Eduard Krebsbach (8 August 1894 – 28 May 1947) was a former

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physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and SS doctor in the Nazi concentration camp in

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regu ...

from July 1941 to August 1943. He was executed for atrocities 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 The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

of handicapped and sick prisoners. Under his supervision approximately 900

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and

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prisoners were murdered by lethal injections of

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organi ...

and

phenol Phenol (also called carbolic acid) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () bonded to a hydroxy group (). Mildly acidic, it ...

. Because of this, inmates nicknamed him 'Dr. Spritzbach' (Dr. Injection). Krebsbach was also responsible for the construction of a

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

in the basement of the hospital in the Mauthausen camp. Krebsbach often inspected the prisoners and conducted selections for execution. A former inmate recalled Krebsbach's actions during such an inspection: Krebsbach was transferred to the

Kaiserwald concentration camp Kaiserwald (Ķeizarmežs) was a Nazi concentration camp near the Riga suburb of Mežaparks in modern-day Latvia. Kaiserwald was built in March 1943, during the period that the German army occupied Latvia. The first inmates of the camp were ...

in Latvia during the autumn of 1943. The reason for his transfer is believed to be his shooting of Josef Breitenfellner, a vacationing German soldier, who awoke Krebsbach from his sleep on 22 May 1943. While at Kaiserwald, Krebsbach conducted selections of camp inmates for execution, by forcing the prisoners to perform physical exercises to determine their strength and then identifying the 2000 weakest to be killed. Following the camp's closure, Krebsbach resumed a career as “Epidemic Inspector for Latvia,

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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

Eduard Krebsbach at the Mauthausen Trial

Following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he was arrested, convicted of war crimes, and sentenced to death during the Mauthausen trial conducted by the

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on 13 May 1946 and was executed by hanging on 28 May 1947 at

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a penal facility in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, af ...

Landsberg am Lech Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech (river), Lech) is a Town#Germany, town in southwest Bavaria, Germany, about 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg (district), Lands ...

. The following is from the court record of the Dachau trials (quoted in

Hans Maršálek Hans Maršálek (19 July 1914 – 9 December 2011) was an Austrian typesetting, typesetter, political activist, detective, and historian. A devout socialist and active in the Resistance during World War II, resistance, he was arrested by the Na ...

, "Die Geschichte des Konzentrationslagers Mauthausen", p. 174):

Literature

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...

: ''Auschwitz, die NS-Medizin und ihre Opfer.'' 3. Auflage. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1997, . * Ernst Klee: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'' Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, . * Hans Marsalek: ''Geschichte des Konzentrationslagers Mauthausen.'' Österreichische Lagergemeinschaft Mauthausen, Wien, 1980. * Review and Recommendations of the Deputy Judge Advocate for War Crimes: United States of America vs. Hans Altfuldisch et al. - Case No. 000.50.
Original document Mauthausen war crimes (pdf)
30. April 1947, in English. * Florian Freund: Der Dachauer Mauthausenprozess, in: Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes. Jahrbuch 2001, Wien 2001, S. 35–66

References

External links

*
Mauthausen Memorial: SS-site physician Dr. Eduard Krebsbach
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krebsbach, Eduard 1894 births 1947 deaths Holocaust perpetrators in Austria Holocaust perpetrators in Latvia Auschwitz concentration camp personnel Mauthausen concentration camp personnel Kaiserwald concentration camp personnel Mauthausen Trial executions Nazi human subject research Executed people from North Rhine-Westphalia Physicians in the Nazi Party SS-Obersturmbannführer Physicians from Bonn People from the Rhine Province Waffen-SS personnel Executed mass murderers