Hans Münch

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Dr Hans Münch (1911 - 2001) was an SS Physician at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland from 1943 to 1945. He was the only accused person acquitted at the 1947 Auschwitz trials in Kraków. Later on, he worked as a practising physician in Roßhaupten in Bavaria.

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[edit] Early career

After the Gymnasium, Hans Münch studied medicine at Tübingen and Munich Universities and became engaged in the political section of the Reichsstudentenführung (Reich’s leadership of university students) [1]. In 1934, he joined the NSDStB.- Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (National Socialist German Students' League) and the NSKK - Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (National Socialist Motor Corps). In May 1937, he joined the NSDAP. He received his doctor's degree and married a physician in 1939.

When WWII started, he replaced country doctors in their practices in the Bavarian countryside as they had been drawn for the army; Münch himself had attempted to enlist in the Wehrmacht, but had been refused enlistment as his work as a doctor was considered too important.[2] In June 1943, he was recruited as a scientist by the Waffen-SS and was sent to the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS in Raisko, about 4 km from the main camp at Auschwitz.

[edit] Auschwitz

In Auschwitz, Münch worked alongside the infamous Josef Mengele, who was of the same age and also came from Bavaria.

Münch continued the bacteriological research he was known for before the war, as well as making occasional inspections of the camps and the prisoners. In the summer of 1944, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (Junior Storm Leader).

Along with other doctors, Münch was initially expected to make "selections" - to choose which inmates could work, which would be experimented on, and which would be exterminated. He found this abhorrent and refused to take part; this was testified to by witnesses at his trial. While Münch did conduct human experiments, these were often elaborate farces intended to protect inmates, as experimentees who were no longer useful were usually killed.

Münch's last act before the camp was abandoned was allegedly to provide one inmate, Dr Louis Micheels, with a revolver to assist his escape.[3] After the evacuation of Auschwitz in 1945, Münch spent three months at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich.

[edit] Trial in Poland in 1946

After the war in 1945, Münch was arrested in a US internment camp after being identified as an Auschwitz physician. He was delivered as a prisoner to Poland in 1946, where he stood trial at Kraków.[4]

He was specifically accused of injecting inmates with malaria-infected blood, and with a serum that caused rheumatism, however, many former concentration camp prisoners testified in support of Münch in their witness speeches.

The court acquitted him on December 22 1947 "not only because he did not commit any crime of harm against the camp prisoners, but because he had a benevolent attitude toward them and helped them, while he had to carry the responsibility. He did this independently from the nationality, race-and-religious origin and political conviction of the prisoners."[5] The court's acquittal was based, amongst other things, on his strict refusal to make selections among the incoming prisoners on the ramps.

Of the 41 Auschwitz staff tried in Kraków, only Münch was acquitted. He was also called the 'Good Man of Auschwitz', who had saved prisoners from death in the gas chambers.[6] Later on, he took over a country doctor's practice in Roßhaupten in the region of Ostallgäu, Bavaria.

[edit] Later life as contemporary witness

In 1964, Münch testified in the first Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt on Main and in the following trials he was called as to present his expert opinon.

The book on SS-physicians of Auschwitz by Robert Jay Liftons Buch (1986) Dr. Hans Münch is mentioned. He is described as the only SS-physician whose commitment to the hippocratic oath proved stronger than the SS-oath. And this because he refused to take part in the selections at the ramp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the selection of the incoming transports of Jewish women, men and children either for work in the concentration camp or for death in the gas chambers was effected. [7]

In the Federal Republic of Germany, Münch took part in discussion meetings and commemoration ceremonies. He was appreciated as a saviour of many Auschwitz prisoners, thereby putting his own life at risk. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he made a journey back to the concentration camp. Münch was invited by Eva Mozes Kor, a survivor of Josef Mengele's experiments on twins. Both of them, Münch and Kor, signed public declarations regarding what had happened there, and that such a thing should never be allowed to happen again.

During his last years, Münch lived in the Allgäu region on the Forggen lake with a view on the Neuschwanstein Castle. He died at the age of 90 in 2001.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Criminal prosecution proceedings in the FRG (1998)

In 1998, the journalist Bruno Schirra published an interview with Münch, conducted a year earlier, in the magazine Der Spiegel.[8] Schirra and Münch had watched the film Schindler's List, and the interview was conducted directly after the viewing.

"Yes, sure I'm a perpetrator. I have saved a lot of people by killing some other people. [...] I'm assessed as a humane but not sentenced war criminal. I could make experiments with human beings, otherwise only possible with rabbits. This had been very important scientific work. [...] There were ideal working conditions, excellent laboratory equipment, and an elite of academics of worldwide reputation. [...] The malaria experiments were quite harmless. I made a test: Is this man immune or not? [...] In the Hygiene-Institute I was king. [...] Perhaps they wouldn't be sent to the gas chambers, but they would have died miserably due to epidemics."

– Dr. Hans Münch,: Der Spiegel, 40/1998, Page 90ff

A few days later, Dirk Münch, Dr. Münch's son, publicly expressed his lack of comprehension of this interview.[9] He explained that his father had been suffering from poor concentration for two years. He criticised the fact that Schindler's List had been watched directly before the interview, saying that this would had been very exhausting due to the film's three hour length and his father's advanced age. Dirk Münch stated that, after the film, his father had even confused the female house cat Minka with the male cat Peter.

The Bavarian Justice Ministry initiated proceedings of criminal prosecution as a reaction to the interview. The Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufklärung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen (The central authority of the judicial administrations of the German Länder for the clarification of national socialist crimes) opened preliminary proceedings. The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded the Bavarian government immediately arrest Dr. Münch. The authorities looked through Stasi-files from the secret police of East Germany (GDR) and demanded Der Spiegel hand over the tape recordings of the Münch interview in order to determine to what extent the public prosecutor should act. The assumptions of possible participations in National Socialist crimes[10] were based on three indications:

participation in the duty at the selection ramp[11], participation in selections directly within the concentration camp[12] participation in experiments with human material leading to the death of the test persons[13].

The criminal proceedings against Dr. Münch were dropped in January 2000 due to "progressed dementia".[14] One year later, Dr. Münch died.

[edit] Engagement in Shoa-Documentary (1999)

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In March 2000, the documentary film Die letzten Tage was released in the German cinemas. In 1999, this film had already been released in the USA with the original title The Last Days and the suitability recommendation for 16 years of age. The film was supported by the "Survivors of the Shoa Visual History Foundation", which had been founded by Steven Spielberg. Dr. Münch participated in this documentary film. As a contemporary witness, he met and talked with the surviving camp inmate Renée Firestone, whose sister had died in Auschwitz during experiments with humans. A film review pointed out that the American version of the film had no clear indication about the fact, that the contemporary witness Dr. Münch already suffered from the Alzheimer's disease at this point of time. Only the credits of the film would provide this information, and are in French.[15]

[edit] Proceedings and conviction in France (2000-2001)

In 1998, Münch had made derogative statements about Roma and Sinti in the French radio France-Inter, where he said that the gas chambers would had been the only solution for them. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on 7. Mai 2001 that the Paris appeal court had annulled the acquittal from June 2000. In these proceedings, Münch had been accused of'"incitement to race hatred". He had not taken part in the court hearing. A medical expert opinion had certified him "psychological disturbances". The acquittal was based on this expert opinion.

In May 2001, Münch was convicted in Paris for "incitement to race hatred" and "belittlement of crimes against humanity". The prosecutor had demanded not the imprisonment of Münch but his release on licence. Münch was found guilty but due to his old age and his mental health, the Paris appeal court renounced that the 89-year old Münch should serve the sentence. Also during these proceedings, Münch did not attend thecourt hearing.

In September 2001, the French Radio broadcasted the interview with Münch from 1998 anew. The organisations Lawyers Without Borders, the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism and the Union of Jewish Students in France lodged complaints against this interview. In 2002, all of the accused responsible staff members of the public-law broadcasting institution Radio France were acquitted from the accusation of assistance in incitement to race hatred. The reasoning of the court decision reads that all radio listeners would have understand that Münch's statements about Sinti and Roma and about NS-extermination camps were taken from the Nazi-propaganda.[16]

[edit] Today

[edit] Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future"

The foundation "Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft" (Remembrance, Responsibility and Future) has Dr. Hans Münch in its listings as participant in malaria-experiments on Auschwitz camp inmates[17] whereas he is not listed for the malaria-experiments in the Dachau concentration camp, which had been effected until 5. April 1945 under the directing physician Prof. Claus Schilling.[18]

[edit] Fritz Bauer-Institute

In the years 2002 and 2003, the Fritz Bauer-Institute in Frankfurt on Main focused on the anaylsis of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial and its effects on the socio-political-judicial-historical levels in the FRG. There was an explicit invitation to participate in the series of public meetings and discussion events on perpetrators' and victims' biographies in the Nazi-Regime. On 4. November 2002, Prof. Dr. Helgard gave the lecture "SS-Ärzte in Auschwitz und im Ersten Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess" (SS-physicians in Auschwitz and in the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial).

"In the concentration camp of Auschwitz, the SS-physicians became the technicians of mass murder. The self-presentation of the SS-physicians will be examined focused on the case of the camp physician Dr. Eduard Wirths, who wrote a justification note after 1945 and who committed suicide in British arrest as well as focused on the case of Dr. Münch, against whom criminal proceedings were initiated by the public prosecutor of Frankfurt due to participation in NS-crimes after an interview with Bruno Shirra published in Der Spiegel in 1998. Münch, who was acquitted as the only one from 40 members of the Auschwitz SS-staff by the highest Polish court in Kraków, became the important 'neutral' witness of the reality in Auschwitz during the first Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt on Main and gained the status of an expert in later trials. The justifications document of Eduard Wirths had been during the proceedings, too. The special focus of the examinations was, which ideas of humane behaviour and of fairness had been developed in the statements of the SS-physicians on the one hand, and in the judgement reasonings of the first Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt on Main on the other hand."[19]

[edit] Study: Examination of the former trials

Within the context of the Holocaust research, Prof. Dr. Helgard Kramer reports about details in a study from 2005: Dr. Hans Münch was heard in the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial and even called as an expert on 2nd and 5th March 1964. Until the year 2000, the public prosecutor of Frankfurt on Main had only knowledge about the judgement of the Kraków proceedings but not about the protocols and the witness hearings. Dr. Münch had stated that he had been forced into the Waffen-SS and that he would had come to Birkenau at the end of 1944. During the discussion of the second hearing he only corrected himself, that he had already arrived in 1943. The documents of the witness hearing provided the answer of Dr. Münch to the precises questions of the prosecutor during the main hearing of 1947:

"The camp doctor demanded me to participate in the selections and officially I could not refuse ist, because this would have meant insubordination. But I had found a way to avoid these things as a physician."

Dr. Münch was questioned about the medical experiments he had effected in Block 10. The questioning was stopped, when he demanded an expert colleague as interrogator.[20] Professor Jan Sehn had prepared the Kraków Trial of 1947 as examining magistrate. He ordered Dr. Münch with the medical treatment of another inmate. He also sent the whole stock of files of the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS in Raisko into his cell for "arranging".[21] Then the files were kept by the Kraków journalist Mieczysław Kieta, who later on engaged himself with the most efforts for the exculpation of Dr. Münch.[22][23] Kieta worked within the command range of the SS-Hygienics Institute as a laboratory assistant under the supervision of Münch.[24] Several concentration camp inmates have certified the fairness of Dr. Münch. Three of them are often quoted. The Hungarian medical science professor Geza Mansfeld was regarded as the most important among them. He praised Dr. Münch, as he had prevented his selection for the gas chambers and who had organised him drugs because Prof. Mansfeld suffered from a stomach ulcer. In return Dr. Münch obtained a training in Serology, Bacteriology and Chemistry. Mansfeld was one of the international famous "capacities" in these fields and he was meant to provide his knowledge to the Hygienics Institute for free.[25]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Politischer Leiter der Reichsstudentenführung
  2. ^ Jewish Virtual Library Biography
  3. ^ Candles Holocaust Museum bio
  4. ^ FU Berlin: SS-Mediziner in Auschwitz.Berlin 2005 (pdf)
  5. ^ Translation of the trial findings
  6. ^ Die Welt: Reportage zu Dr. Hans Münch, Januar 2005
  7. ^ FU Berlin: SS-Mediziner in Auschwitz.Berlin 2005 (pdf)
  8. ^ Bruno Schirra: Die Erinnerung der Täter. In: Der Spiegel, Nr. 40, 28. September 1998, p.90–100
  9. ^ Der Spiegel, Nr. 42, 12. Oktober 98
  10. ^ Public prosecutor at the Regional Court of Frankfurt 50 Js 31738.6/98.
  11. ^ Ebd., Bd. II, Bl. 455 ff. former prelimanary proceedings against Münch had been dropped due to lack of proof material. Vgl. Einstellungsverfügung vom 25.9.1963, 4Ks 2/63, Bd. 88, Bl. 16674 und vom 13.7.1989 (Js 23281.6/89) 50 Js 31738.6/98, Duplo-Sonderheft A, S.15.
  12. ^ SH-Dokumente, Aussage Radvanský 1999, 50Js 31738.6/98.
  13. ^ Deputy assistant of the camp doctor Dr. Heinz Thilo 1943 in the camp Birkenau BIIf
  14. ^ Sonderband Ärztliche Gutachten,50 Js 31738.6/98.
  15. ^ Filmbesprechung Die letzten Tage
  16. ^ Französischer Rundfunk vom Vorwurf der Beihilfe des Aufrufes zum Rassenhass freigesprochen (2002).
  17. ^ Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft
  18. ^ Versuche von Dr. Schilling
  19. ^ Fritz Bauer Institut, Veranstaltungsliste zu: Täter- und Opferbiografien im NS-Regime, 2002
  20. ^ 50 Js 31738.6/98, Special expertise Smoleń, Excerpt from the hearing's protocol, p.27.
  21. ^ 50 Js 31738.6/98, Special expertise Gutachten Smoleń, Excerpt from the hearing's protocol, p. 132 ff.
  22. ^ Letter of the prosecutor Ursula Solf to Smoleń from 2.12.1999, 50Js 31738.6/98, Bd. I, Bl. 212
  23. ^ Special expertise Smoleń, p. 11, p. 15. Smoleń indicates that the pages of the main book of the SS-Hygiene Institute concerning the end of 1943 are torn out
  24. ^ Mieczysław Kieta, Das SS-Hygiene-Institut in Auschwitz, in: Hefte von Auschwitz, Texts of the Polish magazine Przegląd Lekarski about historical, psychic und medical aspects of living and dying in Auschwitz. Bd. 1, Weinheim 1987, p. 213–217.
  25. ^ comp. also Lifton, Ärzte, p. 378 f.

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