Ernst Zierke (6 May 1905 – 23 May 1972) was a low-ranking member in the SS who took part in the Action T4 forced euthanasia program in Nazi Germany, and after the invasion of Poland worked at

Bełżec Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all History of Jews in Poland, Polish Jews, a major part of the "Fina ...

and Sobibór extermination camps during

Operation Reinhard or ''Einsatz Reinhard'' , location = Occupied Poland , date = October 1941 – November 1943 , incident_type = Mass deportations to extermination camps , perpetrators = Odilo Globočnik, Hermann Höfle, Richard Thomalla, Erwin L ...

. Zierke helped to perpetrate the Holocaust. He was charged with being an accessory to the murder of 360,000 Jews at

death camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

, acquitted twice, in the

Belzec Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution" which in total ...

and

Sobibór trial The Sobibor trial was a 1965–66 judicial trial in the West German prosecution of SS officers who had worked at Sobibor extermination camp; it was held in Hagen. It was one of a series of similar war crime trials held during the early and mid-1 ...

s of 1965 on grounds of acting under duress and set free.

Career

Zierke was born on 6 May 1905 in Köslin. His father, a railroad worker, died in 1917. Zierke joined the Nazi Party and SA in 1930. He trained as a nurse at the Neuruppin hospital and eventually received a permanent civil service appointment. In late 1939, he was recruited by Action T4 and worked as staff in the euthanasia program at both the Grafeneck and Hadamar gassing centers. Zierke was transferred to Eichberg euthanasia center in late 1941. From January to March 1942, he was part of T4's Organisation Todt in the Soviet Union, then returned to Eichberg.

Henry Friedlander Henry Egon Friedlander (24 September 1930 – 17 October 2012) was a German-American Jewish historian of the Holocaust who was noted for his arguments in favor of broadening the scope of casualties of the Holocaust. Born in Berlin, Germany, to a ...

(1995). ''The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution'', Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, p. 242.

Death camp service

From June 1942 to March 1943 he was a member of the

Bełżec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution" which in total ...

staff. At Bełżec, Zierke worked primarily on the unloading ramp of arriving transports and supervised the undressing of the victims prior to them entering the gas chambers. Klee, Ernst, Dressen, Willi, Riess, Volker. ''The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders'', p. 303. . He then worked briefly at the Dorohucza transit camp, from which he was sent to Sobibór extermination camp on 5 November 1943. Zierke's final task at Sobibor was to supervise the dismantling of the camp's structures. He participated in the mass murder of the last group of more than thirty commando Jews (''Arbeitsjuden'') who had dismantled the camp at Sobibor. In the hands-on killings, Zierke was aided by ''SS-Unterscharführer'' Erich Sporleder, and ''SS-Scharführer'' Robert Jührs. In December 1943 he was ordered to Italy to serve with

Globocnik Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globocnik (21 April 1904 – 31 May 1945) was an Austrian Nazi and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. He was an official of the Nazi Party and later a high-ranking leader of the SS. Globocnik had a leading role in Operation Re ...

(his death camp superior), at Risiera di San Sabba camp complex. After the end of the war Zierke was arrested in a POW camp and released. He became a saw mill worker.Sobibor - The Forgotten Revolt.
Internet Archive. Zierke was rearrested on 31 January 1963 in West Germany along with a group of Holocaust perpetrators facing trial. He was acquitted twice, both at the

Bełżec Trial The Belzec trial (german: Belzec-Prozess, pl, proces Bełżec) in the mid-1960s was a war crimes trial of eight former SS members of Bełżec extermination camp. The trial was held at the 1st Munich District Court (''Landgericht München I'') and ...

in Munich in 1964, and at the Sobibor Trial in

Hagen Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...

(1965). He was released from custody a free man, and died of health complications in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

eight years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zierke, Ernst 1905 births 1972 deaths People from Koszalin Aktion T4 personnel Belzec extermination camp personnel German nurses Nazi concentration camp personnel Sturmabteilung personnel Sobibor extermination camp personnel Sobibor trial SS non-commissioned officers