Kurt Küttner
Encyclopedia
Kurt Küttner was an SS
-Oberscharführer
(Staff Sergeant) who served at Treblinka extermination camp
.
Before World War II
, Küttner worked for many years as a warden in the German police. At Treblinka he was in charge of the lower camp of Treblinka II, where he became one of the most feared and hated SS officers. He would follow people around, stop them and search for money, pictures or any family mementos that the prisoners would try to hide on their person. If he caught someone carrying anything, he would beat the prisoner cruelly and send him to the Lazarett, or infirmary, where the prisoner was killed. In his capacity as commander of the Lower Camp and over the Jewish prisoners, he wanted to know exactly what was going on throughout his jurisdiction. He therefore exploited the weakness or baseness of some of the prisoners and turned them into informers. He received the nickname "Kiwe" from the prisoners.
Küttner decided to have the worker Jews (Arbeitskommando) who worked in the "hospital" of his lower camp wear armbands bearing the red cross emblem, so as to deceive the true nature of the "hospital" as a killing station.
As recalled by SS-Unterscharführer
(Corporal) Franz Suchomel:
Küttner was also in charge of whipping prisoners at the evening roll call. Samuel Willenberg, one of the prisoners at Treblinka, recounts how this went:
Küttner also served in the SS in Italy
.
After the war, Küttner, along with ten other former SS officers from Treblinka, was arrested and charged at the Treblinka trials
, but he died before the trial began in 1964.
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...
-Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. Translated as “Senior Squad Leader”, Oberscharführer was first used as a rank of the Sturmabteilung and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions required by growing SA membership...
(Staff Sergeant) who served at 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...
.
Before 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...
, Küttner worked for many years as a warden in the German police. At Treblinka he was in charge of the lower camp of Treblinka II, where he became one of the most feared and hated SS officers. He would follow people around, stop them and search for money, pictures or any family mementos that the prisoners would try to hide on their person. If he caught someone carrying anything, he would beat the prisoner cruelly and send him to the Lazarett, or infirmary, where the prisoner was killed. In his capacity as commander of the Lower Camp and over the Jewish prisoners, he wanted to know exactly what was going on throughout his jurisdiction. He therefore exploited the weakness or baseness of some of the prisoners and turned them into informers. He received the nickname "Kiwe" from the prisoners.
Küttner decided to have the worker Jews (Arbeitskommando) who worked in the "hospital" of his lower camp wear armbands bearing the red cross emblem, so as to deceive the true nature of the "hospital" as a killing station.
As recalled by 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...
(Corporal) Franz Suchomel:
Küttner was also in charge of whipping prisoners at the evening roll call. Samuel Willenberg, one of the prisoners at Treblinka, recounts how this went:
When we had finished our rendition, Kiwe recited the numbers of the prisoners due for lashing on their naked posteriors that day. Each such prisoner would be tied to the stool and given twenty-five lashes with a whip as he [Küttner] counted the blows aloud.
Küttner also served in the SS in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
After the war, Küttner, along with ten other former SS officers from Treblinka, was arrested and charged 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...
, but he died before the trial began in 1964.