Hans Münch

German physician

Hans Wilhelm Münch (14 May 1911 – 6 December 2001), also known as The Good Man of Auschwitz, was a German Nazi Party member who worked as an SS physician during World War II at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1943 to 1945 in German occupied Poland. He was acquitted of war crimes at a 1947 trial in Kraków. Münch was nicknamed The Good Man of Auschwitz for his refusal to assist in the mass murders there. He developed many elaborate ruses to keep inmates alive. He was the only person acquitted of war crimes at the 1947 Auschwitz trial in Kraków, where many inmates testified in his favour. After the war and the trial, he returned to Germany and worked as a practicing physician in Roßhaupten in Bavaria. While suffering from Alzheimer's in old age, he made several public remarks that appeared to support Nazi ideology, and was tried for inciting racial hatred and similar charges. Münch was never sentenced, as all courts ruled that he was not of sound mind. He died in 2001.

After graduating from a gymnasium, Hans Münch studied medicine at the University of Tübingen and the Munich University. He was active in the political section of the Reichsstudentenführung (Reich’s leadership of university students). In 1934, he joined the NSDStB.—Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (National Socialist German Students' League)—and the NSKK—Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (National Socialist Motor Corps). In May 1937, he joined the NSDAP. In 1939, he received a doctorate, and in the same year, married another physician. When World War II began, he replaced country doctors in their practices in the Bavarian countryside as they had been inducted into the army; Münch's attempt to enlist in the Wehrmacht was rejected as his work as a doctor was considered too important.

In June 1943, he was recruited as a scientist by the Waffen SS and was sent to the in Raisko, about from the main camp at Auschwitz. Münch worked alongside the infamous Josef Mengele, who was the same age and also came from Bavaria. Münch continued the bacteriological research he was known for before the war, as well as making occasional inspections of the camps and the prisoners. Along with other doctors, Münch was expected to participate in the "selections" at the camp of Auschwitz Birkenau, to decide who among the incoming Polish and Jewish men, women and children could work, who would be experimented on, and who would be murdered in the gas chambers. The book on SS physicians of Auschwitz by Robert Jay Lifton (1986) mentions Münch as the only physician whose commitment to the Hippocratic oath proved stronger than that to the SS. While Münch did conduct human experiments, these were often elaborate farces intended to protect inmates, as experiment subjects who were no longer useful were usually killed. According to testimony from inmate Dr. Louis Micheels, Münch's last act before the camp was abandoned was to provide him with a revolver to assist his escape. After the evacuation of Auschwitz in 1945, Münch spent two months at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich. However, there are doubts as to the truth of this storyanother former inmate, Imre Gönczy, alias "Emmerich," paints a very different picture: allegedly, Münch not only participated in selections, but also used the flesh of the dead bodies to cook a broth which was used as a medium for his microbes. He also allegedly infected people, including Gönczy, with rheumatism, Gönczy still suffering the effects of which at the time of a later interview. They met shortly before Münch's death, and the meeting was covered by a journalist from the German newspaper Die Welt. In the meeting, Münch said if he could go back in time and choose to go to Auschwitz again, he'd absolutely do it, because he saw it as a huge opportunity.

After the war in 1945, Münch was arrested in a US internment camp after being identified as an Auschwitz physician. He was extradited to Poland in 1946 to stand trial in Kraków. He was specifically accused of injecting inmates with malaria infected blood, and with a serum that caused rheumatism; however, many former prisoners testified in support of Münch in their witness speeches. The court acquitted him on 22 December 1947, "not only because he did not commit any crime of harm against the camp prisoners, but because he had a benevolent attitude toward them and helped them, while he had to carry the responsibility. He did this independently from the nationality, race and religious origin and political conviction of the prisoners." The court's acquittal was based, among other things, on his strict refusal to participate in the selections. Of the 40 Auschwitz staff tried in Kraków at the Auschwitz Trial, only Münch was acquitted. He was called the "Good Man of Auschwitz", who had saved prisoners from being murdered in the gas chambers.

He took over a rural doctor's practice in Roßhaupten in Ostallgäu, Bavaria. In 1964, Münch testified in the first Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt on Main and in the following trials, he was called on for his expert opinion. In West Germany, Münch took part in discussion meetings and commemoration ceremonies. He was appreciated for having saved many Auschwitz prisoners at the risk of his own life. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he made a journey back to the concentration camp. Münch was invited by Eva Mozes Kor, a survivor of Josef Mengele's experiments on twins. Münch and Kor signed public declarations regarding what had happened there and declaring that such a thing should never be allowed to happen again. Münch has also commented on Holocaust denial. During an interview Münch, asked about the negationist claim that Auschwitz was a hoax, wearily responded:

During his final years, Münch lived in the Allgäu region, by Forggen Lake. He died aged 90 in 2001.

Münch made several controversial statements which caused charges to be filed against him. In 1998, journalist Bruno Schirra published an interview with Münch, conducted a year earlier, in Der Spiegel. Schirra and Münch had watched the film Schindler's List, and the interview was conducted directly after the viewing. A few days later, Dirk Münch, Münch's son, publicly expressed his lack of comprehension of this interview. He explained that his father had been suffering from poor concentration for two years. He criticised the fact that Schindler's List had been watched directly before the interview, saying that this would have been very exhausting due to the film's three hour length and his father's advanced age. Dirk Münch stated that, after the film, his father had even confused the female house cat Minka with the male cat Peter. A German filmmaker who made a documentary about Münch also stated that he was not of sound mind. He was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Münch appeared in the documentary film Die letzten Tage, which was released in 1999 in the US as The Last Days and in Germany in March 2000. As a contemporary witness, he met and talked with camp survivor Renée Firestone, whose sister was murdered in Auschwitz during experiments with humans. A film review pointed out that the American version of the film made no clear indication that Münch suffered from Alzheimer's disease at this time. Only the credits of the film provided this information and then only in French.

In 1998, Münch made derogatory statements about Roma and Sinti on the French radio programme France Inter, where he said that the Roma were "pathetic" and the gas chambers would have been the only solution for them. Münch was accused of "incitement of racial hatred". He did not take part in the court hearing. A medical expert opinion had certified him "psychologically disturbed". The acquittal was based on this expert opinion. The Agence France Presse (AFP) reported on 7 May 2001 that the Paris appeal court had annulled the June 2000 acquittal. In May 2001, Münch was convicted in Paris for "incitement of racial hatred" and "belittlement of crimes against humanity". The prosecutor demanded not the imprisonment of Münch but his release on license. Münch was found guilty, but due to his old age and his mental health, the Paris appeal court decided that the 89 year old Münch should not serve out the sentence. As in the previous proceedings, Münch did not attend the court hearings. In September 2001, the French Radio rebroadcast the 1998 interview with Münch. Lawyers Without Borders, the International League against Racism and Anti Semitism and the Union of Jewish Students in France lodged complaints. In 2002, all of the accused responsible staff members of the public law broadcasting institution Radio France were acquitted of the accusation of assistance in incitement to race hatred. The reasoning of the court decision reads that all radio listeners would have understood that Münch's statements about Sinti and Roma and about NS extermination camps were taken from the Nazi propaganda.

The Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (Stiftung Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft) has Hans Münch in its listings as a participant in malaria experiments on Auschwitz inmates; however, he is not listed for the malaria experiments in the Dachau concentration camp, which had taken place until 5 April 1945 under the direction of physician Claus Schilling.

In 2002 and 2003, the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt focused on the analysis of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial and its effects on the socio political judicial historical levels in the Federal Republic of Germany. There was an explicit invitation to participate in the series of public meetings and discussion events on perpetrators' and victims' biographies in the Nazi regime. On 4 November 2002, Prof. Dr. Helgard gave the lecture SS Ärzte in Auschwitz und im Ersten Frankfurter Auschwitz Prozess (SS physicians in Auschwitz and in the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial).