Eisele, Dr. Hans “Hannes”.

Eisele, Dr. Hans. “Hannes” born 13-03-1913 in Donaueschingen, where as his father Hans Eisele was a church painter-laborer, his mother Emma Bullinger a housefrau. Eisele came from a modest background. Even before Hans Senior passed away in 1934, young Hannes supported his family by taking on part time painting jobs. The situation of the family worsened significantly due to inflation of currency during the twenties. After attending the grammar school in Donaueschingen, he studied medicine in Freiburg in 1931. In 1933 he joined both the Nazi Party (member number 3,125,695) and the SS  (member number 237,421). He was married with Hedwig and had three children, Armin and Siegelinde. Doctor Hannes Eisele was of pure Aryan stock, his “Aryan Certificate” said as much. It listed the names, places and dates of birth (and death) of both sets of grandparents. Where necessary, the certificate explained causes of death–vital information to a Third Reich which monitored racial purity.

In January 1940, Eisele joined the Waffen-SS  and was for a short time in the Mauthausen concentration camp

  , then from February to August 1941 in Buchenwald concentration camp. Eisele served as camp doctor, and murdered 300 prisoners suffering from tuberculosis. He also did experimental surgery, sometimes without anesthesia and with a fatal outcome; in addition, he abused and tortured patients. Then he was in the concentration camp Natzweiler and in June 1942 employed in the SS hospital in Prague. Furthermore, he did service with the SS Division Das Reich  under command of SS Gruppenführer Werner Ostendorff

on the Eastern Front. In February 1945 he was sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he served under the First Camp Physician SS-Obersturmbannführer Fritz Hintermayer

.  

SS Obersturmbannführer Fritz Hintermayer was condemned to death and was hanged in the Landsberg Prison on 29-05-1946, age 34

Eisele was arrested by U.S. forces in April 1945.

On 13-12-1945, Eisele was tried in the Dachau main trial for his participation in three executions for which he had issued the death certificates. He was sentenced to death. After commutation of the sentence to a life sentence on 11-04-1947, he was in the Buchenwald main trial  , tried again and received together with twenty co-defendants the death penalty. However, the basic conviction against Eisele proved dubious and uncertain, so that four of the eight military judges submitted an application that the judgment be converted by the reviewing body to a ten-year sentence, which was granted.

During his detention in prison for war criminals Landsberg, he wrote an extensive defense titled Audiatur et altera pars in which he denied the allegations and represented himself as a convinced Christian, who had always been a physician only for the sake of others. In contrast, numerous witnesses of his crimes were former concentration camp prisoners, and sometimes even former SS members. But after another penalty reduction, Eisele, on 26-02-1952, was released from prison.

The SS doctor Dr. Hans Eisele was sentenced to death after the war for crimes he is said to have committed in Buchenwald and other concentration camps. In 1947, he wrote a memorandum in his prison cell, awaiting the execution of his death sentence. In it he described the conditions in the Buchenwald concentration camp from his perspective. He showed the corruption and cruelty of the SS, but also revealed the extent of the collaboration between the prisoners – especially communist ones – with the guards and the camp management. This collaboration extended to the killing of fellow prisoners who were viewed as “unworthy of life”. While his memorandum was long seen as a last attempt to escape the gallows, recent research largely confirms his account. The statements of the witnesses included in the The statements made by the Allies against Eisele in the post-war trials often turn out to be vague, contradictory and based on hearsay on closer inspection. In contrast to them are the testimonies of various prisoners who knew Eisele personally and attested to his extremely humane behavior

Death and burial ground of Eisele, Dr Hans, “Hannes”.

 After his release, he opened a medical practice in Munich where he lived in peace.    He escaped punishment for his crimes until 1957, until in July 1958 in Bayreuth a district court in West Germany, he was ultimately convicted of 25 deaths and received a life sentence. Upon appeal the case was upheld in May 1959 by the Federal Court. Martin Sommer in July 1958 in Bayreuth district court in West Germany, he was ultimately convicted of 25 deaths and received a life sentence. Upon appeal the case was upheld in May 1959 by the Federal Court.

Walter Gerhard Martin Sommer,  a guard at Buchenwald,

new allegations were made against Eisele. Thereafter his name became public domain especially since it was brought to the attention of the Bavarian Justice Minister, Dr. Ankermuller.  The Doctor and his family were safely on board the SS Esperia which had set sail from Genoa for Alexandria the previous day. where he settled under the pseudonym Carl Debouche, pronounced ‘Dabous’ by Mohammed, his barber on Road 9. in upmarket Cairo suburb Maadi. A particular item which caught everyone’s fancy was a report that Debouche was seen reoccurringly staring from his upstairs window at the building across the street. The focus of his attention was always the same. Somehow, the small Maadi synagogue on Orabi (ex-Mosseri) Avenue  fascinated the German doctor. The Deboushes, who seemingly never shopped, appeared there only when the doctor needed a haircut or a medicinal drug from the local pharmacy.  when he was indicted for complicity in the death in 101 concentration camp inmates.Walter Gerhard Martin Sommer died in the prison hospital on 07-07-1988 (aged 73)

Eisele moved in the circles of former Nazi scientists in Egypt, after a German extradition request had been rejected. One of them was SS Hauptsturmführer. Nazi camp doctor ” Dr. Todt ” in Mauthausen KZ. Heim, Dr. Aribert Ferdinand 

  There was at least one assassination attempt on Eisele by Mossad,  a package bomb in which the Egyptian deliverer died, but Eisele was unhurt. If a new identity was in store for the Eisele and his family in Egypt their stay would be short and tumultuous, dampened by the fear of being uncovered. In fact the doctor’s Egyptian sojourn ended in ostracism, malady, and finally in death on 03-05-1967 in unknown circumstances in his home in Maadie   Eisele was buried at the German Cemetery in Old Cairo, grave Nr 99. The paradox here is that he shares the same plot with Doctor Theodor Maximilian Bilharz.   Theodor Maximilian Bilharz (23 March 1825 – 9 May 1862) was a German physician and an important pioneer in the field of parasitology. While Doctor Bilharz’s black granite plaque lists in Arabic and German his wonderful medical achievements, the short inscription on Doctor Eisele’s rough tombstone reads simply “Dr. Med. Hans Eisele”. Understandably, it makes no mention of any of his medical accomplishments. Later his remains were moved by his son Armin to the local cemetery of 77960 Seelbach, Field 1, in Germany, where his son still lives  Jürgen Schönke from Seelbach made and sent the grave photo’s for me, with great thanks.

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