Franz Lucas

Postwar photograph of former SS doctor Franz Lucas

Franz Lucas (doctor) Franz Bernhard Lucas (* 15. September 1911 in Osnabrück ; † 7. December 1994 in Elmshorn ) was a German concentration camp doctor.

Franz Lucas was the son of a butcher.[1] After attending school in Osnabrück and Meppen he insisted in Meppen 1933, the High School. He studied four semesters Philology in Münster, his medical studies he graduated in Rostock and 1942 in Gdansk, where in the same year he to Dr. med. doctorate. From June 1933 to September 1934 he was a member of the SA, since May 1, 1937 in the NSDAP and since November 15, 1937 in the SS (SS no. 350 030), most recently from 1943 with the rank of SS First Lieutenant . 1942 Lucas received a two-month training course under a leader contender in the SS medical Academy of Waffen-SS in Graz. After that, he was medical officer in Nuremberg and Belgrade. Because " defeatist remarks" had in a short Lucas probation unit serve. By letter of 27 September 1943, he was on 1 October 1943 Führungshauptamt - Office Group D - ordered medical service of the Waffen SS Berlin. As of December 15, 1943 was carried out the transfer to the by Enno Lolling led Office D III for Sanitation and Camp Hygiene of WVHA in Oranienburg. From mid-December 1943 to late summer of 1944 Lucas was as camp doctor in I Auschwitz (Truppenarzt) and in the Auschwitz concentration camp ( Gypsy camp, Theresienstadt family camp ) operates. Afterwards further short-term missions in the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1944, Stutthof concentration camp in 1944, Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in 1944 and Sachsenhausen in January 1945, where he sat on in March 1945 and appeared with a letter of recommendation of a female Norwegian prisoners from the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Berlin under, Before the Battle of Berlin Lucas fled in April 1945 to the west. His colleague in Ravensbrück Percy Treite said during the first Ravensbrück process about him: "Dr. Lucas was not under my responsibility, he took part in selections for the gas chamber and in shootings. After disagreements with Dr. Trommer he went to Sachsenhausen and was sent as a punishment by all camps in Germany. " [2] The reason for this disagreement led to Treite that Lucas and he issuing death certificates for deceased prisoners from the concentration camp Uckermark had, they would never take a close look denied. In addition, he was - Treite - been present at the first shootings, after he had denied his participation and Lucas had to take over its activities; but Lucas had denied after a few days.[3] Immediately after the war escaped Lucas a denazification process and immediately got a job at the city hospital Elmshorn, first as a medical assistant, then as assistant medical director and finally as chief physician of the gynecological department. On learning of the charges against him, he lost his job in 1963 and worked in private practice.

Auschwitz Trial

During the trial in the first Auschwitz trial in 1963-1965, which Lucas spent partly in his investigations, he first denied having carried out selections; He also denied having given the sign for the use of Zyklon B in the gasification chambers and had supervised the assassination. Testimony statements contradict this presentation.

On the 137th day of the trial, one of the defendants said for the first time as a witness against a co-defendant in a concentration camp trial. Former SS ringleader Stefan Baretzki: "I was not blind when Dr. Lucas had selected on the ramp. .. Fifty thousand men, he sent them in half an hour, and today he wants to stand as a savior. "

With an increasingly unfavorable process, Lucas has now agreed to have been involved in four selections, but has acted against his conviction and on orders.

The jury of the jury in Frankfurt am Main sentenced him on August 20, 1965, to a total of three years and three months, for at least 1000 people in at least four selections. On March 26, 1968, Lucas was released from custody. In the revision verdict before the Federal Supreme Court of 20 February 1969 a new process was ordered. The question about the "compulsion at the ramp" of Auschwitz must be rethought due to the positive character image of Lucas presented in the process. On 8 October 1970 he was released. In this context, many prisoners spoke positively about Lucas, while the statements that led to his condemnation were based on hearing.

Lucas was "involved in the extermination of human beings", but "did not deal with perpetrators, but only with the aid of the will", citing the so-called "putative emergency" according to § 52 StGB. Therefore, "no charge of guilt in the criminal sense" could be made.

From 1970 to 30 September 1983 he again worked in his own private practice and died on 7 December 1994.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Ernst Klee: Auschwitz. Täter, Gehilfen und Opfer und was aus ihnen wurde. Ein Personenlexikon, Frankfurt am Main 2013, S. 263
  2. ↑ Zitiert bei Silke Schäfer: Zum Selbstverständnis von Frauen im Konzentrationslager. Das Lager Ravensbrück. Berlin 2002, S. 135
  3. ↑ Silke Schäfer: Zum Selbstverständnis von Frauen im Konzentrationslager. Das Lager Ravensbrück. Berlin 2002, S. 135
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