Arnold Strippel

Who was Arnold Strippel?

Arnold Strippel was an SS-Obersturmführer and a member of the SS-Totenkopfverbände who while assigned to the Neuengamme concentration camp was given the task of murdering the victims of a tuberculosis medical experiment conducted by Kurt Heissmeyer.

Strippel served in various concentration camps starting in 1934 when he joined the SS. His first assignment was at Sachsenburg, his next was Buchenwald, where he participated in the shooting of 21 Jewish inmates on November 9, 1939, following the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in Munich. While at Buchenwald, Strippel caught an inmate who was using a rope and some paper to alleviate heavy loads he was carrying on his work detail. This was against camp regulations, so Strippel decided to make an example out of him. "You used this rope; you'll hang on a rope. And the whole camp will watch as you twist in the wind." The inmate's hands were tied behind his back and he was lifted two feet off the ground from a tree. The weight of his body was all on the shoulder joints and the pain was "excruciating beyond all description."