Joseph Johann Kotalla was a German SS soldier who was head of the administration and de facto deputy commander of Kamp Amersfoort concentration camp during World War II.
18 Facts About Joseph Kotalla
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Joseph Kotalla belonged to the infamous "The Breda Four" and afterwards to the Drie van Breda, while he was serving a life sentence in Breda Prison after the war.
3.
Joseph Kotalla's father was the manager of a large local ironworks factory.
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Joseph Kotalla's mother was an alcoholic, as were both his grandmothers.
5.
At the age of eleven, Joseph Kotalla suffered a severe concussion, which kept him in the hospital for a year and a half.
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Joseph Kotalla was assigned to the SS and was wounded on the eastern front.
7.
Joseph Kotalla came to work at the cell barracks of the Scheveningen prison.
8.
Joseph Kotalla entered service there as a camp SS soldier and became head of the Schreibstube, the administration.
9.
Joseph Kotalla started his duties at Abteiling III.
10.
In 1944, Joseph Kotalla started a relationship with 21-year-old Louisa Johanna van den Bogert, a Dutch typist who worked at Abteilung III of the camp.
11.
Joseph Kotalla was described as the most notorious camp executioner of Kamp Amersfoort and was nicknamed The Executioner of Amersfoort.
12.
Joseph Kotalla had a short temper, took pervitine, drank liters of gin and mainly targeted Jews and priests.
13.
Joseph Kotalla was known, among other things, for his brutality during the daily roll call, kicking and hitting prisoners with a club.
14.
Joseph Kotalla delighted to give the prisoners only five minutes to finish their hot meal.
15.
Joseph Kotalla kicked between the prisoners' legs; in the camp this was called the 'Kotalla kick'.
16.
On 14 December 1948, Joseph Kotalla was sentenced to death by the Amsterdam Special Court.
17.
Finally, at the request of his counsel, Joseph Kotalla was examined by the psychiatrists Pieter Baan and Henricus Cornelius Rumke at the Psychiatric Observation Clinic in Utrecht.
18.
On 5 June 1951, they indicated that Joseph Kotalla had diminished responsibility; according to them, Joseph Kotalla had a compulsive neurotic character that was partly a result of an "organic damage" of the central nervous system, as well as an "infantile sense of reality".