History of Sorts

Stefan Baretzki was an Auschwitz guard of Bukovina-German origin. He was conscripted into the Waffen-SS and stationed at Auschwitz  from 1942 until 1945.

Baretzki was sentenced to life imprisonment and eight years in August 1965 at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Because he only finished primary education, the court described him as a “simpleton” and “less intelligent than all the other defendants”, However, I don’t fully subscribe to that point of view. It was not uncommon in those days that people would only have primary education. But his evidence was helpful, and his admission that he knew that the mass murder of Jews was a crime was used as evidence that the other defendants knew that their actions were criminal as well.

Barertzki and other guards would be shown propaganda films at the end of the workday, like Jud Süß and Ohm Krüger. This encouraged them to beat up Jewish prisoners the morning after.

Baretzki claimed during  his trial that when guards asked why prisoners were sent to Auschwitz, they were informed that all of them were dangerous criminals convicted of sabotage.

Baretzki also testified against Kurt Knittel, an SS guard who was in charge of the propaganda department at Auschwitz.

Baretzki testified that Knittel had told them that Jewish women and children had to be murdered because they were an inferior race.

Stefan Baretzki was not a simpleton—he was an evil man. The crimes he committed were calculated. He was found guilty of five counts of murder: he beat a starving prisoner to death and, on 21 June 1944, drowned four prisoners in a water tank. In a New York Times article from 28 July. 1964, it was also reported that he kicked a newborn baby to death and used a knife to kill a prisoner who had just been hanged. The witness, Mr Gotland, a businessman from Paris, said Baretzki had ordered him to recover the child’s body, which the guard had kicked “like a rock.” He said Baretzkl later clubbed the baby’s mother to death.

On 21 June 1988, Baretzki committed suicide while in jail.

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Sources

http://www.auschwitz-prozess-frankfurt.de/index.php?id=101

New York Times