Irmfried Eberl
Encyclopedia
SS
-Obersturmführer
(First Lieutenant) Irmfried Eberl (8 September 1910 — 16 February 1948) was an Austrian
Nazi war criminal who helped to establish, and was the first commandant of, the Treblinka extermination camp
, where he worked from until his dismissal on . As a psychiatrist
, Eberl was the only physician
to command an extermination camp. In January 1948, he was arrested. Before his trial could begin, he hanged himself.
, Austria
on September 8, 1910. He joined the Nazi Party on December 8, 1931 while still a medical student at Innsbruck University. Eberl graduated from the medical program in 1933 and gained his doctorate a year later. After February 1935 he served as an assistant physician. Trained and practising as a psychiatrist
, he was a firm supporter of the mass murder of people with mental disorders.
When the T-4 Euthanasia Program commenced, Eberl was a willing participant. On February 1, 1940, at just 29 years old, Eberl became the medical director of the killing facility at Brandenburg
. In the fall of 1941 he assumed the same position at Bernburg
. Despite not being formally ordered to take part, psychiatrists such as Eberl were at the center of every stage of justifying, planning and carrying out the mass murder of those with mental disorders, and constituted the connection to the later annihilation of Jews
and other "undesirables" such as homosexuals in the Holocaust.
as part of Operation Reinhard
. But Eberl's poor management of the camp soon proved to be disastrous.
Willi Mentz, an SS officer at Treblinka, wrote of Eberl's leadership:
According to SS-Unterscharführer
Hans Hingst:
Eberl was dismissed from Treblinka on , for incompetence in disposing of the bodies of the thousands of people who had been killed, and was replaced by Franz Stangl
, who was previously the commandant of Sobibor extermination camp
. Eberl was also relieved of his duty because he was not killing people in an efficient and timely enough manner, and also because he was not properly concealing the mass murder from locals. For instance, the stench from decomposition of unburied bodies was such that it could be smelled 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the camp, such as at the nearby village of Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship, which in turn would make it self-evident that unnatural amounts of death were happening nearby, causing concern among locals. The Nazi leadership wished to avoid any inconveniences to their operations that would result from local outcries. Eberl was apparently also part of a ring at the camp that was stealing the possessions of the people whom they had murdered and sending them back to cohorts at Hitler's Chancellery in Berlin. This last activity had been expressly forbidden by Himmler
, as he wanted this property to be contributed to the German war effort.
In 1970, Stangl, then in prison for his own crimes, described Treblinka
when he first came to the death camp while it was still under Eberl's command:
Eberl was sent back to Bernburg
for a short spell afterwards.
for the duration of the war. After the war, Eberl found himself a widower following his second wife's death, and continued to practise medicine in Blaubeuren
until he was arrested in January 1948, and hanged himself the following month to avoid trial.
.
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...
-Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...
(First Lieutenant) Irmfried Eberl (8 September 1910 — 16 February 1948) was an Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
Nazi war criminal who helped to establish, and was the first commandant of, the 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...
, where he worked from until his dismissal on . As a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, Eberl was the only physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
to command an extermination camp. In January 1948, he was arrested. Before his trial could begin, he hanged himself.
Early life
Irmfried Eberl was born in BregenzBregenz
-Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
on September 8, 1910. He joined the Nazi Party on December 8, 1931 while still a medical student at Innsbruck University. Eberl graduated from the medical program in 1933 and gained his doctorate a year later. After February 1935 he served as an assistant physician. Trained and practising as a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, he was a firm supporter of the mass murder of people with mental disorders.
Murderer of disabled persons
Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre
The Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre , officially known as the Brandenburg an der Havel State Welfare Institute The Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre , officially known as the Brandenburg an der Havel State Welfare Institute The Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre , officially known as the Brandenburg an der...
. In the fall of 1941 he assumed the same position at Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
. Despite not being formally ordered to take part, psychiatrists such as Eberl were at the center of every stage of justifying, planning and carrying out the mass murder of those with mental disorders, and constituted the connection to the later annihilation of Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and other "undesirables" such as homosexuals in the Holocaust.
Treblinka death camp
When public outcry against the Action T-4 murders forced their abandonment in Germany, the murderers like Eberl found themselves out of work. This did not last long, as the Nazi leadership made the decision to use the Action T-4 personnel to murder much larger numbers of people in Poland, using variations of the methods used in the T-4 killings. Eberl was first transferred to Chełmno extermination camp for a brief stint. On , Eberl was transferred to command of TreblinkaTreblinka 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...
as part of 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...
. But Eberl's poor management of the camp soon proved to be disastrous.
Willi Mentz, an SS officer at Treblinka, wrote of Eberl's leadership:
He was very ambitious. It was said that he ordered more transports than could be "processed" in the camp. That meant that trains had to wait outside the camp because the occupants of the previous transport had not yet all been killed. At the time it was very hot and as a result of the long wait inside the transport trains in the intense heat many people died. At that time whole mountains of bodies lay on the platform. Then Hauptsturmführer Christian WirthChristian WirthChristian Wirth was a German police and SS officer who was one of the leading contributors to the program to exterminate the Jewish people of Poland, known as Operation Reinhard....
came to TreblinkaTreblinka extermination campTreblinka 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...
and kicked up a terrific row. And then one day Dr. Eberl was no longer there....
According to 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...
Hans Hingst:
Eberl was dismissed from Treblinka on , for incompetence in disposing of the bodies of the thousands of people who had been killed, and was replaced by Franz Stangl
Franz Stangl
Franz Paul Stangl was an Austrian-born SS commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust. He was arrested in Brazil in 1967, extradited and tried in West Germany for the mass murder of 900,000 people, and in 1970 was found guilty...
, who was previously the commandant of 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...
. Eberl was also relieved of his duty because he was not killing people in an efficient and timely enough manner, and also because he was not properly concealing the mass murder from locals. For instance, the stench from decomposition of unburied bodies was such that it could be smelled 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the camp, such as at the nearby village of Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship, which in turn would make it self-evident that unnatural amounts of death were happening nearby, causing concern among locals. The Nazi leadership wished to avoid any inconveniences to their operations that would result from local outcries. Eberl was apparently also part of a ring at the camp that was stealing the possessions of the people whom they had murdered and sending them back to cohorts at Hitler's Chancellery in Berlin. This last activity had been expressly forbidden by Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, as he wanted this property to be contributed to the German war effort.
In 1970, Stangl, then in prison for his own crimes, described Treblinka
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...
when he first came to the death camp while it was still under Eberl's command:
Eberl was sent back to Bernburg
Bernburg
Bernburg is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Salzlandkreis. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 30 km downstream from Halle. The town is dominated by its huge Renaissance castle featuring a museum as well as a popular, recently updated bear pit in its...
for a short spell afterwards.
Later career, apprehension, and suicide
In 1944 he joined the WehrmachtWehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
for the duration of the war. After the war, Eberl found himself a widower following his second wife's death, and continued to practise medicine in Blaubeuren
Blaubeuren
Blaubeuren is a town in the district of Alb-Donau near Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.It has 11.963 inhabitants as of December 2007.-Coat of arms:...
until he was arrested in January 1948, and hanged himself the following month to avoid trial.
Subject of later documentary film
Eberl was one of two subjects of the 1998 film Healing by Killing, the other subject being Carl ClaubergCarl Clauberg
Carl Clauberg was a German medical doctor who conducted medical experiments on human beings in Nazi concentration camps during World War II...
.