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Karl Genzken

2025-10-09T21:52:58Z

2A00:23C6:5D4D:6701:91EA:CEAA:BC61:2B8A: Added short description

{{Short description|WW2 SS Doctor & war criminal}}
{{more footnotes|date=July 2025}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = Karl Genzken
| image = Karl August Genzken KZ-Arzt.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Genzken in U.S. custody
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1885|6|8|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Preetz]], [[Province of Schleswig-Holstein]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1957|10|10|1885|6|8|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Hamburg]], [[West Germany]]
| death_cause =
| criminal_penalty = [[Life imprisonment]]; commuted to 20 years imprisonment
| criminal_status = [[Deceased]]
| party = [[Nazi Party]]
| known_for =
| occupation =
| awards =
| title = SS-''[[Gruppenführer]]'' and ''Generalleutnant'' of the Waffen-SS
| conviction = [[War crimes]]<br>[[Crimes against humanity]]<br>[[Schutzstaffel|Membership in a criminal organization]]
| trial = Doctors' Trial
}}

'''Karl August Genzken''' (8 June 1885 – 10 October 1957) was a [[List of Nazi doctors|Nazi physician]] who [[Nazi human experimentation|committed medical atrocities on prisoners]] of several [[concentration camp]]s. He was an SS-''[[Gruppenführer]]'' (Major General) of the [[Waffen-SS]] and the Chief of the Medical Office of the Waffen-SS. After the war ended, he was tried and convicted as a [[war crime|war criminal]] and for [[crimes against humanity]] in the 1947 [[Doctors' Trial]] at [[Nuremberg]]. Genzken was sentenced to life imprisonment, but his sentence was commuted to 20 years and he was released in 1954.

==Nazi Party membership==
Genzken had joined the [[Nazi Party]] on July 7, 1926 (party member No. 39,913). He joined the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' on November 5, 1933 (SS No. 207,954).

In 1934, he was reactivated as a reserve officer in the Naval Medical Service. After that, he transferred to the SS Operational Main Office then was promoted from an assistant medical director to the medical superintendent of the SS Hospital in Berlin, and appointed Chief of the Medical Office of the Waffen-SS in 1942. He rose to the rank of Major General in the Waffen-SS.

=== War crimes ===
Genzken was involved in a series of [[Nazi human experimentation|human experiments]] that were carried out on prisoners of several concentration camps. Genzken was accused and convicted of involvement in the [[typhus]] experiments conducted from December 1941 – February 1945, which were conducted for the benefit of the German armed forces to test the effectiveness of vaccines against typhus, [[smallpox]], [[cholera]], and other diseases. The experiments were conducted at [[Buchenwald]] and [[Natzweiler]]. Genzken was also accused of involvement in sulfanilamide experiments, poison experiments, and incendiary bomb experiments but was not convicted on these counts. [http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/docs_swi.php?DI=1&text=medical]

==Trial and conviction==
Genzken was found guilty of [[War crime|war crimes]], [[crimes against humanity]], and membership in an illegal organization by the American Military Tribunal No. I (the [[Doctors' Trial]]). He was condemned in August 1947 to life imprisonment by the tribunal. His sentence was later reduced to 20 years and he was released in April 1954.

== See also ==
*[[Concentration Camps Inspectorate]]
*[[Doctors' Trial]]
*[[Register of SS-Leaders in general’s rank#List SS-Gruppenführer|List SS-Gruppenführer]]
*[[Nazi human experimentation]]

==References==
<references />
*{{cite web|url=http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/pflip.php?caseid=HLSL_NMT01&docnum=9&numpages=21&startpage=1&title=Closing+brief+for+the+United+States+of+America+against+Karl+Genzken.&color_setting=C|title=Closing Brief for the United States of America Against Karl Genzken|accessdate=2007-12-18|last=McHaney|first=James M.|author2=Alexander G. Hardy|author3=Arnost Horlick-Hochwald|author4=Esther Jane Johnson|date=June 16, 1947|publisher=Harvard Law School Library|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609123048/http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/pflip.php?caseid=HLSL_NMT01&docnum=9&numpages=21&startpage=1&title=Closing+brief+for+the+United+States+of+America+against+Karl+Genzken.&color_setting=C|archivedate=June 9, 2007}}
* [http://www.oclc.org/rss/feeds/authorityrecords/20070228.htm OCLC's Authority records for 20070228]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Genzken, Karl}}
[[Category:1885 births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Preetz]]
[[Category:Physicians in the Nazi Party]]
[[Category:SS-Gruppenführer]]
[[Category:Nazis convicted of war crimes]]
[[Category:German people convicted of crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
[[Category:People sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals]]
[[Category:Nazi human subject research]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Schleswig-Holstein]]
[[Category:Waffen-SS personnel]]

Helmut Poppendick

2025-10-09T21:51:56Z

2A00:23C6:5D4D:6701:91EA:CEAA:BC61:2B8A: Added short description

{{Short description|WW2 SS Doctor & war criminal}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2013}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name = Helmut Poppendick
| image = Helmut Poppendick.jpg
| image_size = 220px
| birth_date = {{birth date|1902|01|06|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Hude, Lower Saxony|Hude]], [[Grand Duchy of Oldenburg]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|01|11|1902|01|06|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Oldenburg (city)|Oldenburg]], [[Lower Saxony]], [[Germany]]
| occupation = [[Doctor (title)|Doctor]]
| conviction = [[Schutzstaffel|Membership in a criminal organization]]
| criminal_penalty = 10 years imprisonment; commuted to [[time served]]
| criminal_status = [[Deceased]]
| organization = [[File:Flag Schutzstaffel.svg|23px|border]] [[Schutzstaffel]]
| trial = Doctors' Trial
}}
'''Helmut Poppendick''' ({{Birth date|1902|01|06|df=y}}<ref name=":0">''Nuremberg Trials Project: A Digital Document Collection'', [http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/pflip.php?caseid=HLSL_NMT01&docnum=849&numpages=1&startpage=1&title=Affidavit.&color_setting=C "Helmut Poppendick Affidavit, 14 January 1947", Harvard Law School Library Item No. 849.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025145958/http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/php/pflip.php?caseid=HLSL_NMT01&docnum=849&numpages=1&startpage=1&title=Affidavit.&color_setting=C |date=25 October 2008 }}</ref> – {{Death date|1994|1|11|df=y}}) was a [[List of Nazi doctors|Nazi physician]] in the [[SS]] during [[World War II]]. After the war he was a defendant in the 1947 [[Doctors' Trial]] and accused of [[War crime|war crimes]] relating to [[Nazi human experimentation|human experimentation]]; he was acquitted on these charges, but convicted for his SS membership and sentenced to 10 year imprisonment. He was released in 1951.

== Education and Nazi activities ==
Poppendick studied medicine from 1919 to 1926 in Göttingen, [[Munich]], and [[Berlin]]. Poppendick received his medical license on 1 February 1928. Then, he worked for four years as a clinical assistant at the First Medical Clinic of Charité in Berlin. From June 1933 to October 1934 he was the assistant medical director at Virchow Hospital in Berlin.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Nuremberg - Transcript Viewer - Transcript for NMT 1: Medical Case |url=https://nbg-02.lil.tools/transcripts/1-transcript-for-nmt-1-medical-case?seq=11226 |access-date=2022-10-31 |website=nbg-02.lil.tools}}</ref>

He was an internist and worked in the Medical Doctorate, as Chief of the Personal Staff of the ''Reich'' Physician SS and Police.

In 1935, he completed training as an expert for "[[Racial hygiene|race hygiene]]" at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology]], Human Genetics and Eugenics. After this, he became the adjutant of the ministerial director [[Arthur Gütt]] at the ''Reich'' Ministry of the Interior. He was also the Chief of Staff at the SS Office for Population Politics and Genetic Health Care, which in 1937 became the SS Main Race and Settlement Office. Poppendick was departmental head and staff leader of the Genealogical Office.

At the beginning of World War II, he was drafted as an adjutant to a medical department of the army and took part in the attack on Belgium, France and the Netherlands. In November 1941, Poppendick was accepted into the ''Waffen-SS''. In 1943, [[Ernst-Robert Grawitz]] of the ''Reich'' Physician SS appointed him to lead his personal staff. Poppendick joined the [[NSDAP]] in 1932 (party member No. 998607) and the [[SS]] (No. 36345). He reached the rank of ''[[Oberführer]]'' in the SS.<ref name=":0" />

== War crimes, Doctors' Trial, and release ==
Poppendick was implicated in a series of [[Nazi human experimentation|medical experiments done on concentration camp prisoners]], including the medical experiments done in [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]]. At the American Military Tribunal No. I on 20 August 1947, he was acquitted from being criminally implicated in medical experiments. However, the court ruled in several instances, there was substantial evidence that Poppendick was aware of illegal human experimentation taking place. Poppendick was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for being a member of the SS, which had been deemed a criminal organization by the [[International Military Tribunal]].<ref name=":1" />

On 31 January 1951, Poppendick's sentence was commuted to time served, and he was released from prison the next day. Later on, Poppendick managed to get his medical services paid by insurance, in Oldenburg.

==See also==
*[[Doctors' Trial]]
*[[Nazi human experimentation]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poppendick, Helmut}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Nazi Party officials]]
[[Category:Physicians in the Nazi Party]]
[[Category:Nazi human subject research]]
[[Category:SS-Oberführer]]
[[Category:People associated with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics]]
[[Category:People convicted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals]]
[[Category:Waffen-SS personnel]]

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