Hans Münch
Hans Wilhelm Münch (14 May 1911 – 6 December 2001), also known as The Good Man of Auschwitz, was a German Nazi Party member who worked as an SS physician during World War II at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1943 to 1945 in German occupied Poland. He was acquitted of war crimes at a 1947 trial in Kraków.
Hans Wilhelm Münch | |
|---|---|
Hans Münch in detention, Kraków | |
| Born | 14 May 1911 Freiburg im Breisgau, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire |
| Died | 27 January 2001 (aged 89) Roßhaupten, Bavaria, Germany |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Service/ | Waffen-SS |
| Years of service | 1937–1945 |
| Rank | Untersturmführer |
| Alma mater | University of Tübingen University of Munich |
Münch was nicknamed The Good Man of Auschwitz for his refusal to assist in the mass murders there. He developed many elaborate ruses to keep inmates alive. He was the only person acquitted of war crimes at the 1947 Auschwitz trial in Kraków, where many inmates testified in his favour. After the war and the trial, he returned to Germany and worked as a practicing physician in Roßhaupten in Bavaria. While suffering from Alzheimer's in old age, he made several public remarks that appeared to support Nazi ideology, and was tried for inciting racial hatred and similar charges. Münch was never sentenced, as all courts ruled that he was not of sound mind. He died in 2001.