ARC Main Page Aktion Reinhard Himmler's Last Days

Karl Gebhardt

Last Update 3 September 2005






Gebhardt
Gebhardt
Prof Dr Karl Gebhardt was born on 23 November 1897 in Haag (Bavaria).
He was member of the "Freikorps Oberland" (established on 12 April 1919, prominent members: Himmler, and SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich), and the 15th Freiwilligen-Kompanie which fought against the "Red Army" in the Ruhr area in 1919.
He participated in the "Hitler-Putsch" in München on 9 November 1923.
Gebhardt was President for Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Berlin, served in the 2nd SS-Division "Das Reich" in 1940, and at the KL Ravensbrück in 1942.

Gebhardt was Himmler's friend from youth. He became the "Highest Physician" of the SS. He was Senior Consultant of the nursing home and SS hospital in Hohenlychen near Berlin, and President of the German Red Cross.

Promotions:
SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS on 1 October 1940,
SS-Gruppenführer on 30 January 1943.

Gebhardt joined Himmler during his last days. He was captured probably in Bremervörde on 21 or 22 May 1945, together with other members of Himmler's flight group.

On 9 December 1946 he was put on trial by an American military tribunal at Frankfurt/Main in the "Doctors' Case" for performing lethal sulfonamide experiments on female concentration camp inmates. Gebhardt was sentenced to death by hanging on 20 August 1947, and hanged at Landsberg am Lech on 2 June 1948.

Sources:
Witte Peter, Wildt Michael, Pohl Dieter and others, eds. Der Dienstkalender Heinrich Himmlers 1941/42, Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg, 1999
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