On this date, 28 May
1947, the Mad Scientist of Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Eduard Krebsbach, was executed by hanging at Landsberg Prison. I will post the information
about this Nazi Mad Scientist from Wikipedia.
Born
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8 August 1894
Bonn, German Empire |
Died
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28 May 1947 (aged 52)
Landsberg Prison, Landsberg am Lech, Germany |
Cause of death
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Execution
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Occupation
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Medical doctor
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Criminal penalty
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Death by hanging
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Conviction(s)
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Crimes against humanity at Mauthausen
concentration camp.
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Eduard Krebsbach
(8 August 1894 – 28 May 1947) was a former German physician and SS doctor in
the Nazi concentration camp in Mauthausen from July 1941 to August 1943. He was
executed for crimes against humanity committed at the Mauthausen camp.
Concentration
camp career
In
the autumn of 1941, Krebsbach became Standortarzt (garrison doctor) of
Mauthausen concentration camp, tasked with supervising medical care and all
medical personnel of the camp. He was responsible for initiating mass killing
by lethal injection to the heart on handicapped and sick prisoners. Under his
supervision approximately 900 Russian, Polish and Czech prisoners were murdered
by lethal injections of Benzene. Because of this inmates nicknamed him 'Dr
Spritzbach' (Dr Injection). Krebsbach was also responsible for the construction
of a gas chamber in the basement of the hospital in the Mauthausen camp.
Krebsbach
often inspected the prisoners and conducted selections for execution, a former
inmate recalls Krebsbach's actions during such an inspection: "As the
senior SS doctor in the camp, Dr Krebsbach sometimes came to block 5 and had
the still surviving Jews paraded before him. He then asked if any of them were
doctors. If there were, he would say: 'You Jewish pig, you’re just an
abortionist.' The next day they were done away with by the kapos. If a Jewish
inmate was lying on the floor with a broken limb - a not uncommon occurrence at
work - he was usually thrown over a wall by a kapo. If Dr Krebsbach were
passing, he would say ironically: 'Yes, this broken foot is a hopeless case.' "
Josef Herzler, former Mauthausen inmate (AMM V/3/22).
Dr.
Krebsbach was transferred to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Latvia during
the autumn of 1943 as it is believed he shot Josef Breitenfellner in his home,
a German soldier from Langenstein on vacation when he and his friends awoke
Krebsbach from his sleep on 22 May 1943. Here he conducted selections,
identified inmates to be gassed, until the camps liquidation in August 1944.
Following
the camp's closure, Krebsbach resumed a career as “Epidemic Inspector for Latvia,
Estonia and Lithuania”. Soon after he transferred to the regular army as a
senior staff doctor, serving until late 1944. However this was short lived and
at the end of 1944 he left the army and worked once again as a company doctor
in a spinning mill in Kassel.
Dachau
War Crime Trial
Following
the end of World War II he was arrested and given the death penalty during the Dachau
trials conducted by the US military on 13 May 1946 and was executed by hanging
on 28 May 1947 at Landsberg Prison in Landsberg am Lech.
The
following is from the court record of the Dachau trials (quoted in Hans Maršálek, "Die Geschichte des
Konzentrationslagers Mauthausen", p. 174):
"Krebsbach:
When I started work I was ordered by the head of Office III D to kill or have
killed all those who were unable to work, and the incurably sick.
Prosecutor:
And how did you carry out this order?
Krebsbach:
Incurably sick inmates who were absolutely incapable of work were generally
gassed. Some were also killed by benzene injection.
Prosecutor:
To your knowledge, how many persons were killed in this way in your presence?
Krebsbach:
(no answer)
Prosecutor:
You were ordered to kill those unfit to live?
Krebsbach:
Yes. I was ordered to have persons killed if I was of the opinion that they
were a burden on the state.
Prosecutor:
Did it never occur to you that these were human beings, people who had the
misfortune to be inmates or who had been neglected?
Krebsbach:
No. People are like animals. Animals that are born deformed or incapable of
living are put down at birth. This should be done for humanitarian reasons with
people as well. This would prevent a lot of misery and unhappiness.
Prosecutor:
That is your opinion. The world does not agree with you. Did it never occur to
you that killing a human being is a terrible crime?
Krebsbach:
No. Every state is entitled to protect itself against asocial persons including
those unfit to live.
Prosecutor:
In other words, it never occurred to you that what you were doing was a crime?
Krebsbach:
No. I carried out my work to the best of my knowledge and belief because I had
to."
Krebsbach was sentenced to death by a U.S.
military court in Dachau on 13 May 1946, then was hanged at the Landsberg
Prison on 28 May 1947 (41,032 bytes). [PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.company7.com/bosendorfer/mauthausen/krebsbach_testimony.html]
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