Heinz Thilo

Heinz Thilo (8 October 1911 in Elberfeld  – 13 May 1945 in Hohenelbe) was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.

Thilo joined the Nazi party in December 1930 and the SS in 1934. From 1938 to 1941 he worked as a gynaecologist for the Lebensborn organization. After six months of war service he was assigned to the Auschwitz concentration camp in July 1942.[1] There he became responsible for the infirmary camp with the rank of Obersturmführer.[2] Thilo called the camp the "anus mundi" ("anus of the world").[2] He was one of the physicians commonly performing the "selections" in which incoming Jews were divided into those deemed able to work and those who were to be gassed immediately.[3] Thilo also participated in the liquidation of the Theresienstadt family camp on March 8, 1944, when 3,791 Jews were murdered in the gas chambers.[1]

In October 1944 Thilo was transferred to Gross-Rosen where he served as camp physician until February 1945. He fled shortly before the camp's liberation.[1] After the war Thilo committed suicide in prison.[4]

References

1. "Auschwitz Perpetrators". Retrieved December 2, 2012.
2. Czech, Danuta (1989). Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau 1939-1945 (in German). Rowohlt. p. 16. ISBN 9783498008840.
3. "The Prisoners' Fate in Auschwitz-Birkenau". DEGOB. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
4. "Les SS servant à Auschwitz et leur devenir" (in French). BS Encyclopédie. Retrieved December 2, 2012.

External links

• Image of Dr Thilo on the ramp, making selections