frenzel, Karl   

SS Oberscharfuhrer 

SS  Number

 

Born on the 20th August 1911 in Zehdenick/ Havel. Attended extended elementary school from 1918 to 1926 in Oranienburg. Educated as a carpenter. Member of NSDAP – Number 334948, and SA from 1st August 1930.

 

Worked from October 1933 until 1935 in an ammunition factory in Gruneberg. Due to his fervent belief in Nazism he received from Hitler in person a dagger of honour. He described it as “his greatest experience”.

 

When in 1939 they were looking for exceptional reliable party members, he volunteered for a special command. Therefore in the first week of January 1940 he joined T4. He was ordered to Grafeneck euthanasia as a guard and worked in the laundry. Then he served at Bernburg for a short time as a construction worker.

 

In Hadamar he converted the cellars of the hospital into gas chambers, whereupon on its completion he became a disinfector, or as he called himself the “Brenner” (burner). Here he carried out the gassing of people and the burning of the corpses.

 

Then he was ordered to Berlin and then to Lublin where he received the rank of SS-Oberscharfuhrer from Globocnik. On 28th April 1942 he left for Sobibor. At Sobibor he became one of the most brutal officers in the camp, with severe punishments and killings.

 

After a while Frenzel was appointed the leader of Camp l and the Bahnhofkommando (station commando), he along with Wagner were responsible for the selection of new arrivals. During Wagner’s absence he was responsible for selections to the gas chambers and who was to work.

 

He avoided being killed during the Sobibor revolt on 14th October 1943, by being in the shower, when most of the SS were killed. Because the Commandant Reichleitner was absent during the revolt, Frenzel took charge of the camp immediately after the revolt.

 

After Sobibor Frenzel was posted to Italy, there he served as a member of Einsatz R in Trieste and Fiume. Arrested by US troops in a POW camp near Munich. Released in late November 1945.

 

Worked at a film studio in Gottingen. Imprisoned on 22nd March 1962, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Hagen trial in 1966.

 

Frenzel died in an old peoples home near Hannover

 

 

 

 

Fuchs, Erich 

SS Unterscarfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Born in Berlin on the 9th April 1902. Had an elementary school education. Since May 1933 or 1934 Fuchs was a member of the NSDAP, SA and later a member of the SS.

 

By profession he was a skilled motor mechanic and automotive foreman. Before the war in 1939 he was a driver in Berlin, paid the NSDAP fee a few times, but received no membership book.

 

In 1940 or in the summer of 1941 Fuchs was drafted to T4. Worked as a driver for Dr. Eberl in the euthanasia centres Brandenburg and Bernburg, and was as he expressed himself “an interested spectator” at the gassing of 50 mental patients.

 

After a short spell of driving a lorry, fetching food for the staff, in March/ April 1942 he was sent to the East. In Belzec he installed the gassing pipes, and worked as a lorry driver, in the garage, and transported material to the campsite.

 

He served twice in Belzec from early 1942 till May 1942 and from November 1942 till December 1942. In May 1942 Fuchs as the chief technician of T4, picked up a Russian petrol driven engine from Lwow, and installed it at Sobibor, and took part in a test gassing of 30 –40 Jewish women.

 

In August 1942 he was sent by Wirth to Treblinka to install gassing engines, Fuchs testified about himself at the Hagen trial – “Subsequently I went to Treblinka . in this extermination camp I installed a generator which supplied electric light for the barracks. The work in Treblinka took me about three to four busy months. During my stay there transports of Jews who were gassed were coming in daily”.

 

In December 1942 he managed to arrange his dismissal from T4. From early 1943 he worked for the German oil company Ostland-OlVertriebsgesellschaft in Riga.

 

In February 1945 he became a member of the Waffen-SS serving at the front-line, in a tank transport unit. In March 1945 he was wounded during a bombing raid.

 

Fuchs was held as a POW by the Russians, for two months, and then as a POW by the US Forces in Germany. Employed by the British Army as a driver and mechanic in Bergen Belsen concentration camp, and was dismissed in 1946. Until 1962 he worked as a locksmith and truck inspector at the Tuv in Koblenz.

 

From 8th April 1963 he was arrested and placed in custody. The Schwurgericht am Landgericht Hagen sentenced him to four years imprisonment on the 20th December 1966 for being an accessory  to the murder of at least 79,000 people.

 

He died on the 25th July 1980 in Koblenz.

 

 

 

Gaulstich, Frederich 

SS- Unterscarfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Gaulstitch was posted to Sobibor in August 1943, and was killed during the revolt by Schlomo Leitman, on the 14th October 1943.

 

 

 

Gentz, Adolf

SS – Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number

 

No background information known. Gentz worked in the reception area in Treblinka, greeting deportees with clubs and whips on the platform. Together with Boelitz he was responsible for ensuring that the cattle cars were completely empty, and no-one was hiding there.

 

After Treblinka was dismantled Gentz spent a short time in Sobibor. No more details known.

 

 

 

Getzinger, Anton (Toni)  

SS – Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number unknown

 

Born on the 24th November 1910 in Oeblarn, Austria. Described by his Ortsgruppenleiter as a fanatical National socalist and fighter for the ideas of our Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. Served at Hartheim euthanasia centre.

 

Posted to Sobibor in April 1942  Getzinger worked in Camp lll as a supervisor. He was killed some weeks before the revolt, in the North Camp where Russian ammunition was being stored, by a hand grenade, which he ignited himself accidentally.

 

According to Gomerski who was present – “Getzinger wanted to test a machine gun and took two or three hand grenades with him. We wanted to knock a pole in the ground, broke the hand grenade on top of it, and threw it away. Toni knocked it and was blown apart.”

 

In order to cover up the incident an official NSDAP report of the 9th December 1944 stated that he was murdered by bandits in Serbia and was thus registered as “killed in action”.

 

 

 

Girtzig, Hans 

SS-  Scharfuhrer  

SS Number

 

Served at Grafeneck and Hartheim euthanasia centres, in Hartheim he was chief of the canteen. Girtzig was posted to Belzec, where he was in charge of the canteen and then to Poniatowa Labour Camp, and then Sobibor

 

Girtzig was brought to trial in Munich in August 1963 and was acquitted of murdering Jews in the Belzec death camp.

 

 

 

Gley, Heinrich 

SS- Oberscharfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Born 16th February 1901. After elementary school Gley worked on a farm until 1919. From 1929 he worked as a male nurse, a member of the NSDAP from 1932, and a member of the SS from 1934.

 

Promoted SS-Unterscharfuhrer in 1937 – came to T4 on 4th January 1940. Served at Grafeneck and Sonnenstein euthanasia centres, and in the winter of 1941/42 he worked in an Organisation Todt transport unit for wounded soldiers.

 

In mid-August 1942 Gley was posted to Belzec where he remained until August 1943. At Belzec he worked on the ramp, and led Jews to the undressing barrack, where he also worked.

 

After Belzec he was posted to the Poniatowa labour camp in 1943. Also served at San Sabba Trieste as part of Einsatz –R. Because of illness in late 1944 returned to Berlin  - served in the SS till the end of the war.

 

Discharged from POW status on 29th December 1947, worked as a bricklayer in Munster. Acquitted at the Belzec trial in Munich in 1963

 

Died in Munster in 1985

 

 

 

Gockel, Rudolf 

Reichsbahn / Ostbahn  

No details of background known.

 

Railway official who was in charge of Belzec station who was responsible for driving the deportation trains into the death camp. Imprisoned in Zamosc for three years but never charged, Gockel died in 1965 in Laufen / Neckar near Stuttgart.

 

 

 

Gomerski , Hubert  

SS – Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number

 

Born 11th November 1911 in Schweinheim, near Aschaffenburg. By profession a lathe operator. Served at the Hadamar euthanasia centre. Posted to Lublin in January 1942 and then onto Sobibor in April 1942 he was on leave during the revolt, but stayed in Sobibor until the camp was closed.

 

After leading the Trawniki guards at Sobibor he supervised in Camp lll and the Waldkommando (Forest Commando). He also worked on the ramp receiving transports where he selected sick and invalids, whom he took to the Lazarett. He made a point of placing a bottle on the head of his intended victim but shooting them in the head instead. He also specialised in killing the half-dead arrivals with a steel water- can.

 

He was regarded next to Wagner and Frenzel as very brutal, although dull, he was promoted to SS-Unterscharfuhrer at Christmas 1942 Following the closure of Sobibor Gomerski was posted to Italy.

 

Shortly before his arrest on the 23rd August 1949, he attested before the Landgericht Frankfurt / Main “ I can only declare that to me a place with this name Sobibor is unknown to me”.

 

Sentenced to life imprisonment on the 25th August 1950 on account of the murder of an undisclosed number of people. Released after appeal and second trial in 1972, released because of ill health, but was a witness in the Frenzel trial in 1983.

 

 

 

Graetschus, Siegfried  

SS – Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number

 

Born in Tilsit, East Prussia on the 9th June 1916. After extended elementary education, became a farmer,  member of the NSDAP from 1936. He served at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp , as confirmed by the War Crimes Group in 1947.

 

Graetschus was posted to the Belzec death camp and was involved in the early gassing experiments, including the conversion of a post office parcel van, into a gas-wagon.

 

Graetschus was transferred to Sobibor in April 1942, and he commanded the Ukrainian guards, replacing Lachmann as their chief. Graetschus was killed in the revolt on 14th October 1943 by Lerner.

 

 

 

 

Gringers, Karl  

SS Number  

No background details known.

 

Served at Hadamar, Hartheim, and Bernburg euthanasia centers. Posted to Belzec, photographed outside the Kommandantur. Gringers was posted to Italy where he was killed, and he is buried at the German Military Cemetery in Costermano, near Verona in Italy. 

 

 

 

Gromer, Ferdinand 

SS –  Scharfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Born on the 7th April 1903 in Austria. Served at Hartheim, possibly a cook. Posted to Sobibor as a cook, later served actively in Camp lll, with the gassing and corpse transportation. Sometimes he supervised the Waldkommando.

 

A cruel drunkard, also known as “Red Cake”, his comrade Bauer described him “as a drunkard who loved to brawl”. Because of his alcohol problem Gromer was removed from Sobibor by Reichleitner. No further details known.

 

 

 

 

Grosmann, Willi 

Polizei – Ober Rottwachmeister  

Polizei Number 12004

 

Born on the 26th January 1901 in Lichttenberg , Sachsen. Member of NSDAP, worked as a male nurse in a mental clinic in Hubertusberg near Oschatz  in Sachsen until 1940.

 

In the summer of 1940 he was posted to the police in Dresden, then subsequently to Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, where he served as a guard.

 

Served at Hadamar euthanasia centre as well, in the winter of 1941, with the Organisation Todt, as part of the T4 volunteers, in Smolensk, Russia, then back to Sonnenstein for a few weeks.

 

After Sonnenstein he was posted to Trawniki training camp, and then to Treblinka, where he was posted until the camp was dismantled. According to Kurt Franz his main duties were in Camp ll and also in the reception area.

 

After service at Treblinka, he went to Berlin, and in December 1943 to Trieste, where he fought against partisans. Served also in Telmezzo Italy as a guard of an ammunition store.  Not brought to trial because of illness.

 

 

 

 

Groth, Paul  

SS- Untercharfuhrer   

SS Number 

 

Born on the 21st January 1918 in Zoppot near Danzig ( now Gdansk). Served at the Hatheim euthanasia centre. Posted to Belzec, Wirth constantly transferred Groth, due to his drunken behaviour, which upset the extermination process.

 

Groth was posted to Sobibor in April 1942, and for the first few months he supervised the sorting of clothes in Camp ll and he regularly worked in Camp lll as well. Survivors recalled him as one of the worst sadists. Witness Margulies said “ “Every day he killed someone”.

 

Groth had an affair with a Jewish cleaning girl from the death camp called Ruth, who was executed. At the end of 1942 Groth was transferred to Belzec and was in charge of the train which brought the last work Jews from Belzec to Sobibor for execution in the early summer of 1943.

 

Disappeared at the end of the war – officially declared dead by a German court in 1951, at the request of his wife.

 

 

 

Hackel, Emil  

SS- Untercharfuhrer   

SS Number 

 

Born on the 9th November 1910 in the Sudetenland. Member of the NSDAP and SS. Served at the Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, as a burner.

 

Also served at Sobibor but no further details known.

 

 

 

Hackenholt, Lorenz 

SS- Hauptscharfuhrer   

SS Number 84133 

 

Born on the 25th June 1914 in Gelsenkirchen. Member of the NSDAP, party number 293346 since 1932 and SS. Served at the Sachsenhausen KZ as a guard and driver. In November 1939 joined T4.

 

Posted to Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, as a driver, and also served at Grafeneck euthanasia centre. Posted to Lublin in late 1941 and then onto Belzec where initially he supervised the garage, and played a leading role in converting a postal van into a mobile gassing wagon.

 

Wirth eventually appointed Hackenholt, one of his favourites to build and operate the gas chamber motor in Belzec, and thus in typical Nazi humour, named the gas chambers at Belzec – Stiftung Hackenholt. Hackenholt due to experience gained at Belzec, helped construct larger gas chambers at Sobibor, along with Erwin Lambert in the autumn of 1942, and at Treblinka during September 1942.

 

Was promoted SS-Hauptscharfuhrer in September 1943, as recognition for his part in Aktion Reinhard.  Served in Italy, almost certainly survived the war in the Allgau region around Memmingen-Kempten, in the German – Austrian border region. Was possibly spotted by his brother driving a cart , but has never been brought to trial.

 

 

 

Hengst, August  

SS- Unterscharfuhrer    

SS Number 84133 

 

Born on the 25th April 1905 in Bonn.  Belonged to a police detachment, joined the NSDAP in 1933. By profession a cook. Joined T4 on 4th January 1940.

 

Served at the Brandenburg euthanasia centre where he installed the kitchen. At Bernburg euthanasia centre also a cook from November 1940 until early 1942.

 

Was posted to Treblinka, and arrived with Eberl the first Commandant, where he also served as a cook. He testified against Eberl to Wirth, when Globocnik and Wirth visited Treblinka in August 1942, and Eberl was relieved of his command.

 

After Treblinka he was posted to Italy, first Udine, then Castel Nuovo and after illness he was sent to Trieste as a cook. He served at San Sabba until the capitulation on 10th May 1945. After the war he worked in Stadthagen, near Hannover.

 

He opened a bakery during 1949 in a nearby village. In 1954 he closed the bakery because of illness but through another T4 ex-colleague he found work as a courier at the DeutscheWerft shipyard in Hamburg.

 

 

 

 

Hermann, Josef 

SS- Unterscharfuhrer    

SS Number - Unknown

Served at Treblinka death camp as chief of the Waldkommando.  No further details known.

 

 

 

Hiller , Richard   

SS- Unterscharfuhrer    

SS Number  

 

Served at Treblinka in the administration section in Camp 1. No further details known.

 

 

 

 

Hirche, Fritz    

Polizei Kriminal Inspektor     

Born on the 10th June 1893 in Penzig / Oberlausitz

 

Manual worker and then a police detective assistant. Member of the NSDAP since 1933. Posted to T4 in 1939. Chief of office and captain of the Schutzpolizei at Bernburg euthanasia centre, and then Hartheim euthanasia centre.

 

Served in Belzec.  Committed suicide.

 

 

 

Hirtreiter, Josef  

SS – Scharfuhrer 

SS Number   

 

Born on the 1st February 1909 in Bruchsal. After attending extended elementary school he trained to be a locksmith, but failed the final examinations.

 

He worked as an unskilled worker, construction worker and bricklayer. On the 1st August 1932 he joined the NSDAP and SA. In October 1940 he was posted to the Hadamar euthanasia centre where he worked in the kitchen and the office. In the summer of 1942 he joined the German army, but after four weeks was posted back to Hadamar.

 

Then he was ordered to Berlin, where Wirth transferred him to Lublin. There he became an SS-Unterscharfuhrer and was ordered to Treblinka. Hirtreiter, better known by his colleagues and Jews as Sepp, served at Treblinka from October 1942 until October 1943.

 

He was one of the most brutal SS-men, mainly serving in Camp l, and many survivors recall that he was very cruel to women and children. Also briefly served at Sobibor after Treblinka had ceased operations, and then posted to Italy, to fight partisans. After the war he was arrested in July 1946 and accused of having served at the Hadamar euthanasia centre.

 

Hirtreiter was the first of the Treblinka hangmen to be brought to trial and was tried in Frankfurt / Main. On the 3rd March 1951 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Among the crimes he was found guilty of were killing many young children, during the unloading of transports, by seizing them by their feet and smashing their heads against the box cars

 

Because of illness Hirtreiter was released from prison in 1977. He spent the last six months of his life in an old peoples home at Frankfurt / Main and died on the 27th November 1978.

 

 

 

Hodl, Franz 

SS – Scharfuhrer 

SS Number 302133   

 

Born on the 1st August 1905 in Aschbach near Linz (Austria). Member of the SA in 1933, the NSDAP 1937 and the SS in 1938. Chief of Gekrat squadron, he drove the Gekrat buses at Hartheim euthanasia centre from April 1939 to January 1942.

 

Thereafter posted to a wounded soldiers transport unit in Russia. Trained at Trawniki, Hodl was a member of the SSPF Lublin staff. Hodl served at Sobibor from October 1942, where he operated the gassing motor in Camp lll. Also he served as a driver for  Commandant Reichleitner.

 

Remained in the camp till October 1943, then posted to Italy, and he witnessed how Reichleitner was killed by partisans in Fiume in January 1944. No further details known.

 

 

 

Horn , Otto,  

SS – Unterscharfuhrer  

SS Number

 

Born on the 14th December 1903 in Obergrauschwitz near Leipzig. Attended until fourteen, an extended elementary school after which he worked on a farm for four years, and at eighteen became a miner in Borte.

 

Worked in a psychological clinic at Arnsdorf serving two years apprenticeship as a nurse, passing the examinations. Then he served for two years at the psychological clinic in Dosen/ Leipzig, then returning to Arnsdorf.

 

In 1939 he became a soldier attached to a medical battalion serving in Dresden, afterwards to Poland and France as a medic. In August 1941 he was released from the Wehrmacht, and posted to Sonnenstein Euthanasia centre, where he served as a male nurse, as a member of T4.

 

After training in Trawniki, in September 1942 he was posted to Treblinka in October 1942. His main duties in Treblinka were in the extermination area, where he supervised the corpse’s disposal, at the mass graves, and at the roasts, where the corpses were burnt, during 1943.

 

He left Treblinka in September 1943, after the revolt, and went on an extended holiday at Arnsdorf with a simulated illness. In January 1944 he was posted to Trieste, where he refused to work and was sent back to the Heil und Pflegeanstalt in Arnsdorf.

 

After fourteen days in Arnsdorf, in December 1944 he was posted to the Landesschutzenbatallion in Plauen, possibly as a punitive measure. At the closing of the war he was in Czechoslovakia, where the Russians captured him, and he became a prisoner of war.

 

In the Treblinka trial of 1965 in Dusseldorf he was acquitted. He appeared in the Claude Lanzmann’s film “Shoah”

 

 

 

Ittner, Alfred  

SS – Oberscharfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Born on the 13th January 1907 in Kulmbach. Became a member of the NSDAP – Member number 30805 in 1926. Joined the SA in 1936, and served at the T4 office in Berlin, as a bookkeeper and driver.

 

Posted to Sobibor on 28th April 1942. During the first five weeks he was in charge of the office where the Jews had to hand over their valuables as they passed by a counter next to the Forsthaus in Camp ll, on their way to the gas chambers.

 

Later he supervised the extracting of gold teeth in Camp lll, digging the pits and the transportation of bodies to the mass graves. He managed to terminate his services in Sobibor, somehow , and at the middle of July he returned to the T4 office in Berlin.

 

In the 1966 trial in Hagen he was sentenced to four years imprisonment for his part in the murder of at least 68,000 people. Ittner died in Kulmbach on the 3rd November 1976.

 

 

 

Jirmann, Fritz   

SS –  Haupscharfuhrer  

SS Number

 

Born on the 11th January 1914 in Barldorf, Braunau. Belonged to the 318 SS Fuhrungshauptamt 3 Stabkorps. Jirmann was a brutal SS officer in Belzec who spoke to the new arrivals that first they had to take a shower, before going onto a Labour Camp.

 

Jirmann was a specialist in executing old people and children, and was one of the most feared SS men in the camp according to survivor Rudolf Reder.

 

Jirmann was shot and accidentally killed by Heinrich Gley in an incident with two Ukrainian guards, at the punishment bunker opposite the Kommandantur on the 1st March 1943, although his death certificate is dated July, which enabled his widow to obtain more money.

 

He was buried in Tomaszow Lubelski, but in 1995 his remains were moved by the Germans,  to a military cemetery in Przemysl.

 

 

 

Jurs, Robert 

SS –  Unterscharfuhrer   

SS Number

 

Born on the 17th October 1911 in Frankfurt / Main. Attended elementary school for eight years. Joined the NSDAP and SA  in 1930, then the SS.

 

By profession a painter, but worked as a labourer, caretaker, usher at the Frankfurt Opera house, and an office clerk at the Winterhilswerk. Joined T4 in June 1941, and in the same month was posted to Hadamar euthanasia centre, where he was employed as a male nurse, painter and clerk until late 1941.

 

Juhrs was posted to Belzec from June 1942 until February / March 1943, where he served as a guard, at the ramp and the Lazarett. In Sobibor Juhrs helped to dismantle the camp after the revolt, and was also at the Dorohucza labour camp near Trawniki.

 

Posted to Italy in December 1943, he was arrested by US troops on the 11th May in Kufstein. Released on the 3rd August 1945, arrested again in Frankfurt / Main and imprisoned at Dachau internment camp until November 1946.

 

Arrested again in 1947 for eight weeks, he was released and then he worked as a civil servant businessman, newspaper driver, hotel janitor and house superintendent until 1960. Acquitted at both the Belzec and Sobibor trials in the sixties.  

 

 

 

Kainer, Erwin 

SS – Rank Unknown 

SS Number  

  

Policeman, served at the Hadamar euthanasia centre, sent to Sachenhausen KZ by Wirth for talking about their work in a bar. During the initial phase at Treblinka, Kainer was assigned by With to form a work- brigade and supervise the gruesome work in Camp ll, caused by Eberl accepting too many transports.

 

In fear of Wirth, Kainer shot himself in desperation, and he died from his wounds in the military hospital of Ostrow –Mazowiecki, on the 11th August 1942.

 

 

Kamm, Rudolf 

SS – Scharfuhrer 

SS Number

 

Born in Teplitz / Schonau, in the Sudetenland.  He was a glazier by trade. Served at the Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, as a “burner”. Posted to Belzec, he was transferred to Sobibor in the autumn of 1942, where he supervised in the sorting barracks. He remained in Sobibor for five months.

 

Posted to Italy, to Trieste, where he served in Einsatz R –1. Franz Suchomel testified that he saw Kamm after the war had ended in a Gasthaus, between Mauthern and Hermagor,, Carinthia Austria.

 

Kamm was released from an internment camp on the 3rd May 1946. Registered on the above date by the Citizens Registration Office in Braunschweig as living in Braunschweig, and he was reported to be working as a head clerk in the city in 1962

 

 

.

Kilminski, Otto 

SS – Unknown 

SS Number - Unknown

 

Served in Hadamar euthanasia centre as a driver. Posted to Belzec as a driver delivering provisions and in the Camp Garage, and took part in unloading of transports. Posted to Italy.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Klahan, Johannes 

SS – Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born 26th September 1908. Member of the NSDAP. Served at the Sonnenstein euthanasia centre as a male nurse. According to Kurt Franz he worked in Camp l at the death camp Treblinka.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Klier , Johann 

SS – Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born 15th July 1901 in Stadtsteinach. After extended elementary school he became a master baker in 1931. in 1933 he became a member of the NSDAP and SA. From 1934 to 1940 he worked at the Heddernheimer Copper Works Factory.

 

In 1940 he was posted to Hadamar euthanasia centre as a construction worker and in the cellar, looking after the central heating system. In early August 1942 he was posted to Sobibor, where he was the Chief of the Bakery, and supervisor at the sorting barrack where the victims shoes were stored. He estimated the amount of pairs of shoes was at 45,000.

 

The inmates regarded him as one of the more humane guards, he was in Sobibor until just before the revolt. During the revolt itself he was on leave, but returned until the camp was dismantled.

 

Posted to Italy, he survived the war, and from the 5th May until the 15th June 1945 he was a prisoner of war in Italy. Arrested and interned from December 1945 until February 1949, he was tried at Frankfurt / Main, and on the 25th August 1950 he was acquitted

 

 

 

Klinzmann, Willi 

Reichsbahn / Ostbahn Official 

 

From Wuppertal. Franciszek Zabecki the station-master at Treblinka village station witnessed Willi Klinzmann who lived in a flat at the station, and an SS man from the camp kick to death a pregnant Jewess, in the station corridor.

 

Klinzmann along with Rudolf Emmerich carried out the shunting operations between the Treblinka village station and the Treblinka death camp.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Klos, Walter  

SS – Unknown 

SS Number - Unknown 

 

Served as a driver in Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Posted to Belzec death camp, was transferred by Wirth to KZ Lublin (Majdanek), but died there in unknown circumstances.

 

 

 

Konrad, Fritz

SS – Scharfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 21st September 1914 in Gudellen. Served as a male nurse in Sonnenstein and Grafeneck euthanasia centres. Posted to Sobibor in March 1943, he supervised workers in the sorting barracks and served in Camp lll as well.

 

Konrad was killed in the Sobibor revolt on the 14th October 1943, by a shoemaker.

 

 

 

Kraschewski, Fritz  

SS – Unknown   

SS Number - Unknown

 

Served at Grafeneck and probably Hadamar euthanasia centres. Posted to Belzec, judged by Wirth to be unfit for service in Aktion Reinhard. Posted to KZ Auschwitz

 

No further details known

 

 

 

Kuttner, Kurt 

SS – Oberscharfuhrer   

SS Number - Unknown

 

Experienced police officer who had also been a prison warder. At Treblinka death camp he was in charge of Camp l and was one of the most hated and feared SS-men.

 

Nicknamed “Kiwe” by the Jewish prisoners, was a sadist who whipped prisoners, without mercy, and built up a network of informers, and was responsible for the smooth running of Camp l.

 

Kuttner was posted to Italy, and survived the war. He died before the Treblinka trial in the 1960’s.

 

 

 

Lachmann, Erich   

SS – Scharfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 6th November 1909 in Leignitz ( Legnica , Lower Silesia). Served in the Police.  In September 1941 he was posted to Trawniki to train Ukrainian volunteers.

 

From August 1942 he supervised the Ukrainian guards at Sobibor until May 1943. Sent back to Trawniki because of improper conduct by Reichleitner, Lachmann deserted with his Polish girlfriend.

 

At the Hagen trial he was acquitted in 1966. The judge characterised him as mentally less gifted. He died in Wegscheid on the 23rd January 1972.

 

 

 

Lambert, Erwin Hermann   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer   

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 7th December 1909 in Schildow near Berlin. Member of the NSDAP since 1933, appointed as Blockleiter. Profession a mason foreman in Berlin

 

January 1940 to Gemeinnutzige Stiftung fur Anstaltspflege,( code name for T4) his first assignment being the renovation of the T4 villa. Installed the gas chambers at the Hartheim, Sonnenstein, Bernburg, and Hadamar.

 

In June 1942 Lambert was posted to Lublin for bricklaying assignments, there he received his SS uniform. He was known as the “Flying architecht of T4” because he carried out numerous construction jobs, principally he helped build and extend the gas chambers in Treblinka, and Sobibor death camps, and at the T4 rest home at Attersee, Dorohucza and Poniatowa labour camps.

 

Photographed at the demolishing of a former glass factory chimney at Malkinia in the autumn of 1942, the bricks were used to build the new gas chambers at Treblinka.  Posted to Trieste, Italy, he survived the war.

 

Tried in the 1965 trial in Dusseldorf he was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

 

 

 

Lehmann,   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer   

SS Number - Unknown

 

 

Served in Treblinka for a short time. No further details known.

 

 

 

Lindenmuller, Alfons   

SS – Hauptscharfuhrer   

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born in Trossingen on the 21st January, year unknown. Posted to Treblinka, in charge of the Goldjuden, only served at Treblinka, for a short time then volunteered for front-line service..

 

Died in the Prisoner of War camp at Ksawery Koszelew, Poland, on the 27th July 1946.

 

 

 

Loffler, Alfred    

SS – Unterscharfuhrer    

SS Number - Unknown

 

Belonged to a police detachment. Loffler was regarded as one of the less cruel SS- men, according to Jankiel Wiernek. Transferred to KZ Lublin (Majdanek).

 

Posted to Italy, he was killed in action, and buried at the German Military Cemetery at Costermano, near Verona, Italy.

 

 

Lorent, Friedrich  

SS – Untersturmfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Chief of T4 economics from 1942, responsible for the supply of gas cylinders. Served at the Hartheim euthanasia centre. Posted to Belzec death camp, he was only there a short time, at the initial stages of the camps operation.

 

Survived the war, escaped from Berlin with money and valuables worth 1.2 million Reichsmarks with him. Tried in 1969/70, he produced a sketch of Belzec

 

No further details known

 

 

 

Ludwig, Karl Emil    

SS – Scharfuhrer     

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 30th November 1904 in Storkow / Mark. By profession a driver, he was a driver for Reichsminister Bormann, as well as a driver for T4 Headquaters.

 

Posted to Sobibor from April 1942 to February 1943, he was then sent to Treblinka death camp. At Sobibor he was in charge of the Waldkommando, and at Treblinka he worked in the Upper Camp, the extermination area. Posted to Italy after the cessation of Operation Reinhard.

 

Arrested by US Forces after the war he was interned in Dachau, but discharged from custody on the 20th June 1947.

 

Then he simply disappeared.

 

 

 

Matthes, Heinrich, Artur 

SS – Scharfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 11th January 1902  in Wermsdorf (Kreis Leipzig). He attended extended elementary school and became a tailor. In 1924 he did his apprenticeship as a male nurse and educator and did his examinations at the mental home in Sonnenstein near Dresden.

 

At the psychological clinic at Arnsdorf – near Dresden, he served as a male nurse and educator. In 1930 as an educator and welfare worker to an institute in Braunsdorf near Freiburg / Sachsen. In October 1933 back to Arnsdorf.

 

SA member since 1934, in 1939 posted to the Wehrmacht where he served as a soldier in Poland and France, until September 1941. His last rank was Obergefreiter.

 

Released from the Wehrmacht, Matthes was ordered to the KdF (Kanzlei des Fuhrers) where he was ordered to the T4 organisation. He then spent a short time in the photo section of T4.

 

In the winter 1941/42, Matthes was posted to the Organisation Todt, and was sent to be a male nurse in the Minsk and Smolensk area in Russia.

 

In February / March 1942 he returned from Russia and served again in the T4 photo section. In August 1942 Matthes was posted to Lublin, where he was drafted into the SS with the rank of SS-Scharfuhrer, and joined Aktion Reinhard.

 

Matthes was posted to Treblinka in August 1942, here he was appointed Chief of the Totenlager, the extermination area. Matthes was one of the pillars of Treblinka, brutal and with an obsession with cleanliness.

 

A month after the revolt Matthes was transferred to Sobibor until the Christmas holidays, then afterwards to Berlin. In early 1944 Matthes was posted to Trieste from Berlin, now as a Policeman, with the rank of Oberwachtmeister.

 

There he fought against partisans, built military positions and served as a guard until the end of the war. In 1945 he was captured by US troops, but was released the same year.

 

In Nuremburg he worked as an ambulance man, helped removing rubble and was employed as a male nurse again, at the mental homes in Ansbach, Andernach and finally Bayreuth.

 

In the Treblinka trial in 1965 he was sentenced to life imprisonment

 

 

 

Matzig, Willy  

SS – Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 6th August 1910 in Berg (Oberlausitz). His first profession was a glasscutter. In October 1933 he became a member of the Allgemeine SS, with the rank of SS-Unterscharfuhrer. In July 1939, for three months,he served in an infantry unit in Freistadt (Silesia).

 

In early January 1940 he was posted to the SS infantry in Linz.

He contracted septic bone marrow and consequently was suspended on medical grounds and ordered to Berlin. Joined T4 from February / March 1940, served as a guard at the Brandenburg euthanasia centre for one year.

 

In 1941 posted to Bernburg euthanasia centre as a guard and an administration assistant. Posted to Treblinka in November 1942 where he became the book-keeper / accountant. With the orderly Stadie, Matzig was one of Stangl’s two senior administrative assistants, their office being in Stangl’s quarters.

 

Matzig served at Treblinka till after the camp was dismantled, then a short time at Sobibor, when that camp was dismantled. Posted to Trieste, Italy.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Mauersberger, Werner 

Driver.

 

Released from remand prison in October 1946. Admitted to have served in extermination camps in Poland, but precise locations not revealed.

 

 

 

Meidkur, Kurt   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number - Unknown

 

Served at Treblinka. No further details known.

 

 

 

Mentz , Willi   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 30th April 1904 in Schonhagen(Kreis Bromberg). By profession he passed his master milkman’s examination, after working in a sawmill.

 

Joined T4 and in 1940 took care of cows and pigs at Grafeneck euthanasia centre and from 1941 to the early summer of 1942 worked in the gardens of Hadamar euthanasia centre.

 

Posted to Treblinka in June / July 1942, he was first assigned to Camp ll and then Camp l as chief of the Agricultural Commando. Mentz was also assigned by Wirth to to help supervise the Lazarett.

 

Mentz was a brutal killer at the Lazarett, and one of the most feared SS-men in Treblinka, he became known as “Frankenstein”, by the Jewish inmates.

 

He also exercised the horses daily at Treblinka, as he knew how to ride, as did other SS-men such as Wirth, Franz and Stangl. After the revolt in the death camp at Sobibor Mentz spent a short time there.

 

After Sobibor he was posted to Italy, where he took part in anti-partisan actions. After 1945 he worked again as a master milkman. In the First Treblinka trial of 1965 Mentz was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of hundreds of Jews.

 

 

 

Michel, Hermann 

SS – Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Worked at the Hartheim euthanasia centre, where he met Stangl. Aged about 35 years old when he worked in Sobibor . Tall and delicate he addressed incoming transports, wearing a white overcoat to look like a doctor, with polite and soothing words.

 

He told the Jewish deportees they had arrived at a labour camp but needed to take a shower, from the porch on the food warehouse, in Camp ll. With his deceptive and cruel words, he was known as “The Preacher”. Posted to Treblinka in November 1942, but no further details known. Detained by the US Army , at Bad Aiblingen, Bavaria, but released on the 19th April 1946.

 

Believed to have fled to Egypt and was reported living there in the 1950’s

 

 

 

Miete, August Willhelm 

SS – Oberscharfuhrer  

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born on the 1st November 1908 in Westerkappeln , Kreis Tecklenburg. Until May 1940 worked at his parents mill and farm. He was interested in becoming a settler in the East and inquired about it at the Agricultural Chamber. He was drafted to this chamber in May 1940, and became a caretaker of a large property which included a mental clinic.

 

After eight days he was posted to Grafeneck euthanasia centre, where he remained till the autumn of 1940. From there he was posted to Hadamar euthanasia centre, which was under construction. He remained there till the summer of 1942.

 

In the summer of 1942 he was ordered to Berlin and from there he was transferred to Aktion Reinhard in Lublin. At the end of June 1942 he was posted to the Treblinka death camp, where he served until November 1943.

 

Miete was one of the most brutal SS –men in Treblinka, in charge of the Lazarett, where he killed without compassion. He was nicknamed by the Jewish prisoners – “Malakah Ha-Moves” (Yiddish for Angel of Death), and “Krummer Kopf” (Crooked Head).

 

Miete killed the prisoner Meir Berliner, who had stabbed the SS-man Max Biala. Miete carried out wholesale selections for the Lazarett, during the typhus epidemic in the spring of 1943, and personally took them to the Lazarett where he shot them.

 

After Treblinka he was posted to Trieste, and after a short time to Udine. In the autumn of 1944 from Udine, to Upper Italy attached to a demolition unit.

 

Miete was arrested and detained in Dusseldorf- Derendorf prison from the 27th May 1960. Tried in the First Treblinka trial of 1965, Miete was sentenced to life imprisonment, and he died in prison.

 

 

 

Moller, Max  

SS – Unterscharfuhrer   

SS Number - Unknown 

 

Moller was from Hamburg, a male nurse, who also belonged to a police unit. Posted to the Treblinka death camp, he worked in Camp l as an ordinance officer, in the undressing yard, and farming.

 

Moller was known as “The Amerikaner” because of his build (Kalman Teigman) Moller was the Camp Duty Officer on the eve of the revolt and was tricked by the Jewish prisoner Sadovits, to vacate his office next to the armoury.

 

After Aktion Reinhard he was posted to Italy, in the Trieste region.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Muller, Adolf   

SS – Scharfuhrer    

SS Number - Unknown

 

Born in Berlin, no further details known. Posted to Sobibor death camp in June 1943, served mainly in Camp ll in the sorting barracks and in the Waldkommando.

 

During the revolt he kept a group of Waldkommando prisoners under armed guard. Posted to Italy, after Aktion Reinhard had closed down.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Munzberger, Gustav   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer     

SS Number – 321 758

 

Born in Weiskirchlitz, Sudetenland ( now Lazne Teplice, Czech Republic)  on the 17th August 1903. Attended extended elementary school, then for two years at a public school in Turn.

 

Worked until 1923 as a carpenter in his father’s firm, and then afterwards for a few months in the Weiskirchlitz Paper Factory. After his medical examination for military service, he served in a railway regiment in Pardubice for eighteen months.

 

He then returned to the paper factory until 1925, then back to his father’s company, which he took over in 1931. In August 1940 posted to the Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, where he worked as a carpenter and an assistant cook.

 

Together with about fifteen others he was posted in August 1942 under the command of Schemmel to the Lublin district, possibly Trawniki, where they attended a short military course.

 

Posted to Treblinka in late September 1942 with the rank of SS-Rottenfuhrer, and was promoted to SS-Unterscharfuhrer on the 21st June 1943. Munzberger served in the Totenlager where he supervised the Body – Transport team, and the gas chambers themselves, chasing people into the gas chamber.

 

During the Treblinka uprising he was on holiday, and when Aktion Reinhard ceased he was posted to Trieste, Italy, at the end of November / early December 1943.

 

Arrested in July 1963, he was tried in the first Treblinka trial, and sentenced to twelve years in prison. He was released early in July 1971, due to his good behaviour in prison-he died on the 23rd March 1977.

 

 

 

Niemann, Johann    

SS – Untersturmfuhrer   

SS Number – 270 600

 

Born in Vollen on the 4th August 1913. He joined the NSDAP (753836) a painter by profession. Served at the concentration camps at Esterwegen and Sachsenhausen between 1934 and 1941.

 

Posted to Belzec death camp as SS-Hauptscharfuhrer and then transferred to Sobibor in January 1943. Nicknamed “Johnny” by the Jewish prisoners

 

Promoted SS-Untersturmfuhrer in February 1943 by Himmler. He was deputy camp commandant on the day of the revolt and was amongst the first SS-men killed during the uprising. He was murdered on the 14th October 1943, in the tailors shop by Shubayev and Lerner.

 

 

 

Nowak, Walter     

SS – Scharfuhrer      

SS Number – unknown 

 

Born in Janow, on the 12th May 1912.  He joined the NSDAP and SS  and served at the Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Posted to Sobibor in April 1942 he supervised work in the “Haircutters” barrack.

 

Sometimes he supervised the Waldkommando, and worked in Camp lll. According to survivor Ester Raab he was small in posture, with black hair.

 

Nowak was killed during the revolt on the 14th October 1943.

 

 

 

Oberhauser, Josef 

SS – Untersturmfuhrer  

SS Number – 301 213

 

Born in Munich on the 20th September 1915. Attended elementary school for seven years and a continuation school for a further three years.

 

Worked in his uncle’s agricultural concern in the Swabian market. In 1934 Oberhauser volunteered for the Reichswehr, and then volunteered for the SS in 1935, and in November 1935 entered the SS- Verfugungstroop – Brandenburg, and at the same time joined the NSDAP.

 

Saw active service in Poland , as part of the SS- Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, and was promoted to SS-Oberscharfuhrer. Oberhauser was transferred in November 1939 to the newly formed “Reichs employees union for health and nursing institute, which was a cover name for T4.

 

He was posted to Grafeneck, Brandenburg and Bernburg euthanasia centres. In November 1941 he was assigned to SSPF Lublin, and from Christmas 1941 he was appointed liaison officer between Globocnik and Wirth.

 

From this time Oberhauser helped Wirth with the construction of Belzec, and later became the leader of a guard platoon at the death camp. On the 1st August 1942 Oberhauser he joined Wirth’s staff and accompanied Wirth in his tours of inspection, of all Action Reinhard facilities.

 

Promoted SS-Untersturmfuhrer on the 20th April 1943 because of his contribution to Aktion Reinhard. Posted to Italy in the autumn of 1943, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmfuhrer on the 30th January 1945.

 

Captured by British troops in May 1945 in Bad Gastein / Austria. Sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by the Magdeburg Landgericht, he was granted an amnesty on the 28th April 1956.

 

In 1965 sentenced to four and a half years by the Munich Landgericht. Casual labourer and waiter in Munich, filmed serving behind the bar in the film “Shoah”, by Claude Lanzmann                    

 

 

 

Orliewski,  

SS – Rank Unknown   

SS Number – Unknown

 

A Reichsdeutsher T4 man served in Sonnenstein as a “burner”. Served in Belzec.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Plikat, Karl -Heinz 

SS – Rank Unknown   

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born 14th May 1907 in Berlin.  Posted to Treblinka he served in Camp l. According to Rum his colleague in Treblinka, he was referred to as an SA – rascal, he was short of stature with blond hair

 

After Treblinka served in Trieste, Italy. Killed in action on the 1st May 1945, he is buried at the German Military Cemetery Costermano, near Verona, Italy.

 

 

 

Post, Philip 

SS – Scharfuhrer  

SS Number – Unknown

 

Apparently from Hamburg, belonged to the Waffen-SS. Served at the Hadamar euthanasia centre. Posted to Treblinka death camp he served in Camp l , as a weapons guard.

 

Served in Italy, at San Sabba

 

No further details known

 

 

 

Potzinger Karl  

SS – Scharfuhrer  

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in 1908, in Leipzig. A policeman, at the outbreak of the war he was an SA-Scharfuhrer. Posted to Brandenburg and Bernburg euthanasia centres, he was a “burner”.

 

Posted to Treblinka he worked in the Totenlager, supervising the gas chambers, and then he was in charge of the cremation kommando. Potzinger briefly saw service in Sobibor before being posted to Italy. He was killed in an air-raid, on the 22nd December 1944, dying from a result of shrapnel wounds.

 

Potzinger is buried at the German Military Cemetery at Costermano near Verona, Italy.

 

 

 

Rehwald, Wenzel 

SS – Unterscharfuhrer   

SS Number – 321 745 

 

Bricklayer by profession, member of the SS. Served at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre as a “burner”. Also saw service at the following euthanasia centres – Bernburg, Hadamar and Hartheim too.

 

Posted to Sobibor death camp in April 1942, supervised the women’s undressing barrack. During the revolt he kept prisoners under armed guard.

 

Following the cessation of Aktion Reinhard he was posted to Italy, where he served in San Sabba, in Trieste.

 

No further details known

 

 

 

Richter, Kurt  

SS – Scharfuhrer    

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in 1914. Butcher by profession. Served at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre as a driver, and also at Hartheim euthanasia centre. Posted to Sobibor death camp in December 1942, where he worked as a cook, in the hair cutting barracks and in the Waldkommando. He stayed to the end of the camps history.

 

After Aktion Reinhard concluded he was posted to Italy, where he was killed in action and buried in Trieste military cemetery.

 

 

 

Rost, Paul   

SS – Untersturmfuhrer     

SS Number – 382 366

 

Born in Deutschenbora in Saxony on the 12th June 1904. After extended elementary school he became a butcher by profession. In 1925 he joined the Police in Dresden, and became a member of the NSDAP in 1937.

 

On the 21st May 1940 posted to Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, where he served as chief of the police squad and transportation commando. He also served at Hartheim euthanasia centre too.

 

On the 1st December 1940 Rost joined the SS, and in early 1942 he was transferred to Lublin. There are unconfirmed reports that he served at Belzec death camp, but was posted to Sobibor death camp in April 1942. As Meister der Schutzpolizei he was one of the first contingent of SS-men sent to Sobibor.

 

He was in charge of the sorting procedures in Camp ll, and acted as a spy on other SS-men on the camp staff. In March 1943 he was transferred to Treblinka death camp.

 

In December 1943 he was posted to Trieste, Italy, on the 9th November 1944 he was promoted to second lieutenant of the police and received the Kreigsverdienstkreuz Zweiter Klasse mit Schwertern.

 

After the war, he was for a short time in a US Prisoner of War camp, then returned to his family home in Dresden. Imprisoned by the Soviet Millitary Authority until the summer of 1946, and then was released.

 

Worked untroubled in Dresden until he died on the 21st March 1984.

 

 

 

Rotner ,  

SS – Scharfuhrer      

SS Number – Unknown

 

Galewski refers to SS –Scharfuhrer Rotner on the day of the revolt, as leaving the camp with Kurt Franz and others, to swim in the Bug River.

 

No further details known

 

 

 

Rum, Franz Albert   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer       

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in Berlin on the 8th June 1890. By profession a waiter in a nightclub. Member of the NSDAP from 1933. Worked at T4 headquarters in Berlin as a photographic expert.

 

Posted to Treblinka in December 1942. Guard for the Body – Transport team in the Upper Camp. He also chased Jewish deportees into the Gas Chambers using a whip.

 

Also designated Chief of Sorting Barracks B in the Sorting Yard. Took part under orders from Kurt Franz to execute the last worker –Jews in the autumn of 1943.

 

Rum left Treblinka in November 1943, and was posted to Trieste, Italy. Sentenced to three years in prison, at the First Treblinka trial in 1965.

 

He died in 1970.

 

 

 

Ryba, Walter    

SS – Unterscharfuhrer       

SS Number – Unknown  

Born in Heydebreck / Kosel on the 18th July 1900. Posted to Sobibor death camp in August 1943

 

Killed by the locksmith Engel in the SS-garage during the revolt on the 14th October 1943.

 

 

 

Scharfe, Herbert     

SS – Unterscharfuhrer       

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in Konigstein/ Sachsen on the 13th February 1913. Served in the economics office of the Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Posted to Treblinka death camp, he supervised the camouflage commando, and was nicknamed Mishke, because of his appearance.

 

No further details known.

 

 

Schemmel, Ernst      

Polizei Hauptmann and SS – Scharfuhrer     

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in Kirchlain – between Berlin and Dresden, on the 11th September 1883. Member of the Police – Criminal Investigation Department. Served as the adminstration Head of Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, and at Hartheim euthanasia centre as well.

 

Posted to Belzec death camp, where he worked in the administration section, he briefly deputised as commandant for Stangl, at the Treblinka death camp.

 

He died in Dresden on the 10th December 1943

 

 

 

Schiffner , Karl       

SS – Unterscharfuhrer       

SS Number – 321 225

 

Born in Weiskirchlitz, Sudetenland ( now Lazne Teplice, Czech Republic) , under the name “Kresadlo”, on the 4th July 1901. Attended extended elementary school and later public school in Weiskirchlitz.

 

Served an apprenticeship to be a carpenter for three years and at the same time at a trade school. Served during 1921 –1923 in the Czech army.

 

Married in 1928. He became a member of the Sudetendeutsche Partei, and became a member of the SA, after the Sudetenland was annexed to the Reich.

 

Joined the SS “because the black uniforms looked better”.  Received the chevron of honour because of his membership in the Sudetendeutsche partei, he successfully changed his name from Kresadlo to Schiffner in 1941.

 

Until 1942 he served at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre as a carpenter, after which he was posted to T4 headquarters for repairs, and from there he was sent east to Lublin.

 

Posted to Treblinka death camp where he was in charge of the camp joinery and building team. During June / July 1943 he commanded a group of Ukrainians at the Belzec death camp site, building a farmhouse there, to house a Ukrainian family to watch over the former death camp area.

 

Schiffner served briefly at Sobibor death camp. When Aktion Reinhard ceased he was posted to Trieste, where he served in a police unit fighting partisans, until the end of the war.

 

Captured by British Forces in Karnten, Austria, and interned at a Prisoner of War camp in Usbach. He was released in October 1945.  Schiffner then made his way to Salzburg.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Schluch, Karl Alfred        

SS – Unterscharfuhrer         

SS Number – unknown

 

Born in Lauenburg – Pommerm ( now Lebork Poland). Spent his childhood with his grandparents. Eight years elementary school, then agricultural worker.

 

From April 1930 attendant at a sanatorium for Dr Wiener in Bernau near Berlin, passed public nursing examination in 1932. Joined the NSDAP in 1936, and posted to T4 on the 13th June 1940.

 

Served at Grafeneck and Hadamar euthanasia centres, and from late winter 1941 served in an Organisation Todt transportation unit for wounded soldiers on the eastern front.

 

Schluch was posted to the Belzec death camp in June 1942 until the early summer of 1943. He served as a guard at the ramp, and accompanied naked Jews through the Schleuse, to the gas chambers.

 

After Belzec he was posted to the labour camp at Poniatowa, and in the autumn of 1943 to Italy, where he fought against partisans. At the end of the war he was arrested by US Forces, but released on the 6th July 1945.

 

After that he became an agricultural worker, until 1948, and then a construction worker till 1952, and after that he took up nursing again, at the hospital in Bedburg – Hau.

 

Schluch was tried with eight other members of the Belzec –SS, at  Munich in 1963. At the trial Schluch was acquitted for his part in the mass murder of Jews.

 

 

 

Schmidt, Fritz         

SS – Unterscharfuhrer         

SS Number – unknown

 

Born in Eibau / Sachsen on the 29th November 1906. Served at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre as a guard and driver, and also in 1941 at Bernburg euthanasia centre.

 

Posted to Treblinka death camp in the summer of 1942, he was in charge of the garage, motor pool, and worked in the Upper Camp supervising and operating the gas chambers.

 

After Aktion Reinhard ceased Schmidt was posted to Trieste,  Italy. Taken prisoner of war, he was arrested in Saxony. He was sentenced on the 14th December 1949 to nine years imprisonment, but escaped justice, because he escaped on the 1st September, and fled to the then West Germany.

 

He died on the 4th February 1982.

 

 

 

Schuh, Richard 

SS- Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number 98 020

 

Posted to Treblinka, he arrived on the same day as Suchomel. Worked in Camp l.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Schulz, Emanuel 

SS – Unterscharfuhrer      

SS Number – unknown

 

Served at Grafeneck, Hadamar,and Sonnenstein euthanasia centres as a “burner”. A Volksdeutscher who served at Treblinka as a Zugsfuhrer.

 

Posted to Italy, no further details known

 

 

 

Schumacher , Ernst  

SS – Unterscharfuhrer       

SS Number – unknown

 

Served at the Sobibor death camp.

 

No further details known

 

 

 

Schutt, Hans- Heinz   

SS – Scharfuhrer          

SS Number – unknown

 

Born on the 6th April 1908 in Dummersdorf. In 1938 he became an SS – Sturmbannverwaltungsfuhrer (chief of an SS- Sturmbann office).

 

Served in Grafeneck and Hadamar euthanasia centres as chief of the office. According to his own admission he was at the Sobibor death camp from the 28th April 1942 until August 1942.

 

He served in Camp ll as paymaster and he also collected the valuables behind the counter, as the Jewish victims passed on their way to their death in the gas chambers.

 

He also worked on the ramp and in Camp lll where he was responsible for the cleanliness of the Jewish Sonderkommando’s barracks. Schutt was arrested during the war and spent some time on the Eastern Front.

 

Schutt was tried at the Sobibor Hagen trial in 1966 and he was acquitted of all crimes.

 

 

 

Schwarz, Gottfried Johann 

SS – Untersturmfuhrer 

SS Number – 37 768

 

Born on the 3rd May 1913 in Furth/ Bayern. Served at Grafeneck and Bernburg euthanasia centres, as a “burner”. Posted to Belzec death camp, Schwarz and Oberhauser greeted Wirth on his arrival at the site of the future death camp.

 

Schwarz was one of the most brutal SS-men at the Belzec death camp, and he acted as deputy commandant, when the commandant was absent.

 

Schwarz also served at the Sobibor death camp and was there when Erich Fuchs tested the gas chamber engine, in the spring of 1942. Schwarz was appointed the Commandant of the Dorohucza labour camp, and after Aktion Reinhard ended, he was posted to Italy.

 

On the 19th June 1944 he was killed in action at San Pietro, and was buried at the German Military Cemetery at Costermano, near Verona.

 

 

 

Seidel, Kurt 

Polizei Oberwatchmeister   

Polizei Number  - 12011

 

Born in Berlin on the 20th March 1910. Served at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, as a male nurse and in the office. Kurt Seidel was posted to Treblinka, worked in Camp ll according to Kurt Franz, and had the honour of having the main camp street named after his supervision of the road building crew.

 

One of the less cruel SS-men, according to some Jewish prisoners. Posted to Italy, after Aktion Reinhard ended.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Sporleder, Erich  

SS Rank unknown   

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in Calbe / Saale on the 6th February 1908. Served in Brandenburg and Bernburg euthanasia centres, up to March 1943. Was at Dorohucza Labour Camp, and participated in the final executions at Sobibor, along with Juhrs.

 

Posted to Trieste, Italy. After the war served 5 years imprisonment in the former East Germany.

 

 

 

Stadie, Otto   

SS Rank Stabsscharfuhrer    

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in Berlin on the 10th March 1897. Prior to the Second World War he worked as a male nurse at the mental clinic Heil und Pflegeanstalt in Berlin.

 

After that he worked as an ambulance sergeant in a pioneer –infantry company. From mid-1941 he was at Bernburg euthanasia centre, and during the winter of 1941-42 was on the Eastern Front as part of an Organisation Todt.

 

He was posted to the Treblinka death camp from July 1942, where he worked as a Senior Administrative assistant to the Commandant. Stadie killed Jewish inmates in Treblinka, notably the Kapo Rakowski, and was brutal and feared. The Jewish prisoners nicknamed him Fesele – Yiddish for Barrel, given his stature.

 

Stadie was transferred in July 1943 to take command of the Ukrainan Guard platoon, at the Old Airfield Camp in Lublin, as part of a disciplinary case.

 

After Aktion Reinhard ceased Stadie was transferred to San Sabba, Trieste. He was arrested on the 15th July 1963, and was tried at the first Treblinka trial in 1965 he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

 

He was released from prison because of ill health.

 

 

 

Steffl, Thomas    

SS-  Scharfuhrer     

SS Number – Unknown  

 

Born in Krummau , now Krumlov, Czech Republic. Posted to Sobibor death camp in February 1943, and supervised workers in the sorting barracks.

 

Killed on the 14th October 1943 during the prisoner revolt. Franz Wolf another member of the SS- command at Sobibor , who came from the place as Steffl, identified the corpse, and attended the funeral.

 

 

 

Stengelin, Erwin    

SS – Unterscharfuhrer    

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in Tuttlingen, on the 10th August 1911. Served at Hadamar euthanasia centre. He was posted to the Treblinka death camp and was posted to the death camp at Sobibor in August 1943.

 

Stengelin was killed during the revolt on the 14th October 1943.

 

 

 

Steubl, Karl 

SS – Scharfuhrer       

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born on the 25th October 1910. Served at Hartheim euthanasia centre as a Senior Male nurse. He was posted to the Sobibor death camp in April 1942.

 

He served as the paymaster after succeeding Schutt in August 1942. He was present and probably took part in the execution of the Treblinka Jews who were sent to Sobibor, after the demolition of Treblinka death camp.

 

After the war he committed suicide in Linz (Austria).

 

 

 

 

Strebelow  

SS – Zugsfuhrer        

SS Number – Unknown

 

Served as a Zugsfuhrer in Camp l at the Treblinka death camp, according to Kurt Franz.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Suchomel, Franz  

SS – Unterscharfuhrer       

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born on the 3rd December 1907 in Krummau , now Krumlov, Czech Republic). By profession a tailor, he worked from 1940-1942 in the T4 photographic section in Berlin and Hadamar euthanasia centre.

 

Ordered to Treblinka, with Hirtreiter, Post, Loffler, Sydow, Matthes and two others, they arrived in the death camp on the 20th August 1942. Suchomel served at the unloading ramp, then was a supervisor in the women’s undressing barracks, leading the victims to the “Tube”, and was later put in charge of the Goldjuden, and the tailor shop.

 

After the revolt in the Sobibor death camp, he was sent to Sobibor to help dismantle the camp. When Aktion Reinhard ended he was posted to Trieste, Italy.

 

Captured by US Troops, he served time in a Prisoner of War Camp. From 1949 he lived in Altotting/ Bavaria, where he was arrested on the 11th July 1963.

 

At the first Treblinka trial in 1965 he was sentenced to six years imprisonment, and was released in 1969. Interviewed by Gitta Sereny, for the book “Into that Darkness”, and took part in the Claude Lanzmann film “Shoah”.

 

 

 

Sydow, Hermann  

SS – Unterscharfuhrer       

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born in 1908.  By profession a dockworker from Hamburg. Posted to Treblinka death camp, he arrived on the 20th August 1942, with Suchomel and others.

 

At the death camp he was in charge of the camouflage commando, he was short in stature, very tough, with a huge appetite for alcohol. After the Sobibor death camp revolt, he was ordered there to help with demolition of the camp.

 

Posted to Italy, after Aktion Reinhard ceased.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Tauscher, Friedrich  

SS – Oberscharfuhrer        

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born on the 20th May 1903. By profession a police official, detective. Member of the NSDAP. Worked as a supervisor at the registry office of Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, and also at Brandenburg and Hartheim euthanasia centres.

 

Posted to Trawniki in Poland as an instructor, he went to Belzec death camp, in October 1942. When the corpse cremations commenced he was put in charge of this activity, and he was active in the demolition of the camp. He was then posted to the labour camp in Budzyn after Belzec was closed, where he served briefly as the camp commandant.
 

After Aktion Reinhard ceased he was posted to Italy. He survived the war, but committed suicide in prison in 1965.

 

 

 

Unverhau, Heinrich   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer         

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born on the 26th May 1911 in Vienenburg (Harz). Attended eight years elementary school in Fellstedt. From April 1925 he was a plumbers apprentice, and after an accident he lost the sight in his right eye.

 

Then he worked as a musician and from 1934 to January 1940 as a male nurse, he was a member of the NSDAP from 1937. He joined T4 and worked at the Hadamar and Grafeneck euthanasia centres from January 1940 to early 1942. There he escorted victims to the gas chambers, injected sedatives, ventilated the gas chambers, and dealt with the disposal of the bodies and property.

 

In the winter of 1941 / 1942 he served in an Organisation Todt transportation unit for wounded soldiers on the Eastern front, in Viazma. Posted to the Belzec death camp in June 1942, there he supervised the undressing barrack, and was responsible for delivery of all clothes to the storage room in the locomotive shed.

 

In October / November 1942 he caught typhus, and was in hospital at Tomaszow Lubelski. In June 1943 he was transferred to the Sobibor death camp, where he supervised the workers at the undressing barracks in Camp ll, and the Waldkommando.

 

He participated in the execution of the Jewish workers brought to Sobibor, from Treblinka death camp. In December 1943 he was sent to Italy to fight the partisans, and on the 15th March 1944 was released from T4, and on the 27th April 1944 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht.

 

Released from his internment as a Prisoner of War on the 9th September 1945, he returned to Fellstedt and worked as a musician. Arrested on the 16th March 1949 because of his involvement with T4, he was declared not guilty.

 

From 1952 he worked again as a male nurse at the county hospital in Konigslutter.  Acquitted at the Grafeneck –1948, Belzec –1963-64 and Sobibor –1965 trials, he was the only SS man who, immediately after the war, spoke voluntarily about his involvement in Aktion Reinhard.

 

 

 

Vallaster, Josef   

SS – Scharfuhrer          

SS Number – Unknown

 

Born on the 5th February 1910 in Silbertal (Austria). Served at Hartheim euthanasia centre, as “chief burner”. Posted to the Belzec death camp for a short time, in April 1942 he was posted to the Sobibor death camp.

 

One of the most brutal SS-men in Sobibor he served in Camp lll. There he supervised the gassing, burying and cremating. He often drove the narrow gauge locomotive, which transported the infirm and aged people to the Lazarett, and the bodies to the mass graves.

 

He was particularly feared and used to kill the worker Jews in Camp lll, with hammer blows. Vallaster was killed during the revolt on the 14th October 1943.

 

Vallaster’s name is inscribed on a monument in Silbertal commemorating the victim of wars.

 

 

 

Vey. Kurt     

Polizei Oberwachtmeister         

Polizei Number – 12012

 

Born on the 12th July 1901. Posted to Sobibor death camp. then transferred to Italy after Aktion Reinhard ceased.

 

No other details known.

 

 

 

Wagner, Gustav Franz    

SS – Oberscharfuhrer

SS Number – 276 962

 

Born on the 18th July 1911 in Vienna. Joined the NSDAP – member number 443,217. Served at Hartheim euthanasia centre. Posted to Sobibor death camp in April 1942, he remained there right to the end.

 

Wagner was the most feared SS-man in Sobibor, he was called Welfel (Wolf), for a good reason. He hunted and killed many Jews, he had an explosive temper

 

He mercilessly beat prisoners, he shot prisoners for the slightest infraction, and selected prisoners on the ramp for work commandos. He was absent from the death camp on the 14th October 1943, and the prisoners timed their revolt to coincide with his absence.

 

After the war escaped to Brasil, but in May 1978, he was discovered by Simon Wiesenthal – the Nazi Hunter. He was imprisoned but his extradition to Germany and Israel failed, and he committed suicide in October 1980, in mysterious circumstances.

 

 

 

Walter, Arthur     

Reserveleutnant der Schutzpolkizei 

Polizei  Number – Unknown 

 

Born on the 22nd October 1907 in Reichstein. Served at the economic office at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre, and at Hartheim euthanasia centre as well.

 

Member of the NSDAP and SS. Served at the Sobibor death camp then transferred to Italy.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Weiss, Bruno     

SS – Scharfuhrer 

SS Number – Unknown 

 

Posted to Sobibor death camp in April 1942 he was the Commandant of Camp l, in the initial stages of the camps existence. He was also chief of the Bahnhofskommando(station commando) and worked in Camp lll.

 

He tormented the worker Jews and made them sing derogatory songs. In January 1943 he was allowed to leave Sobibor because of tuberculosis.

 

 

 

Wendland, Wilhelm  

SS – Scharfuhrer 

SS Number – Unknown 

 

Served at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre as a “burner”. Posted to Sobibor death camp in March 1943, together with the Wolf brothers and Fritz Konrad.

 

Supervised the sorting barracks and the Waldkommando. During the revolt he kept the prisoners under armed guard. Posted to Italy when Aktion Reinhard ceased.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Wolf, Franz  

SS – Unterscharfuhrer  

SS Number – Unknown 

 

Born on the 9th April 1907 in Krummau,, now Krumlov , Czech Republic. After his education and working as a forester, he worked in his father’s photographic shop until 1939.

 

From the 28th August 1939 soldier in the Reichwehr – Infantry Regiment 130. He served as a courier in Poland and France. In January 1940 ordered to the KdF in Berlin, then onto T4 and finally to the T4 euthanasia centre at Hadamar.

 

There he had to take photographs of the victims. In the autumn of 1941 back to T4 in Berlin, where he continued to work as a photographer. From the summer of 1942 to spring 1943 as a photographer in a mental home in Heidelberg.

 

In March 1943 he was ordered to Lublin, and then onto Sobibor death camp, where he supervised the sorting barracks, the women’s undressing barrack and the Waldkommando.

 

Unlike his brother he survived the Sobibor revolt, but he went on convalescent leave for fourteen days, then he returned to Sobibor. With the cessation of Aktion Reinhard he was posted to Italy, to fight against partisans.

 

Wolf was taken prisoner by US Troops in Austria, he was interned in a Prisoner of War in a camp at Weiden. After his release he worked for the US Army, as a photographer until May 1946.

 

In the 1966 Hagen trial he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment due to his involvement in the murder of at least 39,000 people.

 

 

 

Wolf, Josef 

SS – Unterscharfuhrer  

SS Number – Unknown 

 

Born on the 18th April 1900 in Krummau, now Krumlov , Czech Republic. Brother of Franz Wolf. Photographer in Krummau, then a soldier from 1939 to the autumn of 1941.

 

Then he was ordered to T4. In March 1943 he was ordered to Sobibor death camp, where he supervised the sorting barracks. Josef Wolf was possibly the first SS-man to be killed in the Sobibor revolt on the 14th October 1943.

 

His wife received a message that he was killed during a raid by bandits.

 

 

 

Zanker, Hans 

Polizei Oberwachtmeister   

Polizei Number – 12052 

 

Born on the 8th September 1905. Served as chief of the kitchen at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Served at Belzec death camp.

 

After Aktion Reinhard ceased he was posted to San Sabba, Italy.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Zaspel, Fritz  

SS – Rank Unknown   

SS Number – Unknown  

 

Born on the 31st October 1907. Served as a male nurse at Sonnenstein euthanasia centre. Served at Sobibor death camp.

 

No further details known.

 

 

 

Zierke, Ernst   

SS – Unterscharfuhrer 

SS Number – Unknown  

 

Born on the 16th May 1905. Attended elementary school for eight years, left school at the age of 13. Worked as a woodcutter and blacksmith. Male nurse from 1934. He worked as a male nurse at the Heil –und Pflegeanstalt Neuruppin.

 

Joined the NSDAP and SA since 1930 and joined T4 from December 1939. Served as a driver at Grafeneck, Hadamar and  Sonnenstein euthanasia centres.

 

Posted to an Organisation Todt in Russia in the winter of 1941, from the Eichberg mental home, and returning there after service in Russia. In June 1942 posted to the Belzec death camp, where he served at the ramp and undressing barrack.

 

Responsible for the camp forge, he also took part in the execution of the last Jewish workers. When Belzec was closed down, he was posted to the Dorohucza labour camp near Trawniki. When that camp was closed down he stayed on with Robert Juhrs to supervise the dismantling of the buildings.

 

Was involved in the final demolition of the Sobibor death camp, and execution of the remaining Jewish workers. With the cessation of Aktion Reinhard he was posted to San Sabba, Italy.

 

At the end of the war arrested and interned in a Prisoner of War Camp. Re-arrested on the 31st January 1963, acquitted at the Belzec trial in Munich in 1964 and acquitted at the Sobibor trial in 1965.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources

 

Arad, Yitzhak – Belzec, Sobibor Treblinka – Operation Reinhard Death Camps.

Bloomington- Indiana University Press 1987

 

Blatt, Thomas – Sobibor – The Forgotten Revolt – H.E.P. Issaquah WA 1998

 

Bohm, Dr Boris – Nationalsozialistische Euthanasiaverbrechen in Sachsen – Gedenkstatte Sonnenstein 1996 and Sonnenstein – Gedenkstatte Sonnenstein 2001

 

Burba, Dr Manfred – Treblinka- Ein NS Vernichtsunglager im Rahmen der Aktion Reinhard. Gottingen 2000.

 

Donat Alexander – The Death Camp Treblinka – New York Holocaust Library

 

Friedlander Henry – The Origins of Nazi Genocide – Chapel Hill and London. The University of North Carolina Press 1995.

 

Glazar, Richard – The Trap with a Green Fence – Evanston Illinois. Northwestern University Press 1999.

 

Hoffmann, Dr Ute and Schulze, Dietmar Gedenkstatte Bernburg

 

Klee, Ernst – The Good old days- New York Free Press 1991

 

Poprzeczny, Joseph – Hitler’s Man in the East – Odilo Globocnik – McFarland & Co Inc Publishers 2004

 

Reitlinger, Gerald – The Final Solution – South Brunswick New York. Thomas Yoseloff 1961

 

Schelvis, Jules – Vernichtungslager Sobibor – UNRAST – Verlag – Hamburg / Munster 2003

 

Schilter, Thomas – Unmenschliches Ermessen – Leipzig – Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag 1999

 

Sereny, Gitta – Into that Darkness – From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder – London McGraw – Hill Book Company 1974

 

Tregenza, Mike – Christian Wirth – Inspekteur der Sonderkommandos Aktion Reinhard-

Unpublished English article – published in Polish as Zessyty Majdanka Vol XV Lublin 1993

 

Teicholz, Tom – The trial of Ivan the Terrible- New York. St. Martin’s Press 1990

 

Willenberg, Samuel – Revolt in Treblinka – Warsaw Zydowski Instytut Historyczny 1989

 

 

Private Correspondence

 

 

Michal Chocholaty to Author 2006

Kalman Teigman to Author since 2000

Mike Tregenza to Author since 1995

  

Other Sources

Berlin Document Centre

DOEW – Dr Ursula Schwarz

Landgericht Dusseldorf and Hamburg

Ludwigsburg Archive – Dr Heinz Ludger- Borgert

National Archives – Kew

Schloss Kalkum Archive Dusseldorf

Yad Vashem

  

 

Copyright: Carmelo Lisciotto & CRW HEART 2007

 

 

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