Hans Wilhelm König (13 May 1912 – c. 1991) was a German

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 ...

Obersturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary ranks, Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, National Socialist Motor Corps, NSKK and the ...

'' and a Lagerarzt (camp doctor) at the

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, 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 consisted of Auschw ...

and

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and List of subcamps of Neuengamme, more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme, Hamburg, N ...

Life and career

After completing primary schooling, König began studying medicine. He completed a nine-month internship as a medical assistant in 1938 at the University of Göttingen Medical Center. On July 16, 1938, he married the Swedish woman Dagmar Kalling in Oslo. König became an assistant doctor in

Höxter Höxter () is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on the left bank of the river Weser, 52 km north of Kassel. It lies the heart of the Weser Uplands, and is the seat of the Höxter district. The district of Höxter has a popul ...

in November of the next year, and moved into Godelheim in 1941. König completed his doctorate on 30 March 1943 by submitting his dissertation to the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. König 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 ...

on 1 September 1939, then joined the

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

in June 1943. Around this time, he became a camp doctor at

Auschwitz I Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, 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 consisted of Auschwitz ...

Birkenau Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. There he participated in selections for the gas chambers in the women's camps, tested drugs on prisoners on behalf of

IG Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German Chemical industry, chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical co ...

and

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

, and tested

electroshock weapon An electroshock weapon is an incapacitating weapon. It delivers an electric shock aimed at temporarily disrupting muscle functions and/or inflicting pain, usually without causing significant injury. Many types of these devices exist. Stun guns, b ...

s on female prisoners. In Autumn of 1944, König succeeded Horst Fischer as supervisor of Auschwitz III. König passed through the Mittelbau camp when Auschwitz was evacuated and resumed his work at Neuengamme. Under the pseudonym Ernest Peltz, König escaped to

Colnrade Colnrade is a municipality in the district of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alp ...

, where he received a permit to practice medicine as a doctor from the British authority. When rumors about Peltz's authenticity began circulating and an investigation was opened, he closed his practice in 1962 and fled the country. While his whereabouts are unknown, it is believed that König died sometime in 1991.

Conduct at Auschwitz

Hermann Langbein records in ''People of Auschwitz'' that König used his time at Auschwitz to advance his medical studies. König studied with Jewish doctors, whom he treated cordially, but also performed dangerous and invasive procedures on the basis of his own interest. One of those physicians, , described that prisoners whose sickness interested König received better care until he grew bored with their condition, at which point König assigned them to the gas chamber.

Legacy

König is mentioned by name in

Binjamin Wilkomirski ''Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood'' is a 1995 book, whose author used the pseudonym Binjamin Wilkomirski, which purports to be a memoir of the Holocaust. It was debunked by Swiss journalist and writer in August 1998. The subsequent di ...

's fraudulent autobiography ''Fragments'', but König was not present at Auschwitz at the same time Wilkomirski alleged he was.

References

Notes Bibliography * * * *

External links

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at the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

's website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Koenig, Hans Wilhelm SS-Obersturmführer Auschwitz concentration camp medical personnel Physicians in the Nazi Party Place of death missing Nazi human subject research Physicians from Stuttgart 1912 births Year of death unknown People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Waffen-SS personnel Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Missing German people