| Viktor Capesius | |
|---|---|
| Mugshot of Viktor Capesius | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 February 1907 Reußmarkt, Transylvania |
| Died | 20 March 1985 (aged 78) Göppingen, Germany |
| Nationality | German/Romanian |
| Political party | National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) |
| Spouse(s) | Wife |
| Children | 3 children |
| Occupation | Doctor of Pharmacy |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Service/branch | Schutzstaffel |
| Rank | SS-Sturmbannführer |
Viktor Capesius (b. February 7, 1907 Reußmarkt, Transylvania (Romania) - d. March 20, 1985 Göppingen, Germany) was a Nazi SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) as a KZ-Apotheker (concentration camp pharmacist) who served in Dachau from 1943–1944 and in Auschwitz from 1944-1945.
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Capesius, the son of a physician and pharmacist, began his academic studies in 1924 at the University of Cluj after graduating from high school. He worked towards a pharmacy degree and then transferred to the University of Vienna where in 1933, he received his Doctorate of Pharmacy. Capesius married in 1934 and worked for a subsidiary of IG Farben selling products to doctors and pharmacists.
After the start of World War II in 1939, Capesius joined the Romanian army and rose to the rank of captain while serving at a military hospital's pharmacy.
As an ethnic German, Capesius soon moved to the Waffen-SS after Romania joined the Axis powers in 1940.[1] Followed by his training at the SS-Zentrale Sanitäranlage (Central Sanitary Facility) in Warsaw, he was sent to Dachau Concentration Camp in September 1943 to February 1944. Capesius was then sent in February 1944 to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where he remained until the camp was evacuated in January 1945 as the KZ-Apotheker (Camp Pharmacist).[2]
Capesius worked closely with Josef Mengele and together they were involved in the selection of inmates for the gas chamber.[3] He had risen to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer while at the camp and was in charge of using chemicals such as Phenol and Zyklon B as a means to liquidate the Jews.
After the liberation of the camp, he went into hiding in Schleswig-Holstein and fell into British captivity, from which he was discharged after one year. He then began at the Technical University in Stuttgart to study electrical engineering. During a visit to Munich, Capesius was recognized in 1946 by a former Auschwitz prisoner. He was then arrested by American military police and was in the internment camps of Dachau and Ludwigsburg. Since Capesius was part of the competent, U.S. authorities approved that there was no crime related and he was released from internment in August 1947 and worked initially in a Stuttgart pharmacy as an employee. In October 1950 he opened in Göppingen a pharmacy and, additionally, a beauty shop in Reutlingen.
In Göppingen, Capesius was arrested in early December 1959 and was remanded in custody until 1965. On August 20, 1965 he became part of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials by the Landgericht Frankfurt am Main Community for aiding and abetting the murder of at least four cases of 2,000 people and convicted to nine years in prison.[4] Capesius served his time and was released from prison in January 1968. He attended, on the day of his dismissal, a city tour and was greeted with applause.
Capesius lived the remainder of his years penniless and was a clerk for his wife's beauty shop. Capesius died on March 20, 1985 from natural causes.[5]
Literature by and about Viktor Capesius in the catalog of the German National Library