Ludwig Wörl

Ludwig Wörl (1906 – 27 August 1967), was a carpenter by profession. He was an opponent of Nazism, and as a result of his actions, was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps. He received the title of Righteous Among the Nations file #1 (the first to be recognized) for rescuing Jews in concentration camps.

Until his death on 27 August 1967, he appeared in public assemblies and showed documents he had collected about the concentration camps in plays and films. On 19 March 1963, Yad Vashem recognized Ludwig Wörl as a Righteous Among the Nations.

After the war, Wörl was in charge of the Auschwitz Prisoners' Organization in Germany. He remained a clear anti-Nazi even after the war, and searched for the SS soldiers from the camps. In addition, Wörl devoted his life to commemorating Nazi crimes and prosecuting the perpetrators. In 1963 he was one of the main witnesses at the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt.

One of Wörl's anti-Nazi activities was to publish information booklets to the general public in Munich about the terrible conditions in the Nazi concentration camps. This action caused his imprisonment in Dachau 1934, by the Gestapo. After nine months in a dark detention cell, he was first transferred to the camp's carpentry shop and eventually became a paramedic in the medical clinic. In 1942, there was an outbreak of the Typhus in Auschwitz, that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Auschwitz prisoners and personnel. In order to deal with the disease, Wörl was sent together with 17 other male nurses to the camp's clinic.