For instance, when at Brandenburg a group of suspecting mental patients refused to enter the (disguised) gas chamber, Wirth coaxed them into the room by telling them that they had to enter it in order to receive clothing. Wirth continued to participate as a troubleshooter in the T-4 killing centers. This is where the idea to disguise the gas chambers as showers was introduced. In December 1939 or January 1940, Wirth was present when twenty to thirty German mental patients were subjected to the first known gassing experiment using carbon monoxide. Shortly thereafter Wirth was transferred to administrative director of the killing centre at Brandenburg an der Havel in Prussia (the medical director was Dr. Wirth first set up office procedures at the "euthanasia" center at Grafeneck Castle in Württemberg. At the age of fifty-five, Wirth was among the oldest personnel involved in T-4. These police officers served as nonmedical supervisors at the killing centers of the euthanasia program, and Wirth was chief among them. Memorial plaque, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1 in Berlin-Tiergarten, GermanyĪt the end of 1939, Wirth, along with other Kripo police officers, was detached from the police for service with the Action T4 "euthanasia" program. Wirth rose to become the captain of detectives ( German: Kriminalkommissar) of the Kriminalpolizei ( Kripo) in Stuttgart. He had joined the uniformed police ( Orpo) in 1910 before the onset of World War I. Īfter the Nazi party rose to power in Germany, Wirth served in the Württemberg police force. On 10 August 1939, Wirth transferred from the SA to the SS, attaining the rank of Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant) by October (SS #354,464). From 7 December 1937 he was a volunteer of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). He joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) on 30 June 1933. He again joined the Nazi Party as an Alter Kämpfer ("old fighter") on 1 January 1931 (#420,383). Wirth was one of the original members of the Nazi Party, joining for the first time in 1923, before it was outlawed briefly in Germany following the unsuccessful Hitler Beer Hall Putsch. Wirth married Maria Bantel and fathered two children. After the war Wirth returned to Stuttgart in June 1919 and was promoted back to police detective sergeant a short time later. Wirth was awarded the Iron Cross First Class, Iron Cross Second Class, and the Order of the Crown (Württemberg). By 1910 Wirth had worked as a policeman in Heilbronn, but he soon moved to Stuttgart, where he was a detective of the police.ĭuring the First World War, at his own request, he served as a non-commissioned officer in the army on the Western front, distinguished himself in battle, was wounded, and was highly decorated. From 1905 to 1910, he was a member of the Württemberg Grenadier Regiment 123. The son of a master cooper, after attending elementary and continuation school, Wirth learned the sawyer's craft. He was killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in Hrpelje-Kozina near Trieste after the conclusion of Operation Reinhard.Ĭhristian Wirth was born on 24 November 1885 in Oberbalzheim, Württemberg, part of the German Empire. Wirth later served as Inspector of all the Reinhard Camps. Wirth worked within the Action T4 program, in which people with disabilities were murdered by gassing or lethal injection, and then at implementing Operation Reinhard, by developing almost single-handed, the extermination camps for the purpose of mass murder. His nicknames included Christian the Cruel ( German: Christian der Grausame), Stuka, and The Wild Christian due to the extremity of his behaviour among the SS and Trawniki guards and to the camp inmates and victims. Christian Wirth ( German: ( listen) 24 November 1885 – ) was a German SS officer and leading Holocaust perpetrator who was one of the primary architects of the program to exterminate the Jewish people of Poland, known as Operation Reinhard.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |