Karl Otto Koch Signed Document - Buchenwald

Karl Otto Koch Signed Document - Buchenwald
Typed document on headed paper from Buchenwald concentration campand is signed by the then camp commander SS-Standartenfuhrer Karl Otto Kochdated 2.12.1940. Karl Koch SS Fuhrer was a commander of severalconcentration camps. He was sentenced in the Buchenwald corruption scandalto death twice and was executed by an SS firing squad unit in Buchenwald inApril 1945. He was married to Ilse Koch who was known as the " Witch ofBuchenwald " she committed suicide in 1967.The document reads :Concentration camp BuchenwaldK.L Bu. , on 2.12.40 AnnouncementAll incoming mail from the inmates must be delivered to the Buchenwald postcensorship office. The respective Kommandofuhrer is responsible for theproper distribution to the work details and sub-camps. In the case ofoutgoing mail, care must be taken that under no circumstances an externalcommand or operation is given. The uniform sender is as before: prisoner'sname, block number, KL Buchenwalk / Weimar.Signed Koch SS- StandartenfuhrerKarl-Otto Koch 2 August 1897 – 5 April 1945) was a mid-ranking commander inthe Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany who was the first commandant of theNazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. From September1941 until August 1942, he served as the first commandant of the Majdanekconcentration camp in occupied Poland, stealing vast amounts of valuablesand money from murdered Jews. His wife, Ilse Koch, also took part in thecrimes at Buchenwald and Majdanek.Koch was born in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse on 2 August 1897. Hisfather worked in a local registrar's office and died when Karl was eightyears old. After completing elementary school in 1912, Koch attendedMittelschule and completed a commercial apprenticeship.In 1916, he volunteered to join the army and fought on the Western Frontuntil he was later captured by the British. Koch spent the rest of the waras a POW and returned to Germany in 1919. As a soldier, he conducted himselfwell and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class, the Observer's Badge andthe Wound Badge in Black. Following World War I, Koch worked as a commercialmanager, an authorized signatory and insurance agent and became unemployedin 1932 (he had served a prison sentence in 1930 for embezzlement andforgery). In 1931, Karl-Otto Koch joined the Nazi Party and theSchutzstaffel (SS)Koch served with several SS-Standarten (Thirty fifth SS Regiment Kassel, SSSpecial Detachment Saxony). In 1934, he took command of the SachsenburgConcentration Camp. Briefly, he was the officer in charge of the EsterwegenConcentration Camp guard unit, officer in charge of the preventive custodycamp in the Lichtenburg Concentration Camp, and the adjutant at DachauConcentration Camp. On 13 June 1935, he became commander of the Columbiaconcentration camp in Berlin-Tempelhof and, in April 1936, he was assignedto the concentration camp at Esterwegen. Four months later, he was moved toSachsenhausen. Within a few years (September 1937) he advanced toSS-Standartenführer (colonel).On 1 August 1937, he was given command of the new Buchenwald concentrationcamp. He remained at Buchenwald until September 1941, when he wastransferred to the Majdanek concentration camp for POWs near Lublin, Poland.That was largely due to an investigation based on allegations of hisimproper conduct at Buchenwald, which included corruption, fraud, embezzlement, drunkenness, sexual offences and a murder. Koch commanded theMajdanek camp for only one year; he was relieved from his duties after 86Soviet POWs escaped from the camp in August 1942. Koch was charged withcriminal negligence and transferred to Berlin, where he worked at the SSPersonnel Main Office and as a liaison between the SS and the German PostOffice.Koch's actions at Buchenwald first caught the attention ofSS-Obergruppenführer Josias, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont in 1941. Inglancing over the death list of Buchenwald, Josias had stumbled across thename of Walter Krämer, a head hospital orderly at Buchenwald, which herecognized because Krämer had successfully treated him in the past. Josiasinvestigated the case and found out that Koch, in a position as the CampCommandant, had ordered Krämer and Karl Peix, a hospital attendant, killedas "political prisoners" because they had treated him for syphilis and hefeared it might be discovered. Waldeck also received reports that a certainprisoner had been shot while attempting to escape.By that time, Koch had been transferred to the Majdanek concentration campin Poland, but his wife, Ilse, was still living at the Commandant's house inBuchenwald. Waldeck ordered a full-scale investigation of the camp by GeorgKonrad Morgen, an SS officer who was an SS-judge in the SS Court MainOffice. Throughout the investigation, more of Koch's orders to killprisoners at the camp were revealed, as well as embezzlement of propertystolen from prisoners.A charge of incitement to murder was lodged by Prince Waldeck and Morgenagainst Koch, to which were later added charges of embezzlement. Other campofficials were charged, including Koch's wife. The trial resulted in Kochbeing sentenced to death for disgracing both himself and the SS. Koch wasexecuted by firing squad on 5 April 1945, one week before American alliedtroops arrived to liberate the camp.Koch first married in 1924 and had one son; however, this marriage ended indivorce in 1931, due to his infidelity. On 25 May 1936 Koch married IlseKoch (née Margarete Ilse Köhler), with whom he had a son and two daughters.Ilse later became known as "The Witch of Buchenwald" (Die Hexe vonBuchenwald), usually rendered in English as "The Bitch of Buchenwald." WhenKoch was transferred to Buchenwald, Ilse was appointed an Oberaufseherin(overseer) by the SS and thus had an active, official role in the atrocitiescommitted there. She was known for extreme cruelty towards prisoners.This Typed document from Buchenwald measures 145mm x 205mm