Josef Hirtreiter (1 February 1909 – 27 November 1978) was an SS functionary of Nazi Germany and a Holocaust perpetrator who worked at Treblinka extermination camp during the Operation Reinhard phase of

the Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holoca ...

. Hirtreiter was arrested by the U.S. military in July 1946 and confessed to working at Treblinka. In 1951, Hirtreiter was convicted of killing 10 people, mostly children aged one or two, and sentenced to life in prison. He was released from prison in 1977 and died several months later in a home for the elderly in Frankfurt.

SS career

Hirtreiter was born in

Bruchsal Bruchsal (; orig. Bruohselle, Bruaselle, historically known in English as Bruxhall; South Franconian: ''Brusel'') is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, ...

. After elementary school, he worked as unskilled construction worker and bricklayer. He failed the exam in lock-picking. On 1 August 1932 he became a member of the Nazi Party and '' Sturmabteilung'' (SA). After the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, in October 1940 he was assigned to the

Hadamar Euthanasia Centre The Hadamar killing centre (german: NS-Tötungsanstalt Hadamar) was a killing facility involved in the Nazi "involuntary euthanasia" programme known as '' Aktion T4''. It was housed within a psychiatric hospital located in the German town of Ha ...

where he worked in the kitchen. In summer 1942 he joined the army. Four weeks later he was sent back to Hadamar, and then to Berlin from where

Christian Wirth ), Christian the CruelZenter, Christian and Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). '' Encyclopedia of the Third Reich'' (pg. 1053), New York: Macmillan; , allegiance = , branch = Schutzstaffel , serviceyears = , rank = Sturmbannführer (Major) , ...

transferred him to

Lublin reservation The Nisko Plan was an operation to deport Jews to the Lublin District of the General Governorate of occupied Poland in 1939. Organized by Nazi Germany, the plan was cancelled in early 1940. The idea for the expulsion and resettlement of the Jew ...

camp complex back in occupied Poland. There, he acquired the rank of 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'' ...

'' and was shipped to Treblinka death camp. Hirtreiter served at Treblinka II from October 1942 till October 1943 at the camp-zone 2 ''Auffanglager'' receiving area. He monitored naked women, before gassing them. Later, he served at the

Sobibór extermination camp Sobibor (, Polish: ) 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 German-occupied Poland. As an ...

. After the closing of Treblinka in October 1943, Hirtreiter was ordered to Italy where he joined a police unit for the so-called anti-partisan "cleansing" operations. His death camp superior, Franz Stangl, went there in order to set up the

Risiera di San Sabba Risiera di San Sabba ( sl, Rižarna) is a five-storey brick-built compound located in Trieste, northern Italy, that functioned during World War II as a Nazi concentration camp for the detention and killing of political prisoners, and a transit ...

killing centre in Trieste.

Trial and conviction

Hirtreiter was arrested by the U.S. military in July 1946 for having served at

. American officials were unable to pin anything on Hirtreiter regarding Hadamar, but he did confess to working at a camp called Malkinia. He was sent to an internment camp in Darmstadt in September. A subsequent investigation revealed Malkinia as the Treblinka extermination camp. Unable to pin any specific atrocities on Hirtreiter, a denazification court instead sentenced him to 10 years in a labour camp as a major offender in 1948. However, in 1949, Hirtreiter was charged with murder after a West German prosecutor read about his denazification case in a newspaper article and decided to conduct an investigation. Hirtreiter was tried by a court in Frankfurt via the testimony of Treblinka prisoner Szyja (a.k.a. Sawek, or Jeszajahu) Sprawiedliwi z powiatu wołomińskiego (Righteous from Wolomin).
Jeszajahu (Szyja) Warszawski rescued by Serafinowicz family. Fakty.wwl, 24 February 2012. Warszawski, who survived in a burial pit wounded, and slipped away under the cover of night, and a second witness, Abraham Bomba.Dr. iur. Christian Hofmann (4 July 2006)
"Die Treblinka-Prozesse."
Strafsache gegen Josef Hirtreiter. ''Zukunft braucht Erinnerung.'' Retrieved 25 May 2015.
/ref> In March 1951, Hirtreiter was found guilty of 10 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison with hard labour. The court ruled that he had killed at least 10 people, mostly children aged one to two, during the unloading of the transports notably, by grabbing them by their feet and smashing their heads against the walls of boxcars.
H.E.A.R.T 2007. Evidence to the United Nations War Crimes Commission presented by the Polish Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (now IPN)
Excerpts in English, Warsaw, 1946. Vol. I, p. 196.
/ref> Hirtreiter was released from prison in 1977 due to illness. He died several months later in a home for the elderly in Frankfurt.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirtreiter, Josef 1909 births 1978 deaths Holocaust perpetrators in Poland People convicted in the Treblinka trials Sturmabteilung personnel SS non-commissioned officers Treblinka extermination camp personnel People from Bruchsal People from the Grand Duchy of Baden Prisoners and detainees of the United States military German people convicted of murder German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany Aktion T4 personnel Sobibor extermination camp personnel