Heinz Thilo (8 October 1911 in

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the Germany, German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was ...

13 May 1945 in Hohenelbe) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

SS officer and a physician in the

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

. Thilo 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 ...

in December 1930 and the SS in 1934. From 1938 to 1941 he worked as a

gynaecologist Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, which focuses on pre ...

for the

Lebensborn ''Lebensborn e.V.'' (literally: "Fount of Life") was a secret, SS-initiated, state-registered association in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure" and "heal ...

organization. After six months of war service he was assigned to the Auschwitz concentration camp in July 1942. There he became responsible for the infirmary camp with the rank of ''

Obersturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary ranks, Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, National Socialist Motor Corps, NSKK and the ...

''. Thilo called the camp the "anus mundi" ("anus of the world"). He was one of the physicians commonly performing the " selections" in which incoming Jews were divided into those deemed able to work and those who were to be gassed immediately. Thilo also participated in the liquidation of the

Theresienstadt family camp The Theresienstadt family camp (, ), also known as the Czech family camp, consisted of a group of History of the Jews in the Czech Republic, Jewish inmates from the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia, who were held in the BIIb section of t ...

on July 10-11, 1944, when approximately 7000 Jews were murdered in the gas chambers. In October 1944 Thilo was transferred to Gross-Rosen where he served as camp physician until February 1945. He fled shortly before the camp's liberation. After the war, Thilo was arrested. He committed suicide in prison.

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Image of Dr Thilo on the ramp, making selections
1911 births 1945 suicides 1945 deaths Auschwitz concentration camp medical personnel German gynaecologists Physicians in the Nazi Party Nazis who died by suicide in prison custody SS-Hauptsturmführer Gross-Rosen concentration camp personnel Suicides in Czechoslovakia {{germany-med-bio-stub Holocaust perpetrators in Poland