Heinrich Matthes
Encyclopedia
Heinrich Arthur Matthes was a German
SS
-Scharführer
(Sergeant) who worked as a deputy commandant of Treblinka extermination camp
during the Operation Reinhard
phase of the Holocaust
.
Matthes was born in 1902 in Wermsdorf
, near Leipzig
. His father was a senior male nurse. Matthes attended public elementary school for eight years. He then became a tailor
, but changed careers to nurse. He trained at Sonnenstein and took his exam there. Then he worked at the Arnsdorf and Bräunsdorf hospitals. He married and had one daughter.
At the beginning of 1934, he joined both the Nazi Party and the SA
. When World War II
broke out, he was drafted into the army, but was released after about two years. Matthes was then recruited by Action T4
, the Nazi state-sponsored program to kill disabled persons. He worked in the T4 photo laboratory and then served in the T4 unit with Organization Todt in Russia.
In August 1942, he was ordered to Lublin
, where he was in short time drafted into the SS
with the rank of Scharführer
(Sergeant), dispatched to Operation Reinhard
, and sent to Treblinka extermination camp
. There he was appointed chief officer commanding Camp II (the extermination area) and the gas chambers.
Matthes as remembered by Treblinka SS-Unterscharführer
Franz Suchomel:
Matthes was obsessed with cleanliness. In the autumn of 1942, Matthes shot two prisoners because at the end of the work day they had not properly cleaned to his satisfaction the stretcher which they used to transport corpses.
In the winter of 1942—43, a typhus
epidemic broke out in Treblinka. Matthes took eight sick inmates to the Lazarett and had them shot. During that same winter he shot the prisoner Ilik Weintraub because, while transferring bodies from the gas chambers to the pits, Weintraub had stopped for a moment to drink some water from the well.
Matthes as remembered by Jerzy Rajgrodzki, a prisoner in the extermination area:
In the autumn of 1943 Matthes was transferred to Sobibor extermination camp
. He would later serve in Trieste
with the other Operation Reinhard perpetrators. At the Treblinka Trials
in 1965 he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Scharführer
Scharführer
Scharführer was a Nazi Party title that was used by several paramilitary organizations from 1925 to 1945. Translated as “Squad Leader”, the title of Scharführer can trace its origins to the First World War, where a Scharführer was often a Sergeant or Corporal who commanded special action or shock...
(Sergeant) who worked as a deputy commandant of Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
during the Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
phase of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Matthes was born in 1902 in Wermsdorf
Wermsdorf
-Landscape:Wermsdorf is situated within Wermsdorf Forest a wooded area of some 30 km/sq, less than 7.0 km to the north-west of Mugeln. The south side of Wermsdorf is deforested and looks out over a fairly flat landscape of agricultural land set out in crops...
, near Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. His father was a senior male nurse. Matthes attended public elementary school for eight years. He then became a tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
, but changed careers to nurse. He trained at Sonnenstein and took his exam there. Then he worked at the Arnsdorf and Bräunsdorf hospitals. He married and had one daughter.
At the beginning of 1934, he joined both the Nazi Party and the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
. When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out, he was drafted into the army, but was released after about two years. Matthes was then recruited by Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
, the Nazi state-sponsored program to kill disabled persons. He worked in the T4 photo laboratory and then served in the T4 unit with Organization Todt in Russia.
In August 1942, he was ordered to Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
, where he was in short time drafted into the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
with the rank of Scharführer
Scharführer
Scharführer was a Nazi Party title that was used by several paramilitary organizations from 1925 to 1945. Translated as “Squad Leader”, the title of Scharführer can trace its origins to the First World War, where a Scharführer was often a Sergeant or Corporal who commanded special action or shock...
(Sergeant), dispatched to Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...
, and sent to Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
. There he was appointed chief officer commanding Camp II (the extermination area) and the gas chambers.
Matthes as remembered by Treblinka SS-Unterscharführer
Unterscharführer
Unterscharführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the Schutzstaffel between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives...
Franz Suchomel:
Matthes was obsessed with cleanliness. In the autumn of 1942, Matthes shot two prisoners because at the end of the work day they had not properly cleaned to his satisfaction the stretcher which they used to transport corpses.
In the winter of 1942—43, a typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
epidemic broke out in Treblinka. Matthes took eight sick inmates to the Lazarett and had them shot. During that same winter he shot the prisoner Ilik Weintraub because, while transferring bodies from the gas chambers to the pits, Weintraub had stopped for a moment to drink some water from the well.
Matthes as remembered by Jerzy Rajgrodzki, a prisoner in the extermination area:
He used to beat the prisoners with a completely expressionless, apathetic look on his face, as if the beatings were part of his daily routine. He always saw to it that the roll-call area would always be extremely clean. One of the prisoners had to rake the sand in the square all day long, and he had to do it with Prussian exactness.
In the autumn of 1943 Matthes was transferred to Sobibor extermination camp
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
. He would later serve in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
with the other Operation Reinhard perpetrators. At the Treblinka Trials
Treblinka trials
Two judicial trials directly concerning the Treblinka extermination camp have been held after World War II, both of them in Düsseldorf, Germany. These Treblinka trials belong to similar trials held during the early 1960's, such as the Jerusalem Adolf Eichmann trial and the Frankfurt Auschwitz...
in 1965 he was sentenced to life imprisonment.