24 Facts About Karl Gebhardt

1.

Karl Franz Gebhardt was a Nazi physician and a war criminal.

2.

Karl Gebhardt was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death on 20 August 1947.

3.

Karl Gebhardt was hanged on 2 June 1948, in Landsberg Prison in Bavaria.

4.

Karl Gebhardt trained under the tutelage of Ferdinand Sauerbruch and later under Erich Lexer, finally gaining his habilitation in 1932.

5.

Karl Gebhardt had a distinguished career prior to World War II, contributing a great deal to the development of the field of sports medicine.

6.

Karl Gebhardt wrote articles on physical medicine and rehabilitation, a textbook on sports rehabilitation and he disseminated his ideas in Germany and throughout the rest of Europe.

7.

That year, Karl Gebhardt joined the Schutzstaffel and was appointed Medical Superintendent of Hohenlychen Sanatorium in the Uckermark, which he changed from a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients into an orthopedic clinic.

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8.

At Hohenlychen Sanatorium, Karl Gebhardt started the first sports medicine clinic in Germany and developed sports programs for amputees and other disabled people.

9.

Karl Gebhardt was appointed to the Deutsche Hochschule fur Leibesubungen in 1935, where he became the first professor of sports medicine in Berlin.

10.

In 1938, Karl Gebhardt was appointed as Heinrich Himmler's personal physician.

11.

Karl Gebhardt served as Chief Surgeon of the Staff of the Reich during World War II, and under his direction the Hohenlychen Sanatorium became a military hospital for the Waffen-SS.

12.

On 27 May 1942, Himmler ordered Karl Gebhardt dispatched to Prague in order to attend to Reinhard Heydrich, who was wounded by an anti-tank grenade during Operation Anthropoid earlier that day.

13.

Karl Gebhardt refused Morell's advice, expecting Heydrich to recover without antibiotic therapy.

14.

In early 1944, Karl Gebhardt treated Albert Speer for fatigue and a swollen knee.

15.

Karl Gebhardt nearly killed Speer until he was replaced by another doctor, Dr Friedrich Koch, who intervened on Speer's behalf.

16.

Karl Gebhardt eventually rose to the rank of Gruppenfuhrer in the Allgemeine SS and a Generalleutnant in the Waffen-SS.

17.

Karl Gebhardt attempted to transplant the limbs from camp victims to German soldiers wounded on the Eastern front.

18.

Karl Gebhardt was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to death on 20 August 1947.

19.

Karl Gebhardt was hanged on 2 June 1948, in Landsberg Prison in Bavaria.

20.

Two of Karl Gebhardt's assistants were tried and convicted at Nuremberg.

21.

Fritz Fischer worked in the hospital of the Ravensbruck concentration camp as a surgical assistant to Karl Gebhardt, and participated in the surgical experiments carried out on the inmates.

22.

Karl Gebhardt was released in April 1952 and became a family doctor in Stocksee, Germany.

23.

Karl Gebhardt lost her position in 1956 after a Ravensbruck survivor recognized her, and her medical license was revoked in 1958.

24.

Karl Gebhardt died on 24 January 1978 at the age of 66.