Josef Klehr (17 October 1904 – 23 August 1988) was an
SS-''
Oberscharführer __NOTOC__
''Oberscharführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between 1932 and 1945. ''Oberscharführer'' was first used as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions ...
'' (master sergeant), supervisor in several
Nazi concentration camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
and head of the SS disinfection commando at
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) 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 con ...
.
Life
Klehr was born as the son of a teacher. After attending the
Volksschule
The German term ''Volksschule'' generally refers to compulsory education, denoting an educational institution every person (i.e. the people, ''Volk'') is required to attend.
In Germany and Switzerland it is equivalent to a combined primary (' ...
in
Wohlau until 1918 he got an apprenticeship with a cabinet maker, passing the exam in 1921 that allowed him to do it by trade.
As of 1934 he worked as a night porter in a community home, then subsequently as a nurse in a sanatorium.
[ From 1938 he was assistant sergeant at Wohlau prison.]
Klehr was a member of the Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
and Allgemeine SS
The ''Allgemeine SS'' (; "General SS") was a major branch of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany; it was managed by the SS Main Office (''SS-Hauptamt''). The ''Allgemeine SS'' was officially established in the autum ...
as of 1932. He participated in military exercises with the Wehrmacht and received training to become a medic. Shortly before the beginning of the war he was drafted into the Waffen-SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
.[ In August 1939 he was transferred to ]Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
as a guard, then to Dachau concentration camp
,
, commandant = List of commandants
, known for =
, location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany
, built by = Germany
, operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS)
, original use = Political prison
, construction ...
as a medical orderly a year later.[ In January 1941 he was promoted to SS-]Unterscharführer
''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creation o ...
and transferred to Auschwitz, working as a medical orderly in the prisoners' infirmary.[
Klehr was renowned for killing by ]phenol
Phenol (also called carbolic acid) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () bonded to a hydroxy group (). Mildly acidic, it req ...
injections into the heart, something he essentially took over as of some time in 1942. He devised ways to optimise the speed of the killing process, such as experimenting with the positioning of prisoners before their injection.
Klehr occasionally conducted selections himself, and when he was informed that the camp doctor was unavailable, stated immediately, "Today I am the camp doctor." For example, on 29 August 1942, he and Friedrich Entress
Friedrich Karl Hermann Entress (8 December 1914 – 28 May 1947) was a German camp doctor in various concentration and extermination camps during the Second World War. He conducted human medical experimentation at Auschwitz and introduced the proce ...
selected 746 prisoners to be gassed under the guise of fighting a typhus epidemic. Due to various descriptions of him standing against a background of corpses "wearing either a white coat or "a pink-rubber apron and rubber gloves" and "holding a 20-cc hypodermic with a long needle" in his hands, Klehr has been described as the "ultimate caricature of the omnipotent Auschwitz doctor."[ He was famed for his sadistic cruelty.
As told by ]Witold Pilecki
Witold Pilecki (13 May 190125 May 1948; ; codenames ''Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold'') was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader.
As a youth, Pilecki joined Polish underground sc ...
, who had first hand knowledge of Klehr's operations in Auschwitz "They were not exclusively those seriously ill or exhausted. Some were here only because Klehr did not like them and put them down in the "needle list", there was no way out. The butchers were also different than in the beginning of the camp; nevertheless I do not know if they may be called degenerates. Klehr used to murder with his needle with great zeal, mad eyes and sadistic smile, he put a stroke on the wall after the killing of each victim. In my times, he brought the list of those killed by him up to the number fourteen thousand and he boasted every day with great delight, like a hunter who told of the trophies of the chase."
In 1943 Klehr became head of the disinfection squad (''Desinfektionskommando''). As a handler of Zyklon B
Zyklon B (; translated Cyclone B) was the trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide invented in Germany in the early 1920s. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid), as well as a cautionary eye irritant and one of several adsorbents such ...
his tasks included not only delousing living quarters and clothes, but direct involvement in the mass gassing of prisoners.[ He was one of those responsible for inserting the gas.] He was present during selections where those incapable of working were sent to the gas chambers, and drew up a schedule as to who under him was to insert the Zyklon B.[Naumann, Bernd. ''Auschwitz'' (NY:1966), pp 76-77.]
On 20 April 1943 Klehr was awarded the War Merit Cross
The War Merit Cross (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Merit ...
second class with swords. He was transferred to the Gleiwitz subcamp in 1944 where he was head of the prisoners' hospital and was medically responsible for Glewitz camps I to IV.
After the war
Upon the evacuation of Auschwitz, Klehr guarded prisoners being transported to Gross-Rosen concentration camp
, known for =
, location =
, built by =
, operated by =
, commandant =
, original use =
, construction =
, in operation = Summer of 1940 – 14 February 1945
, gas cham ...
, after which he was taken under command by an SS combat unit. In early May 1945, he was taken prisoner in Austria by U.S. soldiers. Klehr spent nearly three years in an internment camp. He was released from custody in April 1948. Klehr returned to his family in Braunschweig and resumed work as a cabinet maker. In April 1960 the Frankfurt prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant which was executed in September after Klehr's whereabouts were determined.[
On 19 August 1965, the court convicted him of murder in at least 475 cases, assistance in the joint murder of at least 2730 cases, and sentenced him to life imprisonment with an additional 15 years.][ A witness, surnamed Głowacki, testified in court that Klehr killed the women who survived the massacre after the alleged uprising at the Budy female subcamp by phenol injection.]
While in prison, Klehr was interviewed by journalist and film-maker Ebbo Demant. When Demant brought up Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements:
...
, Klehr said:
On 25 January 1988, Klehr's sentence was suspended due to unfitness for custody (''Vollzugsuntauglichkeit''). On 10 June, he was ordered to serve the remainder on probation. After seven months of freedom, he died at age 83.[
]
Literature
* Demant, Ebbo (Hg.): ''Auschwitz — "Direkt von der Rampe weg…" Kaduk, Erber, Klehr: Drei Täter geben zu Protokoll'': Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1979;
* Ernst Klee
Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...
: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'' Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005;
* Hermann Langbein
Hermann Langbein (18 May 1912 – 24 October 1995) was an Austrian communist resistance fighter and historian.
He fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigades for the Spanish Republicans against the Nationalists under Francis ...
: ''Menschen in Auschwitz.'' Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980; .
* Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum: ''Auschwitz in den Augen der SS.'' Oswiecim 1998; .
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klehr, Josef
1904 births
1988 deaths
Holocaust perpetrators in Poland
People from Karkonosze County
People from the Province of Silesia
Nazi Party members
Auschwitz concentration camp medical personnel
Physicians in the Nazi Party
German people convicted of murder
People convicted of murder by Germany
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany
Nazi human subject research
SS non-commissioned officers
Buchenwald concentration camp personnel
Dachau concentration camp personnel
Waffen-SS personnel
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States
People convicted in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials