Horst Fischer

Horst Fischer
Fischer during his trial in March 1966
Born	Horst Paul Silvester Fischer (1912-12-31)31 December 1912 Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire
Died	(1966-07-08)8 July 1966 (aged 53) Leipzig Prison, Leipzig, East Germany
Cause of death	Execution by guillotine
Occupation	Physician
Known for	Becoming the last person executed to be executed by guillotine in East Germany
Criminal status	Executed
Children	4
Motive	Nazism
Conviction(s)	Crimes against humanity
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	75,000+
Span of crimes	November 1942 – 1945
Country	Poland
Location(s)	Auschwitz concentration camp
Date apprehended	September 1965

For other people named Horst Fischer, see Horst Fischer (disambiguation).

Horst Paul Silvester Fischer (31 December 1912 – 8 July 1966) was a German medical doctor and member of the SS, executed by guillotine in East Germany for crimes committed at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during World War II. Among other atrocities, Fischer was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering at least 75,000 people by selecting them to be gassed and supervising the gassings.

Early life

Fischer was born and orphaned and grew up with relatives in Dresden and Berlin. He joined the SS in 1933, and the Nazi Party four years later. After attending medical school at the University of Berlin, Fischer received his medical degree in 1937.

War crimes

He was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau in November 1942. By 1945, he was one of the camp's highest ranking physicians. From November 1943 to September 1944, he was also the main camp doctor in the infirmary of the Monowitz concentration camp.

During his time at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, Fischer was complicit in the murders of tens of thousands of prisoners by performing selections at the ramp, in the prison hospital, on the roll-call grounds, in the barracks as well as among the work units. He also supervised the gassing of the victims he chose for death and the subsequent disinfections. Fischer also permitted the use of the flogging of prisoners at least 71 times.

Arrest, trial, and execution

Horst Fischer (at the board), 11 March 1966

After the war, Fischer carried on with his medical career in the German Democratic Republic for 20 years. He got married, had four children, and lived life as a middle-class citizen. Fischer practiced medicine in the countryside under an alias. Although Fischer kept his crimes a secret, he reportedly believed enough time had passed that he would not be punished for his crimes. However, he was arrested by Stasi officials, who had become suspicious of him and started spying on him, and charged with crimes he committed in Nazi concentration camps in September 1965. East German prosecutors hoped to use his case to expose executives of IG Farben for their roles in the Holocaust. Fischer was the highest-ranking concentration camp doctor ever to stand trial before a German court.

The trial started on March 10, 1966, focused mainly on I.G. Farben and its collaboration with the SS. The case was tried directly by the GDR Supreme Court. To describe the crimes which Fischer was charged with, the prosecution sometimes directed the judges to Fischer's own statements and sketches of the camps. On several charges in which the evidence was weaker, the prosecutor was forced to rely on Fischer's own statements. His personal records and sketches were also used as evidence. The trial lasted roughly a week, and Fischer was found guilty of crimes against humanity. Fischer had fully cooperated with the investigation in the apparent hope that the court would give him a life sentence if he admitted to everything. However, the court ruled that he should be executed. After the Chairman of the State Council Walter Ulbricht refused clemency, Fischer was executed by guillotine in Leipzig on 8 July 1966. His remains were cremated, and he was buried in an unmarked grave.

Further reading

• Dirks, Christian (December 2005). Die Verbrechen der anderen: Auschwitz und der Auschwitz-Prozess der DDR. Das Verfahren gegen den KZ-Arzt Dr. Horst Fischer (in German). Schoeningh Ferdinand. ISBN 3506713639.