Erwin Ding-Schuler

Erwin Oskar Ding-Schuler (September 19, 1912 – August 11, 1945) was a German surgeon and an officer in the Waffen-SS who attained the rank of Sturmbannführer (Major). He is notable for having performed experiments on inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Erwin Ding-Schuler
Dr. med. Erwin Ding-Schuler
Born	(1912-09-19)September 19, 1912 Bitterfeld, Germany
Died	August 11, 1945(1945-08-11) (aged 32) Freising, Germany
Nationality	German
Known for	Waffen-SS surgeon at Buchenwald
Scientific career
Fields	Medicine
Academic advisors	Joachim Mrugowsky

Ding-Schuler joined the NSDAP in 1932 and the SS in 1936.^[1] In 1937, he received his degree and passed his second state exam in medicine. An author of scientific publications, in 1939 he became camp physician at Buchenwald and head of the division for spotted fever and viral research of the Waffen-SS Hygiene Institute in Weimar-Buchenwald. In July 1939, Ding-Schuler killed the pastor Paul Schneider with an overdose of g-Strophanthin; Schneider was later venerated as a martyr.^[2][3] He conducted extensive medical experiments on some 1,000 inmates, many of whom lost their lives, in Experimental Station Block 46, using various poisons as well as infective agents for spotted fever, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus, and cholera.^[4]

Ding-Schuler was arrested by U.S. troops on 25 April 1945. He committed suicide on 11 August 1945.^[4][5][6][7]

See also

• Eugen Kogon

References

1. Steiner, John Michael (1976). Power Politics and Social Change in National Socialist Germany: A Process of Escalation into Mass Destruction. Walter de Gruyter. p. 213. ISBN 0391005251.
2. Walter Poller:Arztschreiber in Buchenwald, Offenbach a. M.: Verlag Das Segel, 1960; (zitiert aus/nach: Prediger in der Hölle, Gedenkheft zur 25. Wiederkehr des Todestages von Paul Schneider, Verlag Kirche und Mann, Gütersloh)
3. "Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand - Home".
4. Zenter, Christian and Bedürftig, Friedemann (1991). Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, p. 199. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-897502-2
5. Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. 2007, p. 111.
6. Eugen Kogon: Der SS-Staat. Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager. 1974, p. 320.
7. Eugen Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell (1998) p. 265.

• Williamson, Gordon (2006). The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror. New York: Barnes & Noble Publishing. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-7607-8168-5.^{[permanent dead link‍]}