Gerhard Palitzsch

Who was Gerhard Palitzsch?

Gerhard Palitzsch, was a German SS non-commissioned officer, notorious for his activities in Auschwitz concentration camp.

At the beginning of his career as NCO, Palitzsch served as a sentry in the concentration camps of Lichtenburg, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen, where he was Blockführer. From Sachsenhausen he was transferred to Auschwitz in 1940.

He brought with him 30 prisoners from Sachsenhausen who were to take over posts as Funktionshäftlinge. Palitzsch was the first Rapportführer and in this position he practised extensive terror. Moreover he very often took part in the executions at the black wall. Palitzsch claimed to a fellow SS member, that he was responsible for shooting some 25,000 people in the back of the head. Like other concentration camp personnel he enriched himself by stealing the property robbed from the victims and because of this he was a subject of SS investigations into theft and corruption. His transfer in 1943 to a sub-camp at Brünn, Germany, where he was made the Commandant, may have been a penal transfer.