Eduard Wirths collection
Extent and Medium
folder
oversize box
1
1
Creator(s)
- Eduard Wirths
Biographical History
Eduard Wirths (1909-1945), was the chief SS doctor (SS-Standortarzt) at Auschwitz-Birkenau from September 1942 to January 1945, where he supervised the work of approximately 20 camp doctors, including Josef Mengele, Horst Schumann, and Carl Clauberg. A member of the Nazi party since his student days at the University of Würzburg (1930-1935), he entered the Waffen SS in 1939, and saw combat action, but was declared medically unfit after a heart attack in 1942. After working as the chief SS psychiatrist at Neuengamme, he was appointed chief doctor at Auschwitz in September 1942. While not having carried out medical experiments on prisoners himself, he authorized and supervised the work of other camp doctors who did so. Following the evacuation of Auschwitz in January 1945, he was assigned as chief camp physician at Dora-Mittelbau in April 1945, and was subsequently captured by Allied forces and was held in British custody awaiting trial for war crimes when he commited suicide on 20 September 1945.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Peter Wirths
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Peter Wirths donated his father's photographs to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2014. He added the photograph album in 2015.
Scope and Content
The Eduard Wirths collection relates to SS-Standortarzt Dr. Eduard Wirths (1909-1945), his family, and colleagues, before and while he was stationed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The collection consists of fifteen original photographs, some taken at Solahütte, a resort for Nazi personnel located at Auschwitz, and of other physicians, including Dr. Carl Clauberg (1898-1957). The collection also includes a 1944 presentation album, entitled, "SS Truppenlazarett erbaut von der Zentralbauleitung der Waffen-SS und Polizei, Auschwitz OS 1944" which was created to document the construction and opening of the SS troop hospital at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The construction and interior of the hospital as well as camp laborers are seen in the photographs.
System of Arrangement
The Eduard Wirths collection is arranged in a single series.
People
- Höss, Rudolf, 1900-1947.
- Wirths, Eduard, 1909-1945.
- Clauberg, Carl, 1898-1957.
- Schöttl, Vinzenz, 1905-1946.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- National socialism and medicine.
- Physicians--Germany--History--20th century.
- World War, 1939-1945.
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--Germany.
- Wisła (Poland)
- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei.
- Germany.
- Poland.
Genre
- Photographs.
- Document
- Photo albums.