Erich Fuchs (9 April 1902 – 25 July 1980) was an SS functionary who worked for the

Action T4 (German, ) was a campaign of Homicide#By state actors, mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted Disability, people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-WWII, war trials against d ...

mass-murder program, and for the

Operation Reinhard Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...

phase of

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Fuchs was charged with war crimes at the Bełżec Trial in 1963–64, for which he was acquitted. As more evidence came to light, Fuchs was rearrested and tried at the

Sobibor Trial The Sobibor trial was a 1965–66 judicial trial in the West German prosecution of SS officers who had worked at Sobibor extermination camp; it was held in Hagen. It was one of a series of similar war crime trials held during the early and mid-196 ...

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

. He was charged with participation in the Holocaust and on 20 December 1966, found guilty of being an accessory to the

mass murder Mass murder is the violent crime of murder, killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more ...

of at least 79,000 people. Fuchs was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

Life

Fuchs was born Erich Fritz Erhard Fuchs in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He began his career as a motor mechanic. He joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

and the SA in May 1933. Following the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, in 1940 Fuchs was assigned to the clandestine

euthanasia program. He served as Dr.

Irmfried Eberl Irmfried Eberl (8 September 1910 – 16 February 1948) was an Austrian psychiatrist and medical director of the euthanasia institutes in Brandenburg and Bernburg, who helped set up and was the first commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp ...

's driver while Eberl was medical director of the T-4 killing centers at

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

and

Bernburg Bernburg (Saale) () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance castle. Geography The town centre is situated in the fertile Magdeb ...

. Klee, Ernst, Dressen, Willi, Riess, Volker. ''The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders'', p. 292. . Fuchs was present at many of the gassings of the disabled people. When the

Final Solution The Final Solution or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question was a plan orchestrated by Nazi Germany during World War II for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews. The "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was the official ...

was set in place at

Wannsee Wannsee () is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger '' Großer Wannsee'' (Greater Wannsee) and the '' Kleiner Wannse ...

, Fuchs was transferred to the newly built

Bełżec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: , approximately ) was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major ...

in German-occupied Poland for six weeks to install the killing apparatus there.Michael Bryant (2014),
Eyewitness to Genocide: The Operation Reinhard Death Camp Trials, 1955-1966.
' Univ. of Tennessee Press, p. 152. He later testified: After the successful installation of the gassing motor at Belzec, in April 1942 Fuchs was moved to the next secret construction site at the

Sobibor extermination camp Sobibor ( ; ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), ...

. The gas-fueled, two-hundred-horse-power engine was allocated for him already in nearby Lvov by the SS men of Operation Reinhard. He remained at Sobibór for at least four weeks. In Fuchs's own words: While at

Sobibor Sobibor ( ; ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), ...

, Fuchs also operated this engine as it fed the gas chambers. Now an '' SS-

Scharführer ''Scharführer'' (, ) was a title or rank used in early 20th century German military terminology. In German, ''Schar'' was one term for the smallest sub-unit, equivalent to (for example) a "troop", "squad", or " section". The word ''führer'' ...

'' (Sergeant), Fuchs went to

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...

, under the command of his old boss Eberl. He would later testify: Near the end of 1942, Fuchs returned briefly to

Bernburg Euthanasia Centre The Nazi Euthanasia Centre at Bernburg () operated from 21 November 1940 to 30 July 1943 in a separate wing of the State Sanatorium and Mental Hospital (''Landes-Heil- und Pflegeanstalt'') in Bernburg (Saale), Bernburg on the River Saale in the Ger ...

. Then, from December to February 1943 he was stationed at

Wiesloch Wiesloch (, locally ; South Franconian: ''Wissloch'') is a town in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 13 kilometres south of Heidelberg. After Weinheim, Sinsheim and Leimen, it is the fourth largest town in the Rhein-Neckar-K ...

psychiatric institution, where he was involved in "euthanasia research" and again, present during the gassing operations. In March 1943 Fuchs was removed from

, and his work in

and

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

was done. After the war he worked as a lorry driver, motor mechanic and car salesman. Fuchs was put on trial at the Bełżec Trial in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

1963–64, for which he was acquitted. Fuchs was rearrested and tried at the

. He was charged with participation in the mass murder of approximately 3,600 Jews. On 20 December 1966, Fuchs was found guilty of being an accessory to the mass murder of at least 79,000 Jews and sentenced to four years imprisonment. Fuchs was married for the sixth time during the trial. Fuchs died on 25 July 1980 at the age of 78.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Erich 1902 births 1980 deaths People from Berlin Aktion T4 personnel Belzec extermination camp personnel Sobibor extermination camp personnel SS non-commissioned officers Treblinka extermination camp personnel Truck drivers Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Automobile salespeople People convicted in the Sobibor trial