Karl-Otto Koch (; 2 August 1897 – 5 April 1945) was a mid-ranking commander in the ''

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It beg ...

'' (SS) of

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who was the first commandant of the

Nazi concentration camps 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 ...

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...

and Sachsenhausen. From September 1941 until August 1942, he served as the first commandant of the

Majdanek concentration camp Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had three gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian language, Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV 2 (Norway), TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. ...

, stealing vast amounts of valuables and money from murdered Jews. His wife,

Ilse Koch Ilse Koch (22 September 1906 – 1 September 1967) was a German war criminal who committed atrocities while her husband Karl-Otto Koch was commandant at Buchenwald concentration camp, Buchenwald. Though Ilse Koch had no official position in the N ...

, also participated in the crimes at Buchenwald.

Life

Koch was born in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

, Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, on 2 August 1897. His father worked in a local registrar's office and died when Karl was eight years old. After completing elementary school in 1912, Koch attended

Mittelschule ''Mittelschule'' is a German term literally translating to "Middle School" (i.e. a level "intermediate" between elementary and higher education). It is used in various senses in the education systems of the various parts of German-speaking Europe, ...

and completed a commercial apprenticeship. In 1916, he volunteered to join the

Imperial German Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the leadership of Kingdom o ...

and fought on the Western Front until he was captured by the British. Koch spent the rest of the war as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

and returned to Germany in 1919. As a soldier, he behaved well and was awarded the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

Second Class, the Observer's Badge and the

Wound Badge The Wound Badge () was a German military decoration first promulgated by Wilhelm II, German Emperor on 3 March 1918, which was first awarded to soldiers of the Imperial German Army, German Army who were wounded during World War I. Between the worl ...

in Black. After World War I, Koch worked as a commercial manager, an authorized signatory and insurance agent and became unemployed in 1932 (he had served a prison sentence in 1930 for embezzlement and forgery). In 1931, 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 ''

'' (SS).Gedenkstätte Buchenwald: Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1937–1945: A Guide to the Permanent Historical Exhibition, Wallstein Verlag, 2004 p. 41-43Whitlock Flint: Buchenwaldské bestie: Karl a Ilse Kochovi a lampy se stínítkem z lidské kůže, Grada Publishing, a.s., 29 September 2015 p. 326-327

Service with the SS

Koch served with several ''SS-Standarten'' (Thirty-fifth SS Regiment Kassel, SS Special Detachment Saxony). In 1934, he took command of the Sachsenburg Concentration Camp. Briefly, he was the officer in charge of the Esterwegen Concentration Camp guard unit, officer in charge of the preventive custody camp in the Lichtenburg Concentration Camp, and the adjutant at Dachau Concentration Camp. On 13 June 1935, he became commander of the Columbia concentration camp in Berlin-Tempelhof and, in April 1936, he was assigned to the concentration camp at Esterwegen. Four months later, he was assigned to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. By September 1937 he had advanced to SS-Standartenführer (colonel). On 1 August 1937, he was given command of the new

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Nazi Germany, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (pre-1938 ...

. He remained at Buchenwald until September 1941, when he was transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp for POWs near

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

, Poland. That was due largely to an investigation based on allegations of his improper behavior at Buchenwald, which included corruption, fraud, embezzlement, drunkenness, sexual offences and a murder. Koch commanded the Majdanek camp for only one year; he was relieved from his duties when 86 Soviet POWs escaped from the camp in August 1942. Koch was charged with criminal negligence and transferred to Berlin, where he worked at the

SS Personnel Main Office The SS Personnel Main Office () was established on 1 June 1939 from the personnel department in Himmler's personal staff. It was responsible for the administration of personnel matters regarding all leaders and officers of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS ...

and as a liaison between the SS and the German Post Office.

Prosecution and death

Koch's actions at Buchenwald first caught the attention of SS-Obergruppenführer Josias, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, in 1941. While perusing the death list of Buchenwald, Hereditary Prince Josias had seen the name of Walter Krämer, a head hospital orderly at Buchenwald, which he recognized because Krämer had successfully treated him in the past. Hereditary Prince Josias investigated the case and found that Koch, as the Camp Commandant, had ordered Krämer and Karl Peix, a hospital attendant, killed as "political prisoners" because they had treated him for

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

and he feared it might be discovered. Josias also received reports that a certain prisoner had been shot while attempting to escape, and discovered that in fact, the prisoner had been told to get water from a well some distance from the camp, then was shot from behind; he had also helped treat Koch for syphilis. By that time, Koch had been transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland, but his wife, Ilse, was still living at the Commandant's house in Buchenwald. Waldeck ordered a full-scale investigation of the camp by Georg Konrad Morgen, an SS officer who was an SS-judge in the SS Court Main Office. As a result of the investigation, more of Koch's orders to kill prisoners at the camp were revealed, as well as embezzlement of property stolen from prisoners. The Kochs had used the massive Nazi apparatus to gain an enormous amount of wealth. The Kochs were both arrested in August 1943 to await trial by an SS court. SS Judge Konrad Morgen formally indicted the Kochs on 17 August 1944, charging Karl Koch with the "embezzlement and concealing of funds and goods in an amount of at least 200,000 RM," and the "premeditated murder" of three inmates—ostensibly to prevent them from giving evidence to the SS investigatory commission. Ilse was charged with the "habitual receiving of stolen goods, and taking for her benefit at least 25,000 RM..." The trial resulted in Koch being sentenced to death for disgracing both himself and the SS. Koch was executed by

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

on 5 April 1945 one week before American allied troops arrived to liberate the camp. Contrary to some claims, however, Karl's body was not burned in the camp's crematoria, as they had run short of coal and had stopped operating in mid-March 1945. Instead, his body was disposed of in an unknown location.

Family

Koch first married Käte Müller in 1924 and had one psychiatrically troubled son named Manfred; however, this marriage ended with divorce in 1931 due to his infidelity. On 25 May 1937, Koch married

(née Margarete Ilse Köhler), with whom he had a son and two daughters. Ilse became known later as "The Witch of Buchenwald" (''Die Hexe von Buchenwald''), usually rendered in English as "The Bitch of Buchenwald." Though Ilse Koch never had any official job at Buchenwald or at any other concentration camp, many inmates alleged that she used the tacit authority she had as the commandant's wife to abuse prisoners, or seek their punishment by the camp SS.

Photo album of Sachsenhausen concentration camp

More than 55 years after Koch's execution, a private photo album of his was discovered in the FSB archives in Moscow. Koch received the album from his co-workers as a gift for his 40th birthday. The album documents the construction process of the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

. It consists of 460 photographs, including 200 neatly labeled photos — some with cynical remarks — of the creation of the camp in 1936 and 1937. The photos also depict the concentration camp personnel, and prisoners as they arrive in normal clothing and later appear for roll call with their heads shaved and dressed in prisoner uniforms.

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Benoît Cazenave, ''L’exemplarité du commandant SS Karl Otto Koch'', Revue de la Fondation Auschwitz, Bruxelles, 2005.