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10 Facts About Karl-Otto Koch

1.

Karl-Otto Koch's father worked in a local registrar's office and died when Karl was eight years old.

2.

Karl-Otto Koch spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war and returned to Germany in 1919.

3.

Karl-Otto Koch served with several SS-Standarten.

4.

Karl-Otto Koch remained at Buchenwald until September 1941, when he was transferred to the Majdanek concentration camp for POWs near Lublin, Poland.

5.

Karl-Otto Koch commanded the Majdanek camp for only one year; he was relieved from his duties when 86 Soviet POWs escaped from the camp in August 1942.

6.

Karl-Otto Koch was charged with criminal negligence and transferred to Berlin, where he worked at the SS Personnel Main Office and as a liaison between the SS and the German Post Office.

7.

Karl-Otto Koch was executed by firing squad on 5 April 1945 one week before American allied troops arrived to liberate the camp.

8.

Karl-Otto Koch first married Kate Muller in 1924 and had one psychiatrically troubled son named Manfred; however, this marriage ended with divorce in 1931 due to his infidelity.

9.

On 25 May 1937, Karl-Otto Koch married Ilse Karl-Otto Koch, with whom he had a son and two daughters.

10.

Karl-Otto Koch received the album from his co-workers as a gift for his 40th birthday.