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词条 Karl-Otto Koch
释义

  1. Life

  2. Service with the SS

  3. Prosecution and death

  4. Family

  5. See also

  6. Notes and references

{{Infobox military person
|name= Karl-Otto Koch
|birth_date={{birth date|1897|8|2|df=y}}
|death_date= {{death date and age|1945|4|5|1897|8|2|df=y}}
|birth_place = Darmstadt
|death_place = Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany
|image = Sachsenhausen - Ein KZ-Insasse kniet vor vier SS-Schergen, darunter Kommandant Karl Otto Koch.jpg
|caption = Koch (second from right), between 1933 and 1937
|nickname =
|allegiance = {{flag|Nazi Germany}}
|party = NSDAP
|branch = Schutzstaffel
SS-Totenkopfverbände
|serviceyears = 1916–1945
|rank = Standartenführer
|nationality =
|religion =
|education =
|citizenship =
|commands=Esterwegen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp
Majdanek concentration camp
|spouse = {{marriage |Ilse Köhler |25 May 1936 | }}
|children = 4 (3 by Ilse Koch)}}

Karl-Otto Koch ({{IPA-de|kɔx|lang}}; 2 August 1897 – 5 April 1945) was a mid-ranking commander in the SS of Nazi Germany who was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. From September 1941 until August 1942, he served as the first commandant of the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland, stealing vast amounts of valuables and money from murdered Jews.[1] His wife, Ilse Koch, also took part in the notorious crimes at Buchenwald and Majdanek.

Life

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

In 1916, he volunteered to join the army and fought on the Western Front until he was later captured by the British. Koch spent the rest of the war as a POW and returned to Germany in 1919. As a soldier, he conducted himself well and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class, the Observer's Badge and the Wound Badge in Black. Following World War I, Koch worked as a commercial manager, an authorised signatory and insurance agent and became unemployed in 1932 (he had served a prison sentence in 1930 for embezzlement and forgery). In 1931, Karl-Otto Koch joined the NSDAP and the Schutzstaffel.[2][3]

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 after 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. In 13 June 1935, when he became commander of the Columbia concentration camp in Berlin-Tempelhof. In April 1936 he was assigned to the concentration camp at Esterwegen. Four months later he was moved to Sachsenhausen. Within a few years (September 1937) he advanced to SS-Standartenführer (colonel).[2].

On 1 August 1937, he was given command of the new concentration camp at Buchenwald. He remained at Buchenwald until September 1941, when he was transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp for POWs[3] near Lublin, Poland. That was largely due to an investigation based on allegations of his improper conduct 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 after 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 Personalhauptamt and as a liaison between the SS and the German Post-Office.[4]

Prosecution and death

Koch's actions at Buchenwald first caught the attention of SS-Obergruppenführer Josias, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1941. In glancing over the death list of Buchenwald, Josias had stumbled across the name of Dr Walter Krämer, a head hospital orderly at Buchenwald, which he recognized because Krämer had successfully treated him in the past. Josias investigated the case and found out that Koch, in a position as the Camp Commandant, had ordered Krämer and Karl Peixof, a hospital attendant, killed as "political prisoners" because they had treated him for syphilis and he feared it might be discovered.[5] Waldeck also received reports that a certain prisoner had been shot while attempting to escape.

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 Dr Georg Konrad Morgen, an SS officer who was an SS-judge in the SS Court Main Office. Throughout the investigation, more of Koch's orders to kill prisoners at the camp were revealed, as well as embezzlement of property stolen from prisoners.[5]

A charge of incitement to murder was lodged by Prince Waldeck and Dr Morgen against Koch{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}, to which were later added charges of embezzlement. Other camp officials were charged, including Koch's wife. The trial resulted in Koch being sentenced to death for disgracing both himself and the SS.[6] Koch was executed by firing squad on 5 April 1945,[5] one week before American allied troops arrived to liberate the camp.[7]

Family

Koch first married in 1924 and had one son; however, his marriage ended in divorce 1931, due to his infidelity. On May 25, 1936 Koch married Ilse Koch (née Margarete Ilse Köhler), with whom he had a son and two daughters. Ilse later became known as "The Witch of Buchenwald" (Die Hexe von Buchenwald), usually rendered more alliteratively in English as "The Bitch of Buchenwald."[8] When Koch was transferred to Buchenwald, Ilse was appointed an Oberaufseherin (overseer) by the SS and thus had an active, official role in the atrocities committed there. She was known for extreme cruelty towards prisoners.[5]

See also

  • Buchenwald Resistance
  • Phil Lamason, Allied airman taken to Buchenwald

Notes and references

1. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/majdanek.html|title=Majdanek Concentration Camp (a.k.a. KL Lublin)|publisher=H.E.A.R.T, Holocaust Research Project.org|year=2007|accessdate=11 August 2013|author=Chris Webb, Carmelo Lisciotto}}
2. ^Gedenkstätte Buchenwald: Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1937-1945: A Guide to the Permanent Historical Exhibition, Wallstein Verlag, 2004 p 41-43
3. ^Whitlock Flint: Buchenwaldské bestie: Karl a Ilse Kochovi a lampy se stínítkem z lidské kůže, Grada Publishing, a.s., Sep 29, 2015 p. 326-327
4. ^Rescue and Resistance: Portraits of the Holocaust, Macmillan Library Reference USA, Jan 1, 1999 p. 311
5. ^{{citation | last = Hackett | first = David A. | title= The Buchenwald Report | publisher = Westview Press | year = 1995 | page = 341 }}
6. ^{{cite web|title=Schutzstaffel: The SS|date=|url=http://www.germaniainternational.com/ss25.html|publisher=Germania International|accessdate=18 May 2009}}
7. ^Mark Jacobson: The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans, Simon and Schuster, Sep 14, 2010 p. 15
8. ^{{cite book|title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich|author=William L. Shirer|year=1990|page=885|edition=3rd|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York}}
  • Benoît Cazenave, L’exemplarité du commandant SS Karl Otto Koch, Revue de la Fondation Auschwitz, Bruxelles, 2005.
{{s-start}}{{s-mil}}{{s-bef|before= SS-Oberführer Alexander Reiner}}{{s-ttl|title= Commandant of Columbia-Haus concentration camp|years=13 June 1935 – 1 April 1936}}{{s-aft|after= SS-Oberführer Heinrich Deubel}}{{s-bef|before=SS-Oberführer Hans Loritz}}{{s-ttl|title= Commandant of Esterwegen concentration camp|years=20 April 1936 – August 1936}}{{s-aft|after= absorbed into Sachsenhausen K.L.}}{{s-bef|before= SS-Obersturmbannführer Michael Lippert}}{{s-ttl|title= Commandant of Sachsenhausen concentration camp|years= October 1936 – 1 August 1937}}{{s-aft|after= SS-Oberführer Hans Helwig}}{{s-bef|before=none}}{{s-ttl|title= Commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp|years=1 August 1937 – July 1941}}{{s-aft|after=SS-Standartenführer Hermann Pister}}{{s-bef|before= none}}{{s-ttl|title= Commandant of Majdanek concentration camp|years=July 1941 – 24 August 1942}}{{s-aft|after= SS-Sturmbannführer Max Koegel}}{{s-end}}{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Karl-Otto}}

22 : 1897 births|1945 deaths|People from Darmstadt|Nazis who served in World War I|German prisoners of war in World War I|World War I prisoners of war held by the United Kingdom|Buchenwald concentration camp personnel|Executed Nazi concentration camp personnel|People executed by Germany by firing squad|People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse|SS-Standartenführer|Executed German people|Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 2nd class|Majdanek concentration camp personnel|Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel|Nazi concentration camp commandants|People from Hesse executed in Nazi concentration camps|Nazis executed by Nazi Germany|Waffen-SS personnel|German people who died in Buchenwald concentration camp|Schutzhaftlagerführer|Lichtenburg concentration camp personnel

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