BESTIAL Crimes of Egon Zill - Sadistic NAZI Commandant of Natzweiler Struthof & Flossenbürg - WW2
BESTIAL Crimes of Egon Zill - Sadistic NAZI Commandant of Natzweiler Struthof & Flossenbürg - WW2
Bestial Crimes of Egon Zill - Sadistic Nazi Commandant of Natzweiler Struthof \u0026 Flossenbürg - WW2. Egon Zill was born on the 28th of March 1906 in Plauen, then part of the German Empire.
After World War I ended, Germany experienced great political turmoil. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh terms on Germany, which had lost the war. In addition, the country saw the overthrow of its monarchy. In its place was the new Weimar Republic, a democratic government. Racist and antisemitic groups sprang up on the radical right and they blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in the war. These groups opposed the Weimar Republic and the Treaty of Versailles. They were against democracy, human rights, capitalism, socialism, and communism. They advocated to exclude from German life anyone who did not belong to the German race.
The Nazi Party, founded in 1920, sought to woo German workers away from socialism and communism and commit them to antisemitic and anti-Marxist ideology.
On the 30th of January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by the German President Paul von Hindenburg. Immediately after Hitler came into power, Germany became a dictatorship, and the Nazi regime quickly began to restrict the civil and human rights of the Jews and established the first concentration camps, imprisoning its political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, and others classified as “dangerous”.
One such camp was Hohnstein.
In 1934 Egon Zill got married. His wife had been a member of various National Socialist organizations since the mid-1920s and the marriage produced three children.
From the 12th of October 1934, Zill headed the guards at the Lichtenburg concentration camp.
From the 1st of February 1938, Egon Zill became the commander’s adjutant in the Lichtenburg, which by then had become a women’s concentration camp. One of the camps female guards was Maria Mandl whose specialty at Lichtenburg was to strip the prisoners naked, tie them to wooden posts and beat them mercilessly until she could no longer lift her arm.
On the 15th of May 1939, Egon Zill was sent with the other Lichtenburg guards to the newly opened Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Ravensbrück, opened in May 1939, was the only major women’s camp established by the Nazis. In total, some 132,000 women from all over Europe passed through the camp, including Poles, Russians, Jews, Gypsies, and others. Of that number, over 92,000 women perished.
At Ravensbrück Egon Zill held a position of commander’s adjutant. However, he was also a sexual deviant. Despite having his own wife, Zill was known for sexually harassing and brutally abusing the female prisoners. Once he even contracted a venereal disease.
Zill, who due to his short stature was given the nickname “Little Zill”, remained in Ravensbrück until December 1939.
He gradually climbed up the camp hierarchy, owing these promotions to the cruelty and sadism with which he treated the prisoners. His behavior in each subsequent camp was more and more brutal. Not only did he order many crimes to be committed, he often carried them out himself.
The second world war began on the 1st of September, 1939 with the invasion of Poland.
On the 1st of December 1939, Zill was deployed in Dachau concentration camp holding a position of Protective custody camp leader. Protective custody camp section oversaw the prisoner’s complex and was ruled by the infamous SS Death’s Head Units.
Having received his Death’s Head unit training in Dachau, Zill was familiar with all the terrors the camp had to offer its inmates.
In December 1941 Zill succeeded Hermann Pister as commander of the Hinzert concentration camp which remained mainly autonomous until the 21st of November 1944, when it was administratively linked to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Between 1939 and 1945, 13,600 political prisoners between the ages of 13 and 80 were imprisoned at Hinzert.
In April 1942 Zill became the commandant of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp which was the only concentration camp established by the Germans in the territory of pre-war France, about 31 miles southwest of Strasbourg
In mid-September 1942 Egon Zill became a commandant of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. Flossenbürg’s original purpose was to exploit the forced labor of prisoners for the production of granite for Nazi construction projects.
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Content
0.36 -> The 2nd of February 1943, Stalingrad, the Soviet
Union. The German 6th army, after 5 months of
8.52 -> fierce fighting and heavy casualties, having
exhausted their ammunition and food, finally
13.44 -> capitulates, making it the first of Hitler's
field armies to surrender during World War II.
19.02 -> The battle for the city proves a
decisive psychological turning point,
22.74 -> ending a string of German victories in the summer
of 1942 and beginning the long retreat westward.
29.28 -> The Soviet army remains on the offensive and
in July 1944 liberates Majdanek - the first
35.94 -> major Nazi camp to be liberated which
is located in German-occupied Poland.
41.1 -> Soviet officials invite journalists to
inspect the camp and to see the evidence
45.42 -> of the horrors that have occurred there.
Only after the liberation of the concentration
49.44 -> camps, the full extent of Nazi horrors
is finally exposed to the world. Because
55.14 -> of the demands of forced labor and the lack of
food, only a small percentage of concentration
59.82 -> camp inmates survive. Compounded by months and
years of mistreatment and torture, they resemble
65.58 -> skeletons and many of them are so weak that
they can hardly move at all. One of the most
70.74 -> infamous perpetrators of this criminal Nazi regime
responsible for these atrocities is Egon Zill.
77.1 -> Egon Gustav Adolf Zill was born on
the 28th of March 1906 in Plauen,
83.94 -> then part of the German Empire. His
father was a brewer who was severely
88.32 -> injured in the First World War and as such
Egon, after 8 years of elementary school,
93.06 -> was apprenticed to a baker at an early age in
order to bring in much needed money to the family.
98.76 -> After World War I ended, Germany
experienced great political turmoil. The
104.82 -> 1919 Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh terms
on Germany, which had lost the war. In addition,
110.64 -> the country saw the overthrow of its monarchy.
In its place was the new Weimar Republic,
115.44 -> a democratic government. Racist and antisemitic
groups sprang up on the radical right and they
121.74 -> blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in the war. These
groups opposed the Weimar Republic and the Treaty
127.2 -> of Versailles. They were against democracy, human
rights, capitalism, socialism, and communism.
133.98 -> They advocated to exclude from German life
anyone who did not belong to the German race.
139.32 -> The Nazi Party, founded in 1920,
sought to woo German workers away
143.7 -> from socialism and communism and commit them
to antisemitic and anti-Marxist ideology.
149.46 -> In 1920 Hitler formulated a 25-point program
which remain the Party’s only platform.
155.7 -> Among its points, it rejected the Versailles
settlement and also demanded to unify all
160.8 -> people of German “blood.” The program
called for a Greater Germany ruled by
165.48 -> a strong central state and the country
was to acquire new lands and colonies.
170.04 -> The program would deny citizenship and
rights to all non-Germans, particularly Jews.
175.44 -> Under Hitler’s leadership the Nazi Party grew
steadily. It attracted support from influential
181.26 -> people in the military, big business, and
society and the Party also absorbed other radical
186.36 -> right-wing groups. In 1921, Hitler organized a
paramilitary force called the SA also known as the
193.68 -> Storm Troopers and the Brownshirts, for the color
of their uniform. SA members were war veterans and
200.16 -> members of the Freikorps, paramilitary units that
battled left-wing movements in postwar Germany.
204.9 -> When in 1923 Egon Zill joined both the
Nazi Party and the SA, he was only 17.
211.8 -> Three years later he joined the SS with number
535, one of the lowest membership numbers.
218.16 -> On the 30th of January 1933, Adolf Hitler
was appointed chancellor of Germany by
223.56 -> the German President Paul von Hindenburg.
Immediately after Hitler came into power,
228.06 -> Germany became a dictatorship, and the Nazi
regime quickly began to restrict the civil
233.34 -> and human rights of the Jews and established
the first concentration camps, imprisoning
238.08 -> its political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s
witnesses, and others classified as “dangerous”.
243.42 -> One such camp was Hohnstein. Established in the
Hohnstein castle, the camp was in service from the
249.84 -> 14th of March 1933 to August 1934. The prisoners,
mainly communists, were forced to dig in the
257.7 -> nearby stone quarry. Many of them were killed
by the SA or the SS guards or committed suicide.
263.28 -> In 1934 Egon Zill got married. His wife had
been a member of various National Socialist
269.58 -> organizations since the mid-1920s and
the marriage produced three children.
274.8 -> From the 12th of October 1934, Zill headed the
guards at the Lichtenburg concentration camp.
281.04 -> Housed in a Renaissance castle,
Lichtenburg was among the first
284.52 -> concentration camps to be built by the Nazis
and was operated by the SS from 1933 to 1939.
291.78 -> From 1937 to 1939, it held only female prisoners.
296.64 -> From the 1st of November 1936 to the 31st of
July 1937, Egon Zill was a protective custody
303.72 -> camp leader at the Lichtenburg camp. The camp’s
commandant, Hans Helwig, left the management
309.3 -> of the camp to Zill who was considered
brutal and ruthless among the prisoners.
312.96 -> One of the camp’s most prominent
prisoners was Armin Wegner,
316.56 -> a German soldier and medic in World War I as
well as prolific author, and a human rights
321.78 -> activist. On the 11th of April 1933, shortly
after the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses,
327.9 -> Wegner denounced the persecution of Jews in
Germany in an open letter to Adolf Hitler.
333 -> He suggested that the persecution of the Jews was
not just a question of "the fate of our Jewish
337.74 -> brothers alone, but also the fate of Germany”,
noting that he was writing the letter as a
341.82 -> proud German who could himself trace his Prussian
familial roots back to the time of the Crusades.
347.46 -> Wegner asked Hitler what would become of Germany
if it continued its persecution of Jews. Answering
352.98 -> his own question, Wegner declared, "There is
no Fatherland without justice!". On the 19th
358.74 -> of September 1933, Wegner was arrested by the
Gestapo, who imprisoned and tortured him. He was
365.7 -> subsequently interned in the Nazi concentration
camps at Oranienburg, and Lichtenburg, among
370.26 -> others, and after he was released in 1934, he fled
to Rome, where he lived under an assumed name.
376.62 -> From the 1st of February 1938, Egon Zill became
the commander's adjutant in the Lichtenburg,
382.02 -> which by then had become a women's concentration
camp. One of the camps female guards was Maria
387.42 -> Mandl whose specialty at Lichtenburg was
to strip the prisoners naked, tie them to
392.04 -> wooden posts and beat them mercilessly
until she could no longer lift her arm.
396.9 -> On the 15th of May 1939, Egon Zill was sent with
401.4 -> the other Lichtenburg guards to the newly
opened Ravensbrück concentration camp.
405.06 -> Ravensbrück, opened in May 1939, was the only
major women's camp established by the Nazis.
412.68 -> In total, some 132,000 women from all over
Europe passed through the camp, including Poles,
419.16 -> Russians, Jews, Gypsies, and others. Of
that number, over 92,000 women perished.
427.38 -> At Ravensbrück Egon Zill held a position
of commander's adjutant. However,
431.94 -> he was also a sexual deviant. Despite having his
own wife, Zill was known for sexually harassing
438.48 -> and brutally abusing the female prisoners.
Once he even contracted a venereal disease.
444.9 -> Zill, who due to his short stature
was given the nickname "Little Zill",
449.22 -> remained in Ravensbrück until December 1939.
453 -> He gradually climbed up the camp hierarchy,
owing these promotions to the cruelty and
457.74 -> sadism with which he treated the prisoners. His
behavior in each subsequent camp was more and
463.74 -> more brutal. Not only did he order many crimes to
be committed, he often carried them out himself.
470.04 -> The second world war began on the 1st of
September, 1939 with the invasion of Poland.
475.5 -> On the 1st of December 1939, Zill was deployed in
Dachau concentration camp holding a position of
482.46 -> Protective custody camp leader. Protective custody
camp section oversaw the prisoner’s complex and
488.64 -> was ruled by the infamous SS Death’s Head Units.
Having received his Death’s Head unit training
494.16 -> in Dachau, Zill was familiar with all the terrors
the camp had to offer its inmates. The SS Death's
500.34 -> Head Units named for the skull-and-cross-bones
symbol worn on the right collar of their uniforms
504.6 -> was established in 1934 by Theodor Eicke, the
first commandant of Dachau and later inspector
510.78 -> of concentration camps. It was an independent
unit within the SS responsible for administering
517.2 -> the Nazi concentration and extermination camps
throughout Germany and later in occupied Europe.
522.06 -> The units were trained to conduct themselves
with strict discipline and cruelty, and to view
527.52 -> the prisoners under their guard as enemies of
the state who should be destroyed if possible.
532.08 -> They were responsible for facilitating
what the Nazis called the Final Solution,
536.88 -> known since the war as the Holocaust
which was the genocide of Jews in Europe.
541.86 -> At Dachau, not only did Zill devise new and
organized methods of torture for the prisoners
547.86 -> but he took joy in taking part in the punishment
personally, or else watching from the sidelines
552.96 -> as the prisoners died at the hands of equally
sadistic guards. Zill thrived on watching men
559.02 -> beaten, drowned, hung, and broken until their
bodies were unrecognizable masses of bone and
565.68 -> skin. A tag attached to their toes listed an
identification number so they could be properly
571.32 -> recorded in the record books as having died from
a heart attack or some other medical ailment.
576.72 -> On one occasion, the corpses of
Soviet POWs murdered in Hebertshausen,
581.64 -> which was a shooting range located two kilometers
north of the Dachau where between 1941 and 1942,
587.7 -> more than 4,000 Soviet prisoners were murdered,
were brought to the Dachau camp crematorium.
593.22 -> When one of the kapos there asked
Egon Zill where to store the ashes,
597.06 -> Zill told him: “dump the dirt
of these Bolshevik swines.”
601.68 -> Egon Zill had his dogs trained to react to the
raising of his arm. On special amusement days,
607.68 -> Zill would have a table of food placed in front of
the starving prisoners who stood at attention. If
612.9 -> a person were to relax his body, the dogs would
react automatically. As time went by and Zill
618.66 -> became impatient, he raised his arm signaling the
dogs into action. They then attacked the genital
625.26 -> areas of the prisoners until they were dead. At
this point Zill would finally leave the scene.
631.08 -> Witnesses also testified that
Zill personally tortured Soviet
634.86 -> prisoners parading naked in front of him.
He mercilessly tortured them with a whip,
639.42 -> and then selected victims from among them,
who he then personally shot. He was also
644.52 -> seen tying the prisoners to trees and
then setting a dog on their genitals.
648.36 -> Another common pastime for the
guards at Dachau was having the
652.2 -> Jewish prisoners sing anti-Semitic songs
as they dug pits to be filled with stones,
656.22 -> only to have the stones dug up again and
used to fill other pits. At other times,
661.14 -> they would bind the prisoners’ hands and feet and
have them crawl on the ground grunting like pigs.
666.24 -> As the prisoners approached the pigsty, food was
put out for their meal to be eaten by the pigs.
672.24 -> The SS men stood watching as the bound
prisoners fought with the pigs for the
676.98 -> food. This type of torture was used mostly with
Jews, priests, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Poles.
683.88 -> In the autumn of 1941, Zill selected a Soviet
prisoner of war from a group because he had
689.88 -> a lichen planus on his face. Zill personally
led him to the Hebertshausen firing range for
695.52 -> execution. The group containing the Soviet
prisoner of war was initially scheduled to
700.26 -> be executed, but was later pardoned
and assigned to work in the quarries.
704.7 -> Zill made a selection here on his own initiative.
A similar case happened in November 1940. When
712.26 -> the work detail troops passed through the camp
gate on the morning of the 18th of November,
716.16 -> Zill pointed to two prisoners and said to
Karl Kapp, who was a senior kapo in the
721.2 -> garage construction work detail, that he did not
want to see the two prisoners again that evening.
726.36 -> When they returned in the evening, the troop
of this work detachment drove the two dead
730.8 -> back to the camp in wheelbarrows. When
Kapp reported the arrival of the two dead,
735.3 -> Zill replied: "That's what I call
prompt execution of an order".
740.22 -> In December 1941 Zill succeeded Hermann Pister
as commander of the Hinzert concentration camp
745.98 -> which remained mainly autonomous until the 21st
of November 1944, when it was administratively
751.98 -> linked to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Between 1939 and 1945, 13,600 political prisoners
759.9 -> between the ages of 13 and 80 were imprisoned
at Hinzert. Many were in transit towards larger
765.6 -> concentration camps where most would be killed.
However, many prisoners were executed at Hinzert.
771.48 -> Prisoners were housed in four barracks, each
containing two spaces that in turn contained
776.7 -> 26 bunk beds for the projected capacity of 208
prisoners. Later, straw mattresses were added to
783.6 -> increase the total capacity to 560.
The camp was administered, run,
789.06 -> and guarded mainly by the SS, who, according
to the Hinzert survivors, were notorious
793.98 -> for their brutality and viciousness.
Prisoners sometimes had to stand still
797.94 -> for hours facing the mast as punishment. The
roll call area was also used as a drill and
803.34 -> exercise area, where prisoners had to jump up
and down at 4.30 am to the sound of a drum.
808.86 -> In April 1942 Zill became the commandant of the
Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp which
814.86 -> was the only concentration camp established by
the Germans in the territory of pre-war France,
819.18 -> about 31 miles southwest of Strasbourg.
Prisoners worked in nearby granite quarries,
824.34 -> in construction projects, and in the maintenance
of the camp. There were about 50 subcamps in the
830.04 -> Natzweiler- Struthof camp system and by the fall
of 1944, there were about 7,000 prisoners in the
835.92 -> main camp and more than 20,000 in the subcamps.
About 52,000 prisoners were estimated to be held
842.28 -> there during its time of operation. It was a labor
camp, a transit camp and, as the war went on,
848.52 -> a place of execution. Some died from the exertions
of their labor and malnutrition – there were an
854.7 -> estimated 22,000 deaths at the camp,
including its network of subcamps.
859.32 -> In mid-September 1942 Egon Zill became a
commandant of the Flossenbürg concentration
865.32 -> camp. Flossenbürg’s original purpose was
to exploit the forced labor of prisoners
870 -> for the production of granite
for Nazi construction projects.
873.66 -> Until mid-1943 when the camp became a key
supplier of Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft
879.9 -> parts, the quarry occupied the labor of
about half of the prisoner population.
884.4 -> At Flossenbürg, the Germans created such harsh
living conditions for the prisoners that they
889.32 -> often committed suicide. The camp’s Nazi
personnel would often carry out executions,
894.24 -> punish the prisoners with whipping, and
order long and extremely tiring roll calls.
899.16 -> As a commandant Zill expected his guards to
act with the discipline of soldiers whilst
904.68 -> also supporting the idea that camp
inmates who had been indoctrinated
908.52 -> into Nazism should be allowed to fight for
Nazi Germany in return for their freedom.
912.9 -> Zill was replaced in April 1943 by Max Koegel
after being judged ineffective as a commandant,
920.76 -> The move followed letters of complaint
to General Plenipotentiary for Labour
925.26 -> Deployment Fritz Sauckel, from the villagers
about the high standards of living enjoyed by
929.58 -> camp guards and their wives in contrast to
the impoverished standards in the village,
933.42 -> as well as a culture of
corruption amongst the guards.
936.66 -> In August 1943, Zill was transferred to the
7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz
942.24 -> Eugen” which was a mountain infantry division of
the Waffen-SS which from 1942 to 1945 fought a
949.8 -> counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led
Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in occupied
955.02 -> Yugoslavia. Waffen-SS was an armed branch of
the German Nazi Party that served alongside
961.14 -> but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht –
the German Armed Forces - during World War II.
966.84 -> Zill later served in the 23rd Waffen Mountain
Division of the SS Kama. Elements of the division
973.26 -> fought briefly against the Soviet forces in
southern Hungary in early October 1944 alongside
979.26 -> the 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division.
From the point of view of his military superiors,
985.14 -> Zill, However, did not stand the test. Assessments
confirmed that he had had no basic training and
991.14 -> that he had insufficient military and tactical
skills. At the beginning of October 1944,
996.84 -> Zill suggested placing selected concentration
camp prisoners in the service of the Waffen-SS.
1002.66 -> The suggestion was taken up by Oskar Dirlewanger,
one of the most notorious perpetrators of the
1008 -> Nazi regime whose unit terrorized the civilians
and committed unspeakable atrocities mostly in
1013.64 -> Poland and Belarus, and led to the transfer of
prisoners to the Dirlewanger SS special unit.
1018.8 -> After the war ended, Egon Zill went into
hiding, changing his name to “Willi Sonntag".
1024.56 -> However, after he put his real name on the
birth certificate of his illegitimate child,
1028.88 -> Zill was exposed. On the 26th of August 1952,
1033.68 -> an arrest warrant was issued for Zill
and after eight months of searching,
1037.82 -> he was arrested in Hamburg on the 24th of
April 1953 and brought to a West German court.
1044.12 -> According to the post-war investigations by
the Munich public prosecutor's office, Zill
1049.52 -> tortured numerous prisoners in Dachau and some
of the prisoners died as a result of the abuse.
1055.28 -> The witnesses testified in the jury that
Zill had actively called for the killing
1059.54 -> of prisoners on several occasions or
had initiated the killing himself.
1063.38 -> In 1955, a court in Munich sentenced him to
the highest penalty in West Germany - life
1069.56 -> imprisonment, but after an appeal hearing,
the sentence was reduced to only 15 years
1074.66 -> imprisonment resulting in Zill being released in
1970. He was 68 years old when he died on the 23rd
1081.86 -> of October 1974 in the city of Dachau,
near the camp where he had once served.
1088.46 -> There were no tears shed for Egon Zill.
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D3zLIQjngM