Dachau Trials
US vs. Josias Erbprinz zu Waldeck-Pyrmont
Trial of 31 war criminals
from Buchenwald camp
Previous
Dr. Hans Eisele stands
in the courtroom at Dachau
One of the accused in the Buchenwald
case was Dr. Hans Eisele who had previously been convicted in
the first case tried at Dachau. This was the case against former
Dachau Commandant Martin Gottfried Weiss and 39 others. Dr. Eisele
had been condemed to death in that case, but he still had to
answer for crimes that he had allegedly commited in the Buchenwald
concentration camp.
SS 2nd Lt. Hans Eisele
handled his own defense at the Buchenwald trial
In the photograph above, Dr. Hans Eisele
is shown standing behind the defense table as he cross examines
a witness, acting as his own defense attorney.
According to Joshua M. Greene, author
of "Justice at Dachau," Dr. Hans Eisele was a Waffen-SS
officer who had been assigned to the Sachsenhausen concentration
camp after he was wounded at the front. At Sachsenhausen, he
was known as "the Angel" and the former prisoners gave
him a good report. He was later transferred to Dachau where his
treatment of the prisoners changed, according to Lt. Col. William
D. Denson, who prosecuted Dr. Eisele twice, once for crimes at
Dachau and then a second time for crimes committed at Buchenwald.
According to Harold Marcuse, author of
"Legacies of Dachau," Dr. Eisele had served as an SS
camp doctor successively at Natzweiler, Buchenwald, Mauthausen
and Dachau from August 1941 until the liberation of Dachau in
April 1945. He was first brought before an American Military
Tribunal as one of the 40 accused war criminals who were staff
members at Dachau. He was sentenced to death for participating
in the "common plan" to commit war crimes at Dachau,
but his sentence was commuted to life in prison because he had
only been at Dachau for 2 and 1/2 months and he had not been
personally accused of any mistreatment of the Dachau prisoners.
At Buchenwald, which was a Class II camp for hard-core Communist
political prisoners, Dr. Eisele became known as "the Butcher"
for his alleged mistreatment of the prisoners.
In the Buchenwald case, Dr. Eisele was
convicted of murdering prisoners by injection and of doing improper
surgery. He was sentenced to death again for his crimes at Buchenwald.
On June 28, 1948, a new War Crimes Board of Review reduced Dr.
Eisele's Buchenwald death sentence to life in prison. In August
1948, another commission recommended that his Buchenwald sentence
be reduced to 10 years in prison, but his life sentence was confirmed
in December 1948. Harold Marcuse wrote the following regarding
Dr. Eisele:
Two years later in October 1950, another
commission recommended remitting the Dachau sentence entirely,
and reducing the Buchenwald sentence to ten years with ten days
off for each month of good conduct. The recommendation was approved
and, and on 19 February 1952, Eisele was released from Landsberg.
As far as the new West German government was concerned, Eisele
had been captured and imprisoned by the enemy, so that he was
eligible for compensation payment (Heimkehrerentschädigung).
Eisele used his government award to
open a licensed family practice in Munich, where he lived untroubled
by his past until 1958, when testimony in the trial of a sadistic
Buchenwald guard before a West German court heavily incriminated
him. Warned by sympathetic officials that he would be arrested,
he personally dropped off a letter to the editor of the Munich
Evening News, in which he defended his reputation, and boarded
an airplane to Egypt, where he was employed within a network
of former Nazis in an army hospital.
The "sadistic Buchenwald guard,"
referred to above, was Martin Sommer who was in charge of the
bunker or camp prison. He was indicted by Dr. Georg Konrad Morgen
in 1943 at the same time that Commandant Koch and his wife Ilse
were put on trial. After the trial, Sommer was transferred to
the Russian front where he was wounded in action. The West German
court delayed bringing him to trial until 1958 because he was
a paraplegic as a result of his war wounds. Sommer was convicted
of the murder of 25 Buchenwald prisoners by injection and was
sentenced to life in prison. Sommer is famous as the innovator
of the hanging punishment in which prisoners were hung by their
arms from a tree.
Dr. Eisele died in Egypt in 1967 at the
age of 55. His release from prison was a great disappointment
to Lt. Col. William D. Denson, the prosecutor who had twice won
his case, resulting in two death penalties for Eisele. According
to his biographer, Joshau M. Greene, Denson often spoke of Dr.
Eisele in his lectures to law students in America. Denson was
still convinced that Eisele was guilty and that his crimes became
worse and worse as he became more cruel in each new camp where
he worked. Although he had started out as a decent man before
the war, Dr. Eisele had become cruel because cruelty was commonplace
in the camps, according to Denson.
Also among the accused in the Buchenwald
case was Hubert Krautwurst who had been only seventeen when he
became a member of the concentration camp staff. He was convicted
of killing prisoners who were working on a gardening detail.
Peter Merker was another guard at Buchenwald who was accused
of beating and killing prisoners. He was in charge of the Gustloff
factory which was outside the Buchenwald camp.
Dr. Eugen Kogon testifies
on April 16, 1947 at Dachau
One of the most famous inmates of Buchenwald
was 43-year-old Dr. Eugen Kogon, an Austrian Communist activist
who was a political prisoner there from September 1939 to April
1945. After the war, he wrote a book called "The Theory
and Practice of Hell," one of the first books about the
Nazi atrocities in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Kogon was
also the main contributor to The Buchenwald Report, a 400-page
book about the Buchenwald camp which was put together in only
four weeks by the US Army, after conducting interviews with over
100 former prisoners at the camp.
Kogon testified during the Dachau proceedings
about the harsh treatment suffered by the prisoners at Buchenwald,
although as a Communist, he was one of the privileged political
prisoners who actually ran the camp.
Kogon's testimony was contradicted by
Dr. Georg Konrad Morgen who was the main witness for the defense
in the Buchenwald case. Morgen also testified at the Nuremberg
IMT in August 1946, before the Buchenwald case came to trial
at Dachau. At Nuremberg, Morgen testified on 7 August 1946 regarding
the conditions at Buchenwald. In response to a question from
the prosecutor at Nuremberg, Morgen had answered as follows:
Q. Did you gain the impression, and
at what time, that the concentration camps were places for the
extermination of human beings?
A. I did not gain this impression.
A concentration camp is not a place for the extermination of
human beings. I must say that my first visit to a concentration
camp, namely Weimar-Buchenwald, was a great surprise to me. The
camp was on wooded heights, with a wonderful view. The installations
were clean and freshly painted. There were grass and flowers.
The prisoners were healthy, normally fed, sun-tanned, working...
THE PRESIDENT of the Tribunal: When
are you speaking of? When are you speaking of?
A. I am speaking of the beginning
of my investigations in July, 1943.
Q. What crimes - you may continue
- please, be more brief.
A. The installations of the camp were
in good order, especially the hospital. The camp authorities,
under the Commandant Pister, aimed at providing the prisoners
with an existence worthy of human beings. They had regular mail
service. They had a large camp library, even with foreign books.
They had variety shows, motion pictures, sporting events. They
even had a brothel. Nearly all the other concentration camps
were similar to Buchenwald.
THE PRESIDENT: What was it they even
had?
A. A brothel.
Execution
of Communist Commissars
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Hans Merbach
- Dachau Death Train
Ilse Koch -
human lampshades
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Dachau TrialsUS vs. Josias Erbprinz zu Waldeck-PyrmontTrial of 31 war criminals from Buchenwald campPreviousOne of the accused in the Buchenwald case was Dr. Hans Eisele who had previously been convicted in the first case tried at Dachau. This was the case against former Dachau Commandant Martin Gottfried Weiss and 39 others. Dr. Eisele had been condemed to death in that case, but he still had to answer for crimes that he had allegedly commited in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In the photograph above, Dr. Hans Eisele is shown standing behind the defense table as he cross examines a witness, acting as his own defense attorney. According to Joshua M. Greene, author of "Justice at Dachau," Dr. Hans Eisele was a Waffen-SS officer who had been assigned to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp after he was wounded at the front. At Sachsenhausen, he was known as "the Angel" and the former prisoners gave him a good report. He was later transferred to Dachau where his treatment of the prisoners changed, according to Lt. Col. William D. Denson, who prosecuted Dr. Eisele twice, once for crimes at Dachau and then a second time for crimes committed at Buchenwald. According to Harold Marcuse, author of "Legacies of Dachau," Dr. Eisele had served as an SS camp doctor successively at Natzweiler, Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Dachau from August 1941 until the liberation of Dachau in April 1945. He was first brought before an American Military Tribunal as one of the 40 accused war criminals who were staff members at Dachau. He was sentenced to death for participating in the "common plan" to commit war crimes at Dachau, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison because he had only been at Dachau for 2 and 1/2 months and he had not been personally accused of any mistreatment of the Dachau prisoners. At Buchenwald, which was a Class II camp for hard-core Communist political prisoners, Dr. Eisele became known as "the Butcher" for his alleged mistreatment of the prisoners. In the Buchenwald case, Dr. Eisele was convicted of murdering prisoners by injection and of doing improper surgery. He was sentenced to death again for his crimes at Buchenwald. On June 28, 1948, a new War Crimes Board of Review reduced Dr. Eisele's Buchenwald death sentence to life in prison. In August 1948, another commission recommended that his Buchenwald sentence be reduced to 10 years in prison, but his life sentence was confirmed in December 1948. Harold Marcuse wrote the following regarding Dr. Eisele: Two years later in October 1950, another commission recommended remitting the Dachau sentence entirely, and reducing the Buchenwald sentence to ten years with ten days off for each month of good conduct. The recommendation was approved and, and on 19 February 1952, Eisele was released from Landsberg. As far as the new West German government was concerned, Eisele had been captured and imprisoned by the enemy, so that he was eligible for compensation payment (Heimkehrerentschädigung). Eisele used his government award to open a licensed family practice in Munich, where he lived untroubled by his past until 1958, when testimony in the trial of a sadistic Buchenwald guard before a West German court heavily incriminated him. Warned by sympathetic officials that he would be arrested, he personally dropped off a letter to the editor of the Munich Evening News, in which he defended his reputation, and boarded an airplane to Egypt, where he was employed within a network of former Nazis in an army hospital. The "sadistic Buchenwald guard," referred to above, was Martin Sommer who was in charge of the bunker or camp prison. He was indicted by Dr. Georg Konrad Morgen in 1943 at the same time that Commandant Koch and his wife Ilse were put on trial. After the trial, Sommer was transferred to the Russian front where he was wounded in action. The West German court delayed bringing him to trial until 1958 because he was a paraplegic as a result of his war wounds. Sommer was convicted of the murder of 25 Buchenwald prisoners by injection and was sentenced to life in prison. Sommer is famous as the innovator of the hanging punishment in which prisoners were hung by their arms from a tree. Dr. Eisele died in Egypt in 1967 at the age of 55. His release from prison was a great disappointment to Lt. Col. William D. Denson, the prosecutor who had twice won his case, resulting in two death penalties for Eisele. According to his biographer, Joshau M. Greene, Denson often spoke of Dr. Eisele in his lectures to law students in America. Denson was still convinced that Eisele was guilty and that his crimes became worse and worse as he became more cruel in each new camp where he worked. Although he had started out as a decent man before the war, Dr. Eisele had become cruel because cruelty was commonplace in the camps, according to Denson. Also among the accused in the Buchenwald case was Hubert Krautwurst who had been only seventeen when he became a member of the concentration camp staff. He was convicted of killing prisoners who were working on a gardening detail. Peter Merker was another guard at Buchenwald who was accused of beating and killing prisoners. He was in charge of the Gustloff factory which was outside the Buchenwald camp. One of the most famous inmates of Buchenwald was 43-year-old Dr. Eugen Kogon, an Austrian Communist activist who was a political prisoner there from September 1939 to April 1945. After the war, he wrote a book called "The Theory and Practice of Hell," one of the first books about the Nazi atrocities in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Kogon was also the main contributor to The Buchenwald Report, a 400-page book about the Buchenwald camp which was put together in only four weeks by the US Army, after conducting interviews with over 100 former prisoners at the camp. Kogon testified during the Dachau proceedings about the harsh treatment suffered by the prisoners at Buchenwald, although as a Communist, he was one of the privileged political prisoners who actually ran the camp. Kogon's testimony was contradicted by Dr. Georg Konrad Morgen who was the main witness for the defense in the Buchenwald case. Morgen also testified at the Nuremberg IMT in August 1946, before the Buchenwald case came to trial at Dachau. At Nuremberg, Morgen testified on 7 August 1946 regarding the conditions at Buchenwald. In response to a question from the prosecutor at Nuremberg, Morgen had answered as follows: Q. Did you gain the impression, and at what time, that the concentration camps were places for the extermination of human beings? A. I did not gain this impression. A concentration camp is not a place for the extermination of human beings. I must say that my first visit to a concentration camp, namely Weimar-Buchenwald, was a great surprise to me. The camp was on wooded heights, with a wonderful view. The installations were clean and freshly painted. There were grass and flowers. The prisoners were healthy, normally fed, sun-tanned, working... THE PRESIDENT of the Tribunal: When are you speaking of? When are you speaking of? A. I am speaking of the beginning of my investigations in July, 1943. Q. What crimes - you may continue - please, be more brief. A. The installations of the camp were in good order, especially the hospital. The camp authorities, under the Commandant Pister, aimed at providing the prisoners with an existence worthy of human beings. They had regular mail service. They had a large camp library, even with foreign books. They had variety shows, motion pictures, sporting events. They even had a brothel. Nearly all the other concentration camps were similar to Buchenwald. THE PRESIDENT: What was it they even had? A. A brothel. Execution of Communist CommissarsPreviousHans Merbach - Dachau Death TrainIlse Koch - human lampshadesBack to Dachau TrialsHome |