Austrian SS doctor
Aribert Ferdinand Heim
(28 June 1914 – 10 August 1992),
[1]
also known as
Dr. Death
and
Butcher of Mauthausen
, was an
Austrian
Schutzstaffel
(SS) doctor. During World War II, he served at the
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
in
Mauthausen
, killing and torturing inmates using various methods, such as the direct injection of
toxic
compounds into the hearts of his victims.
[2]
After the war, Heim lived in
Cairo
, Egypt, under the alias of
Tarek Farid Hussein
after his conversion to
Islam
.
[3]
In February 2009, after years of attempts to locate him, German television network
ZDF
had found Heim's passport and other documents in Cairo.
[4]
It was then reported that Heim had died there on 10 August 1992 from complications of rectal cancer, according to testimony by his son Ruediger and lawyer.
[5]
This information, though set forth by a German court, was questioned by
Efraim Zuroff
, a leading
Nazi hunter
of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center
.
[2]
[6]
[4]
Zuroff stated that on a visit to
Puerto Montt, Chile
, in July 2008, Heim's daughter told him that Heim had died in 1993 in Argentina.
[2]
In 2012, a court in
Baden-Baden
confirmed again that Heim had died in 1992 in Egypt, based on new evidence provided by his family and lawyer.
[1]
The Wiesenthal Center continued to dispute these findings, and Heim remained on the
list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals
until 2013.
[7]
Life
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Heim was born on June 28, 1914, in
Bad Radkersburg
,
Austria-Hungary
,
[8]
the son of a policeman and a housewife. He studied in
Graz
, and received his diploma in medicine from the
University of Vienna
in 1940.
[9]
Heim volunteered for the
Waffen-SS
in April 1940, rising to the rank of
Hauptsturmfuhrer
(Captain).
[10]
Mauthausen concentration camp
[
edit
]
Aribert Heim worked in Mauthausen for six weeks as a doctor starting in October 1941 at the age of 27.
[11]
Prisoners at Mauthausen called Heim "Dr. Death", or the "Butcher of Mauthausen" for his cruelty.
[12]
According to witnesses, Heim worked closely with SS pharmacist
Erich Wasicky
. The two performed gruesome experiments together, such as injecting various solutions into the hearts of Jewish prisoners to see which killed them the fastest.
[13]
Heim was known for performing operations without
anesthesia
. For about two months (October to December 1941), Heim was stationed at the
Ebensee concentration camp
near
Linz
, Austria, where he carried out experiments on Jews and others similar to those performed at
Auschwitz
by
Josef Mengele
. According to
Holocaust
survivors, Jewish prisoners were poisoned with various injections directly into the heart, including petrol, phenol, available poisons, or even water, to induce death.
[14]
Heim reportedly removed organs from living prisoners without anesthesia, killing hundreds.
[15]
A prisoner by the name of Karl Lotter also worked in the Mauthausen hospital at the time Aribert Heim was there.
[16]
Lotter testified that in 1941, he witnessed Aribert Heim butcher a prisoner who came to him with an inflamed foot.
[16]
Lotter provided more gruesome details about how Aribert butchered the 18-year-old prisoner, stating that Aribert gave him anesthetic and then proceeded to cut him open, castrate him, and take out one of his kidneys. The prisoner died, and his head was cut off, boiled and stripped of its flesh.
[16]
Heim then allegedly used this young man's skull as a paperweight on his desk.
[16]
In a sworn statement that was given eight years after the incident Lotter stated that Heim "needed the head because of its perfect teeth".
[16]
Other survivors of the Holocaust referred to Aribert removing tattooed flesh from prisoners and using the skin to make seat coverings, which he gave to the commandant of the camp.
[11]
Marcelino Bilbao Bilbao
stated that Heim drew blood from him for six weeks and later injected him with a liquid that ended up paralyzing his body.
[17]
Later service
[
edit
]
From February 1942, Heim served in the
6th SS Mountain Division Nord
in northern
Finland
, especially in
Oulu
's hospitals as an SS doctor. His service continued until at least October 1942.
[18]
[19]
On 15 March 1945, Heim was captured by US soldiers and sent to a camp for
prisoners of war
. He would remain imprisoned for a two-and-a-half year period.
[20]
But while Heim's former colleague, Erich Wasicky, and dozens of others were tried and executed in the
Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials
, Heim was never prosecuted.
[21]
In December 1947, he was released and worked as a
gynecologist
at
Baden-Baden
until his disappearance in 1962; he had telephoned his home and was told that the police were waiting for him. Having been questioned on previous occasions, he surmised the reason (an international warrant for his arrest had been in place since that date) and went into hiding.
[15]
According to his son, Rudiger Heim, he drove through
France
and Spain onward to
Morocco
, moving finally to Egypt via Libya.
[22]
Investigations and possible sightings
[
edit
]
In the years following his disappearance, Heim was the target of a rapidly escalating manhunt and ever-increasing rewards for his capture. Following his escape there were reported sightings in
Latin America
,
Spain
and
Africa
, as well as formal investigations aimed at bringing him to justice, some of which took place even after he had apparently died in
Egypt
. The German government offered €150,000 for information leading to his arrest, while the Simon Wiesenthal Center launched
Operation Last Chance
, a project to assist governments in the location and arrest of suspected Nazi war criminals who are still alive.
[23]
Tax records prove that, as late as 2001, Heim's lawyer asked the German authorities to refund capital gains taxes levied on him because he was living abroad.
[23]
Heim reportedly hid out in
South America
, Spain and the
Balkans
, but only his presence in Spain has ever been confirmed.
[22]
Efraim Zuroff, of the Wiesenthal Center, initiated an active search for his whereabouts,
[23]
and in late 2005, Spanish police incorrectly determined he was in
Palafrugell
, Spain.
[24]
According to
El Mundo
, Heim had been helped by associates of
Otto Skorzeny
, who had organised one of the biggest
ODESSA
bases in
Franco
's Spain.
[25]
Press reports in mid-October 2005 suggested that Heim's arrest by Spanish police was "imminent". Within a few days, however, newer reports suggested that he had evaded capture and had moved either to another part of Spain or to
Denmark
.
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
Fredrik Jensen
, a
Norwegian
and a former SS
Obersturmfuhrer
, was put under police investigation in June 2007, and charged with assisting Heim in his escape. The accusation was denied by Jensen.
[30]
In July 2007, the
Austrian Ministry of Justice
declared that it would pay €50,000 for information leading to his arrest and extradition to
Austria
.
[31]
On 6 July 2008,
Efraim Zuroff
, the Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, went to South America as part of a public campaign to capture the most wanted Nazi in the world and bring him to justice,
[23]
claiming that Heim was alive and hiding in
Patagonia
, either in Chile or in
Argentina
. He elaborated on 15 July 2008 that he was sure Heim was alive and the groundwork had been laid to capture him within weeks.
[14]
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]
[36]
In 2008, Heim was named as one of the ten most wanted Nazi war criminals by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
[15]
[37]
Later years and death
[
edit
]
Heim and his former wife, Friedl, had two sons. He also had a daughter, Waltraud, born out of
wedlock
in Chile.
[38]
In 2006, a German newspaper reported that he had a daughter, Waltraud, living on the outskirts of
Puerto Montt
, Chile, who said he had died in 1993.
[39]
However, when she tried to recover a multimillion-euro inheritance from an account in his name, she was unable to provide a death certificate.
[40]
[41]
[42]
In August 2008, Heim's son Rudiger asked that his father be declared legally dead, in order to take hold of his assets. He claimed he intended to make a donation to humanitarian projects working to document the atrocities committed in the camps.
[43]
After years of apparently false sightings, the circumstances surrounding Heim's escape, life in hiding and death were jointly reported by the German broadcaster
ZDF
and
The New York Times
in February 2009. It was reported that Heim died on August 10, 1992, in Cairo, Egypt with his cause of death being
colorectal cancer
.
[44]
[45]
In the later years of his life, Heim had named himself Tarek Farid Hussein.
[44]
People in Egypt who knew Heim said they did not know he was a wanted man.
[46]
In an interview at the family's villa in Baden-Baden, his son Rudiger admitted publicly for the first time that he was with his father in Egypt at the time of Heim's death, saying that it was during the
Olympics
, and that he died the day after the games ended. According to
Efraim Zuroff
, Rudiger Heim had constantly denied having any knowledge of the whereabouts of his father until the publishing of the ZDF research results.
[23]
On 18 March 2009, the
Simon Wiesenthal Center
filed a criminal complaint due to suspicion of false testimony.
[47]
In 2012, a regional court in Baden-Baden confirmed that Heim died under the assumed identity of Tarek Hussein Farid in Egypt in 1992, based on papers from his lawyer and testimony from his son.
[1]
In its 2013 annual Nazi war criminal report, the Simon Wiesenthal Center disputed the 2012 ruling by the Baden-Baden court, claiming a lack of forensic confirmation of Heim's death.
[48]
Ruediger Heim recounted how Egyptian authorities had forced him to have his father interred in an unmarked
common grave
in Cairo, rendering it impossible for investigators to find Heim's remains for DNA testing.
[49]
Heim was not included in the 2014 report.
[50]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Israeli author Danny Baz published
The Secret Executioners
in 2007, in which he claimed that a clandestine organisation called 'The Owl', operating outside of international law, tracked Heim down and assassinated him in the U.S. on an island off the California coast in 1982.
[51]
[52]
Baz claimed he was a member of 'The Owl' himself and claimed that his group carried out several assassinations of Nazis who had sought refuge in the US. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has expressed doubts regarding Baz's claims.
[53]
In her novel
The Scent of Lemon Leaves
(
Lo que esconde tu nombre
, 2010)
Clara Sanchez
gives a fictional account of Heim's refuge in Spain.
[54]
In the afterword to the novel the author states that she used a real name for a fictional character.
In the fictional Netflix series
Jaguar
(Global release 22 September 2021) a group of Nazi hunters attempt to catch Heim in Spain in 1962.
[55]
[56]
[57]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"German court confirms Nazi 'Doctor Death' died in 1992"
.
BBC
. September 21, 2012
. Retrieved
September 21,
2012
.
- ^
a
b
c
"The life and crimes of 'Dr Death'
"
.
BBC News
. February 5, 2009.
- ^
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.
VICE
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. Retrieved
January 11,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
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"
.
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. February 4, 2009.
- ^
"Nazi hunters want German probe on war criminal Heim"
.
Reuters
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- ^
From the Briefcase of Dr. Aribert Heim
,
The New York Times
, 4 February 2009.
- ^
"Simon Wiesenthal Center 2013 Annual Report on the Status of Nazi War Criminals"
(PDF)
. Archived from
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(PDF)
on September 3, 2014.
- ^
Weaver, Matthew (February 5, 2009).
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.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
August 22,
2019
.
- ^
Nicholas Kulish
;
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(March 22, 2014).
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.
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.
- ^
"Rat Lines -The Hunt for Nazi War Criminals (Episode 5)"
.
YouTube
. May 31, 2020.
- ^
a
b
Carroll, Rory, Goni, Uki. "G2: The Hunt for Doctor Death: As an SS Medic, Aribert Heim Carried Out Horrific Experiments on Concentration Camp Prisoners. He Escaped and is Thought to be Hiding in Argentina - but the Net may Finally be Closing. Rory Carroll and Uki Goni on the Search for the Last of the Nazis" (Document). The Guardian: 4.
ProQuest
246764188
.
{{
cite document
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
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- ^
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. Der Spiegel Online
. Retrieved
July 21,
2013
.
- ^
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.
NBC News
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. Retrieved
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2022
.
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a
b
"Nazi doctor 'is alive in Chile'
"
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. Retrieved
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2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
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Archived
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Wayback Machine
", Bridget Johnson,
About.com
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c
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e
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Evening Standard
.
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330210412
.
- ^
Etxahun, Galparsoro (2020).
Bilbao en Mauthausen
. Barcelona: Critica.
ISBN
9788491991786
.
- ^
(in Finnish)
ETSITTY NATSIRIKOLLINEN TOIMI LAAKARINA MYOS SUOMESSA
A-Piste
, 30 November 2007.
- ^
"Es geht mir gut"
,
Der Spiegel
, 9 July 2008.
(in German)
- ^
"Is 'Dr Death' Aribert Heim Really Dead?"
. ABC News. May 4, 2009
. Retrieved
February 11,
2023
.
- ^
"Hunt on for Nazi concentration camp doctor"
.
NBC News
. April 29, 2008
. Retrieved
February 20,
2023
.
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a
b
"Meistgesuchter Nazi-Verbrecher seit 1992 tot"
(in German). ZDF
. Retrieved
February 4,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Zuroff, Efraim
(2009). "Dr. Heim, the most wanted Nazi in the world".
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.
Palgrave Macmillan
. pp.
185
?207.
ISBN
978-0-230-61730-8
.
- ^
Nazi war criminal escapes Costa Brava police search
,
The Guardian
, 17 October 2005
- ^
(in Spanish)
A la caza del ultimo nazi
,
El Mundo
, 30 October 2005
- ^
Germany expresses 'utmost interest' in seeing Nazi face justice
,
Ireland Online
, 17 October 2005.
- ^
"Nazi 'Dr. Death' tracked to Spain",
Ottawa Sun
, 16 October 2005.
- ^
"German courts seek Nazi fugitive thought to be in Chile"
Archived
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,
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, 26 April 2006.
- ^
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- ^
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Archived
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,
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- ^
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,
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- ^
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"
.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
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"
. Archived from
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- ^
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- ^
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, bbc.co.uk, 9 July 2008.
- ^
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- ^
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,
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- ^
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"
.
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- ^
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"
. msn.com. July 9, 2008. Archived from
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- ^
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"
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- ^
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- ^
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,
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- ^
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. Archived from
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Paris: The Telegraph World News.
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.
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- ^
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.
decider
. September 22, 2021.
Further reading
[
edit
]
Post-war flight of Axis fugitives
|
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Fugitives
| German / Austrian
| |
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Croatian
| |
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Belgian
| |
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Ukrainian
| |
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Danish
| |
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Estonian
| |
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Latvian
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Other nationalities
| |
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|
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Assistance
| Organizations
| |
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State involvement
| |
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Other persons
| |
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|
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Hunters
| |
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Disputed / dubious
| |
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See also
| |
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|
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International
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National
| |
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People
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Other
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