Hitler's First Victims Page 25

  18 By Gumbel’s calculation: Gumbel notes that this calculation does not include the greater Munich area. Gumbel, Vier Jahre politischer Mord, 31.

  19 placed the number at one thousand: Ibid.

  20 Hartinger had enlisted: Hartinger enlisted in the Freikorps Hilger in Amberg. See also Hartinger’s military personnel file, BayHStA Abt.IV, Freikorps 154. By April 1919 he was living at Blütenstrasse 14/I in Munich, and had enrolled as a student in the law faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian University.

  21 He resigned from his Freikorps: Hartinger’s personnel file, prosecutor’s office, BayHStA MJu 26797.

  22 “the ethics in demanding”: Alexandra Ortmann, “Vom ‘Motiv’ zum ‘Zweck.’ Das Recht im täglichen Wandel—das Beispiel der Reichsstrafprozessordnung 1879,” in Wie wirkt Recht? Ausgewählte Beiträge zum ersten gemeinsamen Kongress der deutschsprachigen Rechtssoziologie-Vereinigung an der Universität Luzern, 2008, ed. Michelle Cottier, Josef Estermann, and Michael Wrase (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2010), 417.

  23 “The accused is not obliged”: Ibid.

  24 “most frequently cited after the Bible”: “Das A-B-C des Angeklagten,” in Kurt Tucholsky, Kritiken und Rezensionen: Gesammelte Schriften 1907–1935, vol. 7 (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowholt Verlag, 1975), 20–24.

  25 “I have no personal resources”: Request form “Bezirkskommando II Munich,” April 5, 1921, BayHStA Abt.IV.OP 16158.

  26 “Hartinger’s critical financial situation”: Letter from “Versorgungs-Amt I. München an Militär-Fonds-Kommission,” May 17, 1921, BayHStA Abt.IV.OP 16158.

  27 500-mark student subsidy: “Nachweisung über die Einkommens- und sonstige Verhältnisse des Unterzeichneten …,” May 25, 1921, BayHStA Abt. IV.OP 16158.

  28 “a number of responsibilities”: Hartinger’s performance review by First Prosecutor Himmelstoss (first name not recorded), “Abschrift: Dienstliche Würdigung durch den I. Staatsanwalt Himmelstoss für Josef Hartinger,” Hartinger personnel file, prosecutor’s office, September 30, 1925, BayHStA MJu 26797.

  29 “His gift for sharp analysis”: Ibid.

  30 “In my position as a prosecutor”: Letter from Josef Hartinger to the Spruchkammer, Nuremberg, September 19, 1946, StAAM 589.

  31 “special class”: Letter from Josef Hartinger to the Spruchkammer, Amberg, February 14, 1948, StAAm 589.

  10 LAW AND DISORDER

  1 “During the night from May 8 to 9”: “Flucht aus dem Konzentrationslager Dachau,” Dachauer Zeitung, May 11, 1933.

  2 “After consultation with the officials”: Police report, “Abschrift Bayerische Politische Polizei,” May 1, 1933, DaA 17.269.

  3 “absolutely nothing abnormal was observed”: Ibid.

  4 Surveying the transport list: Transport list, “Bayerische Politische Polizei,” May 3, 1933, DaA 17.270.

  5 “On that day”: Testimony of Emil Schuler, Nuremberg, March 29, 1951, StAM Stanw 34464/3.

  6 “Where is Dressel? That swine”: Hans Beimler, Im Mörderlager Dachau: Um eine biographische Skizze ergänzt von Friedbert Mühldorfer (Cologne: Papy Rossa Verlag, 2012), 57.

  7 “What, you bastard”: Ibid., 58.

  8 “And you, you coward”: Ibid.

  9 “Why is that young guy there?”: Ibid., 58–59.

  10 “one of the real bosses”: Testimony of Josef Hirsch, Munich, December 27, 1949, StAM Stanw 34439.

  11 “Hard, really hard”: Ibid.

  12 “Götz, the troublemaker, is in there”: Beimler, Im Mörderlager Dachau, 59.

  13 During a separate interrogation: Ibid.

  14 Steinbrenner returned the next day: Beimler, Im Mörderlager Dachau, 59–60.

  15 “Turn around!”: Ibid., 60.

  16 “He has five days”: Ibid.

  17 “An hour later Dressel”: Testimony of Friedrich Schaper, July 27, 1948, Coburg in Kronach, StAM Stanw 34464/3.

  18 “In that same moment”: Ibid.

  19 “Hey, Beimler, how long”: Beimler, Im Mörderlager Dachau, 64.

  20 “Will you look at that!”: Ibid.

  21 “So! Now you see how”: Ibid., 65–66.

  22 “Let me tell you something”: Ibid., 66.

  23 “Both [Dressel’s] arteries”: Testimony of Emil Schuler, Nuremberg, March 29, 1951, StAM Stanw 34464/3.

  24 “I’ve heard you want to hang yourself”: Beimler, Im Mörderlager Dachau, 66–67.

  25 “I don’t want my son always to be reminded”: Ibid.

  26 “I wouldn’t ask a man”: Ibid.

  27 “So I told the commandant”: Ibid.

  28 “Beimler was in the cell”: Testimony of Josef Hirsch, Munich, December 27, 1949, StAM Stanw 34439.

  29 “Get the hell out”: Ibid.

  30 “Just wait, you are dead dogs”: Ibid.

  31 “no longer mentally normal”: Ibid.

  32 “Afterward I had to clean the stall”: Testimony of Rudolf Wiblishauser, Sonthofen, February 22, 1950, StAM Stanw 34462/4.

  33 strips of the Völkischer Beobachter: Ibid.

  34 “Gradually, those in the front”: Sworn statement of Dr. Walter Buzengeiger, Ulm, June 1945, StAM Stanw 34464/4.

  35 “As we later learned”: Ibid.

  36 Max Holy, the “decent communist”: Max Holy is listed on the transport list, May 3, 1933. Testimonies in the Hans Steinbrenner case contain numerous accounts of the Beimler escape, most notably the one by Josef Hirsch (testimony, December 27, 1949). See also Anna Sophie Lindner’s unpublished memoirs in which she recounts her help in providing Beimler with a place to stay and then arranging his transport to Czechoslovakia, DaA 17991.

  37 “a series of lucky breaks”: Beimler, Im Mörderlager Dachau, 69–70. In 1983, Dorothea Dressel, the widow of Fritz Dressel, provided a less dramatic but more plausible account, claiming that Beimler had been helped by Max Holy, who had arranged the escape and had Beimler delivered to the Dressel household at five o’clock on the morning of May 9 and then taken to Munich and eventually smuggled across the Czechoslovak border to Prague and then to Moscow. Beimler went on to fight in the Spanish Civil War, where he was killed in December 1936.

  38 “Shortly thereafter”: Hirsch also said, “This captain was exceedingly decent to us, and I would like to maintain outright that he saved my life, because by this [transfer] order he saved me from further abuse and, above all, from being shot.” Testimony of Josef Hirsch, Munich, December 27, 1949.

  39 Wicklmayr took responsibility: See Hartinger’s register, May 30, 1933, in the Appendix.

  40 “I opened the door and saw”: Interrogation of Hans Steinbrenner, Garmisch, August 19, 1948, DaA 12.288.

  41 “You are lucky”: Ibid.

  42 “It looks like a slaughterhouse”: Testimony of Max Holy, Hersching, May 18, 1949, StAM Stanw 34439.

  43 Detainee Friedrich Schaper: Testimony of Friedrich Schaper, Tettau, November 29, 1949, StAM Stanw 34464/4.

  44 Kasimir Dittenheber worked: Testimony of Kasimir Dittenheber, Munich, February 15, 1951, StAM Stanw 34439.

  11 A REALM UNTO ITSELF

  1 “My father is on the city council!”: “Biographie Willy Arons (1907–1933),” on the website “Willy-Aron-Gesellschaft Bamberg e.V.”: http://​www.​willy-​aron.​de.

  2 He gripped Aron’s head: Steinbrenner recalled that Aron’s head was wrapped in bedding but could not recall whether he was the one who held Aron’s head or participated in the whipping. See interrogation of Hans Steinbrenner, Garmisch, August 19, 1948, DaA 12.288.

  3 His father, Judicial Counsel: Andreas Dornheim and Thomas Schindler, Wilhelm Aron (1907–1933) Jude, NS-Gegner, Sozialdemokrat und Verbindungsstudent (Bamberg: Schriftenreihe des Historischen Verbands Bamberg, 2007), vol. 40. Dornheim and Schindler undertook an in-depth study of the city of Bamberg’s “first Nazi victim,” Wilhelm Aron. Unless otherwise cited, the quotations and descriptions relating to Willy Aron in this chapter refer to this work.

  4 The conservative Bamberger: Bamberger Volksblatt, December 3, 1932.

  5 The Fre
istaat, a local: Freistaat, December 9, 1932.

  6 “Epidemic of Abortions”: Bamberger Volksblatt, October 12, 1932.

  7 “Should he be released”: Letter from “Präsidenten des Landgerichts Bamberg an den Präsidenten des Oberlandesgerichts Bamberg,” April 22, 1933, StAB K 100.

  8 “Special Regulations”: See Karl Wintersberger’s letter to the Bavarian ministry of justice, May 29, 1933, which included the regulations (Sonderbestimmungen), DaA 18.736/6.

  9 “The jurisdiction within the camp”: Ibid.

  10 “Here we have the Jewish pig Schloss”: For a description of Schloss’s treatment see Hans-Günter Richardi, Schule der Gewalt: Die Anfänge des Konzentrationslagers Dachau 1933–1934: Ein dokumnetischer Bericht (Munich: C. H. Beck Verlag, 1995), 89.

  11 “He had barely gotten off the truck”: Testimony of Emil Schuler, Nuremberg, March 29, 1951, StAM Stanw 34464/3.

  12 “Aron, Wilhelm,” he yelled out: Hans-Günter Richardi, Schule der Gewalt, 100. See also Eugen Oehrlein’s testimony, StAM Stanw 34462/2.

  13 “We were called in there”: See Oppenheimer’s letter, “Schreiben des ehemaligen Dachauer KZ-Häftlings Justin Oppenheimer an den Generalstaatsanwalt München aus Israel,” November 3, 1951, in Dornheim and Schindler, Wilhelm Aron, 109.

  14 Oppenheimer, who stood beside Aron: Ibid.

  15 “Get up, you Jewish swine!”: Ibid.

  16 “When I came into the room”: Testimony of Karl Leonhardt, Erlangen, November 1, 1951, StAM Stanw 34464/2.

  17 “His buttocks had been lashed”: Several witnesses provided testimony during the Steinbrenner trial. See testimonies of Josef Götz (a different Josef Götz than the one killed in the camp), November 3, 1950, StAM Stanw 34464/2; Johann Schumann, October 14, 1951, StAM Stanw 34464/3; and Wilhelm Zauzich, November 6, 1950, StAM Stanw 34462/7.

  18 “During the morning visit”: Testimony of Friedrich Schaper. “Vernehmungsniederschrift durch die Kriminalaussensteller Coburg in Kronach, Strafakte des Anton Vogel,” July 27, 1948, StAM Stanw 34464/3.

  19 “Get up!” Aron did not: Ibid.

  20 “Rumors had it that”: Testimony of Hans Steinbrenner, Garmisch, August 19, 1948, DaA 12.288.

  21 “I could still recognize Aron”: Testimony of Anton Schöberl, Hilpoltstein, October 17, 1951, StAM Stanw 34464/3.

  22 “had been intentionally torched”: Testimony of Hans Steinbrenner, Garmisch, August 19, 1948, DaA 12.288.

  23 The official cause of death: Dornheim and Schindler, Wilhelm Aron, 43.

  24 Aron’s body was placed: Ibid.

  25 “The corpse of junior attorney”: Bamberger Volksblatt, May 13, 1933.

  26 “a fine of 150 marks”: “Reichstransport Minister gegen Tierquälerei,” Völkischer Beobachter, May 11, 1933.

  27 “In response to repeated complaints”: Ibid.

  28 Dr. Moritz Flamm declared himself: Letter from Dr. Moritz Flamm to the president of the district court Munich II, May 13, 1933, Rechtsmedizin Universität München, Archive Prof. Dr. Eisenmenger.

  29 Flamm was responding: Letter from the president of the district court Munich II to Dr. Moritz Flamm, April 21, 1933, regarding “Reichsgesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Deutschen Amtentums,” Archive Prof. Dr. Eisenmenger.

  30 A swastika flag fluttered: When the SS first arrived in Dachau in late March and hoisted a swastika flag, state policeman Herman Weyrauther forced them to remove it. See Weyrauther’s March 13, 1951, testimony. In fact, the SS had the right to hoist the flag as permitted by Hindenburg’s decree of March 12, 1933, under the paragraph heading “Flaggenerlass.”

  31 “The director of administration for the prosecutor’s office”: Letter from Josef Hartinger to the Bavarian state minister of justice, August R. Lang, January 16, 1984, DaA 20.108.

  32 The investigation materials: I was unable to locate Hartinger’s investigation file into the shooting of Benario, Goldmann, and the two Kahns (1933 File Number: G 613 ff/33). The only extant record is the final report by Wintersberger, dated April 24, 1933, formally closing the investigation.

  33 As evidence vanished: See Hartinger’s register in the appendix.

  34 “On April 12, 1933”: Ibid.

  35 In recording the observations: Ibid.

  12 EVIDENCE OF EVIL

  1 suicide of a fifty-three-year-old: Protocol, “Konzentrationslager Dachau Politische Abteilung an die Staatsanwaltschaft für den Landgerichtsbezirk-Munich II: Betreff Schloss Louis,” signed by Hilmar Wäckerle, May 16, 1933, DaA 8832.

  2 “Schloss was a detainee”: Ibid.

  3 A middle-aged man: For the official report of Schloss’s death, plus a sketch of him hanged in his cell, see “Protokoll aufgenommen in Sachen Schloss Luis [sic], verw. Kaufmann aus Nürnberg hier dessen Selbstmord durch Erhängen. Dachau, Conzentrationslager [sic], 16. Mai, 1933,” May 17, 1933, DaA 8832.

  4 “camphor and a cardial injection”: Ibid.

  5 “I was the one who cut”: Testimony of Karl Kübler, Augsburg, July 26, 1950, StAM Stanw 34462 / 6.

  6 “On the glans”: “Protokoll aufgenommen in Sachen Schloss Luis [sic], verw. Kaufmann,” May 17, 1933, DaA 8832.

  7 “Whether the cause of death”: See Schloss entry in Hartinger’s register in the Appendix.

  8 Two attendants stood nearby: Invoice dated May 30, 1933, for 26.30 reichsmarks for the costs of “Leichenwärter, Leichenfrau, Leichentransport, Benutzungsgebuehr für Sektionsraum: Geschäftstelle des Amtsgerichts Dachau an die Staatsanwaltschaft München II,” DaA8832.

  9 Frontal photographs: “Vorder- & Rückansicht des verstorbenen Kaufmanns Louis Schloss. Aufgenommen im Auftrage der Staatsanwaltschaft im Leichenhaus in Dachau,” May 17, 1933, DaA 8832.

  10 “marks from hanging on the”: Schloss autopsy report, “Protokoll aufgenommen in Sachen Leichenschau und Leichenöffnung in Sachen Schloss Luis [sic],” May 17, 1933, DaA 1471.

  11 Ehmann was notorious: Christopher Dillon, “We’ll Meet Again in Dachau: The Early Dachau SS and the Narrative of Civil War,” Journal of Contemporary History 45, no. 3 (2010): 550.

  12 “Guards were standing”: Karl Ehmann’s deposition, “Protokoll aufgenommen in Sachen Hausmann Leonhard hier dessen Tod durch Erschiessen auf der Flucht am 17.5.1933 in Concentationslager [sic] Dachau,” May 18, 1933, DaA 8833.

  13 “He just glanced back at me”: Ibid.

  14 “In the war I was”: Ibid.

  15 “The corpse had obviously not been touched”: Max Winkler’s deposition, ibid.

  16 Another SS man: Ludwig Wieland’s deposition.

  17 “The terrain on which Hausmann was”: Ibid.

  18 “a sketch of the scene”: Report from Gendarmerie headquarters Dachau to prosecutor’s office Munich II, May 18, 1933, signed by Police Chief Johann Bielmeier. Report includes sketch. DaA 8833.

  19 “Since the forest”: Ibid.

  20 “the size of a plate”: “Protokoll aufgenommen in Sachen Hausmann Leonhard,” Dachau, May 18, 1933, StAM Stanw 7014.

  21 “The autopsy has shown”: Schloss autopsy, May 17, 1933.

  22 “I had one hope”: Letter from Josef Hartinger to the Bavarian state minister of justice, August R. Lang, January 16, 1984, DaA 20.108.

  23 “Basically, I was intent”: Ibid.

  13 PRESIDENTIAL POWERS

  1 “Dachau has been known”: “Dachau, der bekannteste Ort in Deutschland,” Dachauer Zeitung, May 23, 1933.

  2 “These pizzles were”: Testimony of Paul Hans Barfuss, Munich, April 11, 1950, StAM Stanw 34439.

  3 “The situation is threatening”: “Vermerk des Ministerialrats Willhun über den Stand und die Aussichten der deutschen Warenausfuhr,” Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik, 1918–1945, Serie C: 1933–1937, das Dritte Reich: Die ersten Jahre, Band 1, 2: 16. Mai bis 14. Oktober 1933 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1971), 148. Further cited as Akten zur Deutschen Auswärtigen Politik.

  4 “Recently the situation has been exacerbated”: “Der Reisverkehrsminister an Staatsekretär Lammers, Betrifft: U
nterstützung der Seeschiffahrt,” May 23, 1933, in Reichskanzleiakten, vol. 1, 475–76.

  5 “foreign policy interests take priority”: Ministerial meeting minutes, April 7, 1933, “Ausserhalb der Tagesordnung: Deutsch-holländische Handelsvertragsverhandlungen,” in Reichskanzleiakten, vol. 1, 236.

  6 “When I saw him filmed”: Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi War Years, 1933–1941, trans. Martin Chalmers (New York: Modern Library, 1999), 7–8.

  7 Otto Meissner, his chief: Otto Meissner, Staatssekretär unter Ebert, Hindenburg, Hitler: Der Schicksalsweg des deutschen Volkes, 1918–1945 (Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1950), 385.

  8 “like a corporal following”: Theodor Eschenburg, “Die Rolle der Persönlichkeit in der Krise der Weimarer Republik: Hindenburg, Brüning, Groener, Schleicher,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 9, issue 1 (January 1961): 6.

  9 “the resolute mien of a dictator”: Thomas Russell Ybarra, Hindenburg: The Man with Three Lives (Cornwall, NY: Cornwall Press, 1932), 5.

  10 “in its hour of great despair”: For Hindenburg’s last will and testament (politisches Testament), see Walther Hubatsch, Hindenburg und der Staat: Aus den Papieren des Generalfeldmarschalls und Reichspräsidenten von 1878 bis 1934 (Göttingen: Musterschmidt Verlag, 1966), 382.

  11 The key objective: Ibid.

  12 “The Reich president in reply”: “Aufzeichnung über die Besprechung des Herrn Reichspräsidenten mit Adolf Hitler am 13. August 1932 nachmittags 4.15,” in Hubatsch, Hindenburg und der Staat, 338.

  13 “I really don’t know what could still go wrong”: Franz von Papen, Der Wahrheit eine Gasse (Munich: Paul List Verlag, 1952), 289.

  14 “Hitler was smart enough”: Ibid., 326.

  15 “from the nightmarish spectacle”: Hindenburg’s letter of April 26, 1933, to Prince Carl of Sweden references the prince’s letter of April 4, 1933. See “Der Reichspräsident an den Präsidenten des Schwedischen Roten Kreuzes, Prinz Carl von Schweden,” Reichskanzleiakten, vol. 1, 391.

  16 “After the blood sacrifices”: For Löwenstein’s letter to Hitler, April 4, 1933, see “Der Reichsbund judischer Frontsoldaten an den Reichskanzler,” Reichskanzleiakten, vol. 1, 296–98.