Waldemar Hoven

Who was Waldemar Hoven?

Waldemar Hoven was a Nazi and a physician at Buchenwald concentration camp.

Hoven was born in Freiburg, Germany. Between the years 1919 and 1933, he visited Denmark, Sweden, the United States, and France, returning in 1933 to Freiburg, where he completed his high school studies. He then attended the Universities of Freiburg and Munich. In 1934, he joined the SS. In 1939, he concluded his medical studies and became a physician for the SS. Hoven rose to the rank of Hauptsturmführer in the Waffen SS.

Hoven was involved in the administration of medical experiments regarding typhus and the tolerance of serum containing phenol, and which led to the deaths of many inmates. He was also involved in Nazi euthanasia programs, during which people who were considered useless eaters were killed, along with Jewish people who were considered unfit for work.

He was arrested by the Nazis in 1943, accused of giving a lethal injection of phenol to an SS officer who was a potential witness in an investigation against Ilse Koch, with whom Hoven was rumoured to be having an affair. He was convicted and sentenced to death, although he was released in March 1945 due to the Nazi shortage of doctors.