Erich Wasicky (May 27, 1911, in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

– May 28, 1947, at

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a prison 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, after the ...

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 ...

Allied-occupied Germany The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Unlike occupied Japan, Nazi Germany was stripped of its sov ...

) was a pharmacist at the

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...

in charge of gassing victims. Wasicky was a physician. He joined the

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

and was a member of the SS. Between 1941 and 1944, he worked as a pharmacist at Mauthausen

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

. It was his duty to select victims to die in the

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or 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 Donatie ...

. The exact number of his victims is not known, but more than 3,100 died in neighboring Hartheim concentration camp, which fell under Wasicky's jurisdiction. After the Nazis started using the poison

Zyklon B Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consists of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such ...

, Wasicky was put in charge of establishing this process in both Mauthausen and Hartheim. According to witnesses, Wasicky worked closely with SS doctor

Aribert Heim Aribert Ferdinand Heim (28 June 191410 August 1992), also known as Dr. Death and Butcher of Mauthausen, was an Austrian ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) doctor. During World War II, he served at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Mauthausen, kil ...

. The two performed gruesome experiments together, such as injecting various solutions into the hearts of Jewish prisoners to see which killed them the fastest. After the end 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 ...

, Wasicky was tried for war crimes by a U.S. military tribunal. On May 13, 1946, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. On May 28, 1947, he was hanged at

. Wasicky was originally scheduled to be hanged on May 27, 1947, which was his birthday. He requested that his execution be delayed until the next day. The request was granted.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasicky 1911 births 1947 deaths 20th-century pharmacists Aktion T4 personnel Austrian Nazis executed for war crimes Austrian pharmacists Austrian people executed abroad Austrian Waffen-SS personnel Executed Austrian mass murderers Holocaust perpetrators in Austria Mauthausen Trial executions Physicians in the Nazi Party Health professionals from Vienna SS-Sturmbannführer 20th-century Austrian physicians