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Karl Gebhardt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Gebhardt (November 23, 1897 in Haag – June 2, 1948 in Landsberg am Lech) was a German medical doctor; personal physician of Heinrich Himmler and one of the main coordinators and perpetrators of surgical experiments performed on inmates of the concentration camps at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz.
Gebhardt was born in Haag in Oberbayern, Bavaria. In 1919, he took up studies in medicine in Munich. He habilitated in 1935 and got a post as associate professor in Berlin the next year. As of 1937, he held a chair of orthopedic surgery.
His Nazi career began with his joining the NSDAP on May 1, 1933. Two years later, he also joined the SS and became head physician at the sanatorium of Hohenlychen in the Uckermark, which he changed from a clinic for tuberculosis patients into an orthopedic clinic and later, during World War II, into a hospital for the Waffen-SS. In 1938, Gebhardt was appointed as Heinrich Himmler's personal physician.
In the SS, Gebhardt rose to the rank of a Gruppenführer (Major General). Having ordered or executed them, he was directly responsible for numerous surgical experiments done on concentration camp inmates, in particular at the women's camp in Ravensbrück (which was close to Hohenlychen) and in Auschwitz.
During the war, he also acted for some time as the president of the German Red Cross.
After the war, Gebhart stood trial in the Doctors' Trial together with 22 other Nazi doctors before a U.S. military tribunal, where he was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death on August 20, 1947. He was hanged on June 2, 1948, in Landsberg prison in Bavaria.
- Bio-sketch
- Schäfer, S: Zum Selbstverständnis von Frauen im Konzentrationslager. Das Lager Ravensbrück, p. 131; PhD thesis 2002; TU Berlin. In German (PDF file, 741 kB).
- Statement on his presidency of the German Red Cross, from the German Red Cross itself. In German.