Oswald Kaduk (26 August 1906 – 31 May 1997) was a German SS member during the Nazi era. He served as ''Rapportführer'' at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Biography

The son of a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

, Kaduk was born in Königshütte,

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

. 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 ('' ...

he trained as a

butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...

before becoming one in 1924. As well as working at the local slaughterhouse, Kaduk also held positions with

fire fighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typicall ...

services at the municipal fire brigade in Chorzów and at a chemical plant.

World War II

In 1939 he joined the Allgemeine SS and in 1940 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 ...

. He was sent to the Eastern Front, but due to various illnesses and stays at military hospitals he was posted to Auschwitz in 1941. At first he was assigned to

watch tower A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is t ...

duties in 1942, then became Blockführer and finally Rapportführer. One prisoner reported that he had a weakness for

schnapps Schnapps ( or ) or schnaps is a type of alcoholic beverage that may take several forms, including distilled fruit brandies, herbal liqueurs, infusions, and "flavored liqueurs" made by adding fruit syrups, spices, or artificial flavorings to neu ...

. Kaduk was considered "one of the cruelest, brutalest, most vulgar" of SS men at Auschwitz: Historian Andrew Roberts in his book ''The Storm of War'' recounted Kaduk's practice of handing Jewish children balloons just before they were murdered with a phenol injection to the heart at a rate of ten children per minute. Kaduk witnessed the mass murder of people in gas chambers, and describing his SS colleagues inserting the

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 ...

gas, he said: Kaduk is also known for Kaduk's chapel, a tiny tower between the barracks and the main camp of Auschwitz.

Criminal convictions

After Germany's surrender, Kaduk worked in a sugar factory in

Löbau Löbau ( Upper Sorbian: Lubij) is a city in the east of Saxony, Germany, in the traditional region of Upper Lusatia. It is situated between the slopes of the Löbauer Berg and the fertile hilly area of the Upper Lusatian Mountains. It is the ga ...

. In December 1946 he was recognized by a former prisoner and consequently arrested by a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

military patrol. In 1947, a Soviet military tribunal sentenced him to 25 years of hard labour, but he was released in April 1956. Kaduk then went to

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, working at a hospital as a

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

. Despite his violent reputation at Auschwitz, he earned himself the nickname "Papa Kaduk" among patients. In July 1959 Kaduk was again arrested and appeared in the

Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, known in German as ''der Auschwitz-Prozess'', or ''der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess,'' (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, charging 22 defendants unde ...

where he was one of the main accused. On 19 August 1965 the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder in ten cases, and joint murder in at least one thousand cases. Because of the gravity of Kaduk's deeds, the responsible ''Spruchkammern'' rejected various pleas for

clemency A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

. While in prison, Kaduk was interviewed as part of a TV documentary about SS men stationed at Auschwitz. When asked about

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: ...

, Kaduk says: After the 1984 transfer to

open prison An open prison (open jail) is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employment w ...

(''Offener Vollzug''), Kaduk was released from the Schwalmstadt prison in 1989 due to health reasons (''Haftunfähigkeit''). He died in

Langelsheim Langelsheim is a town in the district of Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography The municipality is situated between the river Innerste and its tributary Grane, on the northern edge of the Harz mountain range and the Harz National Park, loc ...

Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

, as a pensioner in 1997, at the age of 90.

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: ''Menschen in Auschwitz.'' Frankfurt am Main, Berlin Wien, Ullstein-Verlag, 1980, . *

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum ( pl, Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau) is a museum on the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim (German: ''Auschwitz''), Poland. The site includes the main concentration camp at Auschwi ...

: ''Auschwitz in den Augen der SS.'' Oswiecim 1998, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaduk, Oswald 1906 births 1997 deaths People from Chorzów German military personnel of World War II German people convicted of murder SS non-commissioned officers Auschwitz concentration camp personnel People from the Province of Silesia Romani genocide perpetrators Waffen-SS personnel