Gerhard Palitzsch

Some prisoners in more trusted jobs in Auschwitz fought back against the camp; one of the means of attack was to breed lice infected with typhus in the camp infirmary and then put these lice into clothes given to SS personnel. Because of his notoriety, Palitzsch was given such an item. He did not contract typhus, but his wife Luise died from it. After that, he was believed to have sexually assaulted a female prisoner. Shortly after his transfer to Brünn he was arrested, sent back to Auschwitz, and jailed in Block 11. Accused of “Race Defilement” and theft, Palitzsch was sentenced to death, but reprieved and instead dismissed from the SS in June 1944 and sent to a penal unit. His later fate is unclear; he is said to have fallen in action on 7 December 1944 possibly at the battle of Budapest.

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, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Brno, Czech Republic), where he was made the Commandant, may have been a penal transfer.

On 3 September 1941 Palitzsch participated in the first tentative gassing using Zyklon B to murder 600 Russian POWs and 250 sick Polish prisoners. They were crammed in the basement of Block 13, later renamed Block 11. But the next day not all prisoners were dead; so Palitzsch had to add more Zyklon B. In 1942 he was Report Leader in the male camp of Auschwitz II Birkenau, where he served also at the trackside ramp when new Jewish transports were arriving. From July to August 1943 he served also in the Gypsy family camp.

From Sachsenhausen he was transferred to Auschwitz on 20 May 1940. He brought with him 30 German green-coded prisoners (criminals), selected by him to take over posts of authority over the rest of prisoners. Palitzsch was the first Report Leader and in this position he practised extensive terror. Infamous were his speeches to the newly arrived prisoners at the camp. Here is an example: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

At the beginning of his career as an NCO, in 1933, Palitzsch served as a sentry in the concentration camps of Lichtenburg, Sachsenburg and Sachsenhausen, where in 1936 he was Block Leader (head of a prisoners’ barrack), and later Report Leader (duty officer). From 1938 to 1940 he served in Neuengamme concentration camp as the second prisoners' work detail overseer (Kommandoführer).

Gerhard Palitzsch (17 June 1913 – 7 December 1944) was a German Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) of the SS. He was notorious for his brutal treatment of prisoners in Auschwitz concentration camp.