1. Christian Wirth's nicknames included Christian the Cruel, Stuka, and The Wild Christian due to the extremity of his behaviour among the SS and Trawniki guards and to the camp inmates and victims.
43 Facts About Christian Wirth
1. 2.
Christian Wirth later served as Inspector of all the Reinhard Camps.
3.
Christian Wirth was killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in Hrpelje-Kozina near Trieste after the conclusion of Operation Reinhard.
4.
Christian Wirth was born on 24 November 1885 in Oberbalzheim, Wurttemberg, part of the German Empire.
5.
The son of a master cooper, after attending elementary and continuation school, Christian Wirth learned the sawyer's craft.
6.
Christian Wirth was awarded the Iron Cross First Class, Iron Cross Second Class, and the Order of the Crown.
7.
Christian Wirth was one of the original members of the Nazi Party, joining for the first time in 1923, before it was outlawed briefly in Germany following the unsuccessful Hitler Beer Hall Putsch.
8.
Christian Wirth again joined the Nazi Party as an Alter Kampfer on 1 January 1931.
9.
Christian Wirth joined the Sturmabteilung on 30 June 1933.
10.
On 10 August 1939, Christian Wirth transferred from the SA to the SS, attaining the rank of Obersturmfuhrer by October.
11.
Christian Wirth had joined the uniformed police in 1910 before the onset of World War I Wirth rose to become the captain of detectives of the Kriminalpolizei in Stuttgart.
12.
At the age of fifty-five, Christian Wirth was among the oldest personnel involved in T-4.
13.
Christian Wirth first set up office procedures at the "euthanasia" center at Grafeneck Castle in Wurttemberg.
14.
Shortly thereafter Christian Wirth was transferred to administrative director of the killing centre at Brandenburg an der Havel in Prussia.
15.
In December 1939 or January 1940, Christian Wirth was present when twenty to thirty German mental patients were subjected to the first known gassing experiment using carbon monoxide.
16.
Christian Wirth continued to participate as a troubleshooter in the T-4 killing centers.
17.
For instance, when at Brandenburg a group of suspecting mental patients refused to enter the gas chamber, Christian Wirth coaxed them into the room by telling them that they had to enter it in order to receive clothing.
18.
At Hartheim, Christian Wirth oversaw paperwork as head of the registry office, directed the killing process as the individual responsible for security, and commanded the junior staff as director of personnel.
19.
Christian Wirth was coarse and brutal, feared by his subordinates and known to use any means necessary to ensure a smooth killing operation.
20.
When four female patients at Hartheim were suspected of having contracted typhus, Christian Wirth shot them to prevent the spread of disease to the staff.
21.
In mid-1940, Christian Wirth was appointed as an inspector of a dozen killing facilities in the Third Reich.
22.
Christian Wirth frequented the Hartheim killing centre, where Franz Stangl worked.
23.
Christian Wirth stayed at Hartheim for several days that time and often came back.
24.
In mid-1941, Christian Wirth was involved in the "euthanasia" program in western areas of Poland; his activity during this time is obscure.
25.
Christian Wirth decided to combine in Belzec the permanent gas chamber with the internal combustion car engine as gas supplier.
26.
Christian Wirth objected to the bottles of carbon monoxide gas that had been used in euthanasia institutions.
27.
Christian Wirth preferred to set up a self-contained extermination system, based on an ordinary car engine and easily available gasoline and not dependent on supply by outside factors.
28.
Christian Wirth carried out experiments to determine the most efficient method of handling the transports of Jews from the time of their arrival at the camp until their murder and burial.
29.
Christian Wirth developed some basic concepts for the process of extermination and for camp structure.
30.
Polizeihauptmann [police captain] Christian Wirth conducted the Aktionen in Bernburg.
31.
Christian Wirth supervised the transportation of the mentally ill and of the corpses.
32.
One day in the winter of 1941 Christian Wirth arranged a transport [of euthanasia personnel] to Poland.
33.
Christian Wirth established the regime of terror and death which was carried out in all Operation Reinhard camps more than any other camp commander.
34.
Christian Wirth developed much of the systematic policy for interaction with the prisoners.
35.
The brutality of Christian Wirth was so great that I personally see it as a perversity.
36.
Christian Wirth liked to carry a whip, and he used it on both Jewish victims and guards.
37.
When Treblinka was set up, Christian Wirth took a direct role in reorganizing it when the first Commandant, Dr Irmfried Eberl, was replaced by Franz Stangl.
38.
In May 1943, after Himmler's visit to Sobibor and Treblinka, Christian Wirth was promoted to the rank of SS-Sturmbannfuhrer.
39.
When Operation Reinhard was terminated after three million Polish Jews and thousands of Roma were murdered, Christian Wirth was sent to Trieste in Italy along with the other former Aktion Reinhard staff.
40.
From autumn 1943, Christian Wirth's role was to oversee the Risiera di San Sabba concentration camp as well as to combat partisans over the border in occupied Yugoslavia.
41.
Christian Wirth commanded SS Task Force R, which engaged in antipartisan and anti-Jewish actions in the Trieste-Fiume-Udine area of northern Italy.
42.
Christian Wirth was shot and killed on May 26,1944 by Yugoslav Partisans while travelling in an open-topped car near Kozina, Istria while on an official trip to Fiume.
43.
Christian Wirth was buried with full military honours in the German Military Cemetery in Opcina, near Trieste.