Hitler's First Victims

by Timothy W. Ryback

  1.

  Kahn, Arthur, 21 years old, unmarried. Student from Nuremberg.

  Dr. Benario, Rudolf, 24 years old, unmarried. Trained economist from Fürth.

  Goldmann, Ernst, 24 years old, unmarried. Itinerant from Fürth.

  Kahn, Erwin, 32 years old, married. Salesman from Munich.

  (AVZ.: G 613 ff/33)

  On April 12, 1933, the student Arthur Kahn from Nuremberg, the trained agriculturist [sic] Dr. Rudolf Benario from Fürth, and the itinerant Ernst Goldmann from Fürth were killed by shots fired from pistols by SS man Hans Bürner, SS man Max Schmidt, and SS lieutenant Robert Erspenmüller. Furthermore, the salesman Erwin Kahn from Munich was also so severely wounded by pistol shots that he died on April 16. Benario, Goldmann, and Erwin Kahn lay dead or severely wounded in immediate proximity to where they were working. Arthur Kahn lay at a distance of about 80 m. from the workplace, in the woods.

  The three SS men indicated that they fired shots because Arthur Kahn, Benario, and Goldmann had attempted to flee. Erwin Kahn had run into their line of fire.

  The proceedings were closed on May 24, 1933, since the claims made by the guards that the men who had been killed had attempted to flee were not deemed implausible.

  2.

  Hunglinger, Herbert, 53 years old, married. Retired major from Pasing.

  (AV. A 53/33)

  In the night of April 25/26, 1933, retired Major Herbert Hunglinger from Pasing hanged himself in his solitary confinement cell. There is no doubt that it was suicide.

  3.

  Dressel, Friedrich, 36 years old, married. Construction engineer from Feldmoching.

  (AVZ.: G 744/33)

  On the evening of May 7, 1933, the former communist delegate of the state parliament, Friedrich Dressel, from Feldmoching was found dead in his single-detention cell, with his artery slit open. The corpse showed lacerations on the back, the buttocks and thighs, which could be traced back to beatings.

  The investigation was discontinued on May 12, 1933, on the assumption it was a suicide.

  4.

  Götz, Josef, 37 years old, married. Mechanic from Munich.

  (AVZ.: G 766/33)

  On May 8, 1933, the mechanic Josef Götz from Munich was killed by the SS man Karl Friedrich Wicklmayr. He was killed in the hallway of his cell unit by a gunshot to his left temple with a service pistol.

  According to Wicklmayr’s account of the incident, Götz had attacked him twice, which was why he fired the shot.

  Aside from the bullet wound, the corpse showed a soft tissue wound of 5 cm. in length and with a gash of 1 cm. in width running across the left frontal lobe right behind the hairline.

  The cause of this wound could not be determined.

  The proceedings were discontinued on June 1, 1933, because Wicklmayr’s claims to self-defense could not be refuted.

  5.

  Schloss, Louis, 55 [sic] years old, widowed merchant from Nuremberg.

  (AVZ.: G 851/33)

  On May 16, 1933, the Nuremberg merchant Louis Schloss is said to have hanged himself in his single cell. The autopsy revealed several lacerations across the body and that the cause of death was most probably not by hanging but from a fat embolism. This probably occurred as the result of damage to the adipose tissue. The investigation is to be discontinued as a result of the Amnesty Decree of August 2, 1933.

  6.

  Hausmann, Leonhard, 31 years old, married. Laborer from Augsburg.

  (AVZ.: G 866/33)

  On May 17, 1933, the laborer Leonhard Hausmann from Augsburg was killed by a shot through his left chest cavity fired by SS sergeant Karl Ehmann. Hausmann, according to Ehmann, had attempted to take flight while he was working in the woods near the camp. He was said to have been shot dead at a distance of about 10–12 m.

  Investigations made at the forensic institute determined that in fact the shot was fired from a distance of less than 30 cm.

  The investigation is to be discontinued as a result of the Amnesty Decree of August 2, 1933.

  7.

  Dr. Strauss, Alfred, 30 years old, unmarried. Lawyer from Munich.

  (AVZ.: G 927/33)

  On May 24, 1933, the lawyer Dr. Alfred Strauss from Munich was taking a walk, which had been prescribed to him by the camp doctor, when he was killed by two bullets in the back of his head, fired by the accompanying guard, SS man Johann Kantschuster. According to Kantschuster, Strauss suddenly tried to escape into the nearby thicket whereupon Kantschuster fired two shots at him with his Dreyse pistol at a distance of about 8 m.

  Inspections of the area and the corpse showed that Strauss was only wearing leather slippers, that he was only wearing a sock on one foot while the other foot was apparently bare due to an injury on this foot.

  The autopsy revealed, apart from the two shots to the head, older lacerations on the right thigh and around the buttocks as well as bruising on the left side of the abdomen.

  The investigation is to be discontinued as a result of the Amnesty Decree of August 2, 1933.

  8.

  Lehrburger, Karl, 28 years old, unmarried. Salesman from Nuremberg.

  (AVZ.: G 918/33)

  On May 25, 1933, Karl Lehrburger from Nuremberg was killed in his solitary confinement cell by a shot to his forehead, fired by SS man Steinbrenner.

  Lehrburger is said to have made a movement that Steinbrenner interpreted as an attack. According to medical findings made during the autopsy, the shot was fired from a distance of 10–20 cm.

  The investigation was discontinued on June 1, 1933, because Steinbrenner’s claim to self-defense could not be disproven.

  9.

  Nefzger, Sebastian, 33 years old, married. Salesman, former SS man, from Munich.

  (AVZ.: G 928 ff/33)

  On May 27, 1933, the district court of Dachau was informed by the Concentration Camp Dachau that the salesman Sebastian Nefzger from Munich took his life in his solitary-confinement cell by slitting open his wrist. He apparently died in the night from May 25 to 26, 1933.

  Through an autopsy it was determined that he had died from asphyxiation, caused by strangling and beating. The investigation is to be discontinued as a result of the Amnesty Decree of August 2, 1933.

  10.

  Stenzer, Franz, 33 years old, unmarried. Railroad worker from Pasing.

  (AVZ.: G 1703/33)

  On August 22, 1933, while the railroad worker Franz Stenzer from Pasing was going for a walk near the camp, the SS sergeant Rudolf Dirnagl, who was accompanying him, shot a bullet through his skull and killed him.

  According to Dirnagl’s testimony, Stenzer was fleeing, which is the reason Dirnagl ran after him and fired at him. Dirnagl claims to have fired the shot at a distance of five meters. However, after a preliminary forensic examination by the forensics institute, the shot appears to have been fired from a distance of less than one meter.

  The investigation was discontinued on December 21, 1933, because SS sergeant Dirnagl’s claims that Stenzer had fled and Dirnagl thus had the right to fire at him could not be disproven.

  11.

  Handschuch, Hugo, 23 years old, unmarried. Craftsman from Munich.

  (AVZ.: G 1848/33)

  On September 6, 1933, the craftsman Hugo Handschuch from Munich was buried in the Dachau cemetery. The corpse was brought from the concentration camp to the Dachau morgue in a coffin that had been nailed shut. The opening of the coffin had been strictly forbidden.

  Following a complaint issued by the mother of the deceased man, exhumation and an autopsy were conducted. These investigations revealed that the death had been caused by excessive abuse. Thus far, the investigations have yielded evidence that the abuses on Handschuch began immediately after his arrest in the night of August 22/23, 1933, in the Brown House in Munich. From there Handschuch was taken to the police prison in Ettstrasse on the evening of August 23. What happened next with Handschuch has not yet been determined. The Bavarian political police are requested to investigate further into this issue.<
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  12.

  Franz, Wilhelm, 34 years old, unmarried. Salesman from Munich.

  Dr. Katz, Delwin, 46 years old, married. Doctor from Nuremberg.

  (AVZ.: G 2138/33)

  A report by the Political Police on October 18, 1933, indicated that on October 17, 1933, the salesman Wilhelm Franz from Munich, and in the following night Dr. Delwin Katz from Nuremberg, hanged themselves in their respective solitary detention cells. During the autopsy conducted on October 20, 1933, it was discovered that both men had died of asphyxiation, caused by strangling and beating by another person. Furthermore, the corpse of Franz showed several fresh lacerations on the head and in particular abundance on his torso and arms. Around the wounds there was extensive bleeding and fragmentation of the adipose tissue so that his demise could also have been caused by a fat embolism. Further investigations are in progress.

  13.

  Bürck, Fritz, 40 years old, married. Textile worker from Memingen.

  (AVZ.: G 2436/33)

  On the afternoon of November 28, 1933, the detainee Bürck who was in protective custody was killed near one of the camp latrines by SS staff sergeant Wilhelm Birzle. He was hit by three bullets (through the heart, the stomach, and the head) with a Mauser pistol cal. 7.63. According to Birzle, he had escorted him to the latrine and was confronting him about some misbehavior earlier that day.

  Thereupon, Bürck lunged at his neck to grab it and, after he was pushed away, evidently tried to attack him again. That is when Birzle shot him three times with his pistol. The investigation was discontinued on December 16, 1933, since Birzle’s account could not be disproven. In accordance with the commandant’s concentration camp regulations, under those circumstances he had the right and even the obligation to use his firearm in defense.

  14.

  Altmann, Josef, 43 years old, unmarried. Salesman from Dolling.

  P.A. [mailing address] Mühldorf a. /Inn.

  (AV.: G 260/34)

  On the evening of February 12, 1934, around 20:30, the detainee Altmann, who was in protective custody, was found hanged in his solitary-confinement cell. The autopsy conducted on February 14, 1934, gave no evidence of a secondary person having been involved in his death. The investigations were discontinued on February 17, 1934, because there was no suspicion of an outside party.

  15.

  Hutzelmann, Wilhelm, 37 years old, married. Salesman from Nuremberg.

  (AV.: G 353/34)

  On the afternoon of February 25, 1934, the detainee Hutzelmann, in protective custody, hanged himself in a secluded part of the camp. The autopsy on February 27, 1934, yielded no signs of an outside party. The investigations were therefore discontinued on March 6, 1934.

  NOTES

  NOTES ON THE SOURCES

  The story of Josef Hartinger and the first Dachau murders is a small story that holds a correspondingly small but—I would assert—significant place in the much larger story of Hitler’s seizure of power and all that followed. As with most micro-histories, many of the sources were discovered in unlikely and occasionally obscure places, or in the interstices of the more frequently visited sources and archives.

  The narrative framework for this story derives from two extended letters written by Hartinger on January 16 and February 11, 1984, at the request of the then Bavarian state justice minister, August Lang. The thirty-two-page typewritten transcription proved to be a rich source of historical and human insight.

  I also drew significantly from the personnel files and postwar judicial inquiries (Spruchkammerverfahren) of Karl Wintersberger (Bamberg, 1947) and Josef Hartinger (Amberg, 1948), as well as Hartinger’s original investigation files for the murders committed in April and May 1933. The postwar trials of former SS concentration camp guards, in particular Hans Steinbrenner. Karl Wicklmayr, Anton Hoffmann, and Karl Ehmann, were also a major source. Dr. Nikolas Naaff, the investigating judge (Untersuchungsrichter), assembled more than seven hundred eyewitness testimonies (former detainees, state policemen, SS men, et al.) from 1946 until 1953. In addition, the published memoirs and diaries of a wide range of individuals, from Hans Kallenbach to Hans Beimler to Josef Goebbels, Hans Frank, and Hjalmar Schacht, provided further detail and context.

  As one might expect from firsthand accounts, especially those with a political agenda (such as Kallenbach’s and Beimler’s) or those recalling events long after the fact, there are frequent contradictions and alternative versions of specific incidents. I have tried to be vigilant in selecting those accounts for which there is either corroborating evidence or testimony, but I wish to acknowledge that there may be cases where alternative versions may be equally valid.

  The various depositions, testimonies, protocols, and interrogations used as evidence in the trial are available in the State Archives in Munich (Staatsarchiv München).

  The testimonies are indicated below with the name of the witness (or perpetrator in the case of Steinbrenner, Wicklmayr and Ehmann) and refer to the Hans Steinbrenner case (Betrifft: Hans Steinbrenner wegen Kriegsverbrechen) unless otherwise indicated.

  The following abbreviations correspond to the archives:

  Bay HStA Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (Bavarian State Archives)

  BayHStA Abt IV Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv—Kriegsarchiv (Bavarian State Archives, War Archives)

  DaA Archiv KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau (Dachau Memorial Site Archives)

  StAM Staatsarchiv München (State Archives Munich)

  StAM Stanw Staatsarchiv München, Staatsanwaltschaft beim Landgericht (State Archives Munich, Prosecutor’s Office Archives)

  StAAm Staatsarchiv Amberg (State Archives Amberg)

  StAB Staatsarchiv Bamberg (State Archives Bamberg)

  SB Stadtbibliothek München (Münchner Stadtbibliothek—Munich City Library)

  USHMM United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives

  PRELUDE TO JUSTICE

  1 “During the past weeks”: Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945—1 October 1946, vol. 4, “Twenty-Third Day, Wednesday, 19 December 1945, Afternoon Session,” 161. Publication abbreviated to IMT in further endnotes. For online access to the proceedings, see the Avalon Project at Yale University: http://​avalon.​law.​yale.​edu/​subject_​menus/​imt.​asp.

  2 “The wrongs which we seek to condemn”: “Opening Address for the United States by General Prosecutor Justice Robert H. Jackson,” November 21, 1945, IMT, vol. 2, “Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression,” 25.

  3 the phalanx of twenty-one defendants: The attitudes of the defendants are recorded in the official court transcript, and are also preserved in the black-and-white film footage of the proceedings. Telford Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), contains vivid descriptions of the individual defendants. An additional source is The Nuremberg Interviews: An American Psychiatrist’s Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses, ed. Robert Gellately (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), the posthumously published transcripts of U.S. Army psychiatrist Leon Goldensohn, containing one-on-one interviews with the main war criminals. See also G. M. Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary (New York: Da Capo, 1995; originally published 1947 by Farrar, Straus). Gilbert was a prison psychologist and kept a journal of his discussions with the prisoners, quoting them in some cases verbatim. The memoirs of Dr. Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens [In the Shadow of the Gallows] (Munich-Gräfelfing: Friedrich Alfred Beck Verlag, 1953), written in the months before he was executed, also provides useful insights into the attitude of a major war criminal. An alternate interpretation of Frank’s contritition in Nuremberg can be found in the memoir Der Vater: Eine Abrechnung, by his son Niklas Frank (Munich: Goldmann Verlag, 1993).

  4 “Hitler gave us orders”: Keitel told this to Leon Goldensohn in an interview on April 6, 1946. Goldensohn, The Nuremberg Interviews, 160.

  5 “as an ersatz for Himmler”: Gilbert, Nuremberg Diary, 5.

  6 “a lawyer by p
rofession”: Jackson’s opening address, November 21, 1945, IMT, vol. 2, 120.

  7 “We must never forget that the record”: Jackson’s opening address, November 21, 1945, IMT, vol. 2, 101.

  8 Telford Taylor: Taylor, Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, 205.

  9 “Farr had his troubles”: Ibid., 206.

  10 “About a week or ten days ago”: Warren Farr prosecution, December 19–20, IMT, vol. 4, 161–88. All further exchanges cited in these paragraphs are from these pages.

  11 “Document 641-PS”: For Documents 641-PS, 642-PS, 644-PS, and 645-PS relating to the Dachau killings, see IMT, vol. 26, 171–89.

  1 CRIMES OF THE SPRING

  1 In the spring of 1933: The term Hitlerwetter was used inchangeably with Führerwetter. “Yesterday rain still threatened, but today the sun is shining,” Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary on May 1, 1933. “Real Hitler weather!” Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher, Band 2: 1930–1934, ed. Ralf Georg Reuth (Munich: Piper Verlag, 1999), 797.

  2 “My responsibilities included”: Letter from Josef Hartinger to the Bavarian state minister of justice, August R. Lang, Munich, January 16, 1984, DaA 20.108.

  3 an unprecedented wave of arrests: Cited from among surviving entries in the Munich II case register. See Beratungsserie München II 1899–1960: München II 1933–1934 (Munich: Generaldirektion der Staatlichen Archiv Bayerns, undated).

  4 “Hitler is a foreigner”: Cited from among hundreds of entries in Archivinventare Band 3, Sondergericht München Teil 1: 1933–1937 (Munich: Generaldirektion der Staatlichen Archiv Bayerns, undated).