Karl Fritzsch

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SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Karl Fritzsch

SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch (born 1903 died 1945), German National Socialist (Nazi) official.

He joined the Nazi Party in 1930. He was the Lagerführer (Camp Leader) in the Dachau concentration camp from 1933 to 1940, and was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940.

The horrible conditions in Auschwitz were made more dreadful by Fritzsch. For example, if a prisoner in a prison bunker escaped, he would pick ten or more inmates to be starved to death and to suffer other horrifying torments. In 1941, he and Rudolf Hoess, the Auschwitz camp commandant, introduced the use of Zyklon B, a Cyanide-based insecticide powder which was used in the gas chambers.

After a year, Fritzsch transferred to Flossenbürg camp, where he was promoted to camp commandant. He returned to Auschwitz, and in 1945, when the Red Army liberated the camp, Fritzsch was killed by the Russians. The two other high officials in the camp, Rudolf Hoess and Arthur Liebehenschel, were arrested and later executed.