Karl Pötzinger

{{Short description|Holocaust perpetrator from Treblinka}}

{{Infobox military person

| name = Karl Pötzinger

| birth_date = 1908

| death_date = 22 December 1944 (aged 36)

| birth_place = Leipzig, German Empire

| death_place = Italy

| image = Karl Pötzinger - Treblinka II.jpg

| image_size = 220

| caption = Karl Pötzinger, Treblinka II

| nickname =

| allegiance = {{flag|Nazi Germany}}

| branch = 23px Schutzstaffel

| serviceyears =

| rank = 40px Oberscharführer, SS

| commands = Treblinka extermination camp, Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral

| unit = SS-Totenkopfverbände

| width_style = person

}}

SS-Oberscharführer Karl Pötzinger (1908–1944) born in Leipzig, Germany, was a Holocaust perpetrator who began his World War II career as the Action T4 “burner” at the Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre and at the Bernburg Euthanasia Centre with the rank of Staff Sergeant in the SA. Pötzinger was a career policeman at the outbreak of war. He was transferred to Treblinka extermination camp at the onset of Operation Reinhard of 1942 along with other gassing specialists. Pötzinger became Deputy Commandant of Treblinka II under SS-Scharführer Heinrich Matthes, supervising the gas chambers and later, serving as head of the cremation command in the Totenlager as soon as the covering up Nazi crimes became paramount to the Nazi leadership notably to Heinrich Himmler himself during his visit to Treblinka in 1943.{{cite web|url=http://www.holocaust-history.org/german-trials/treblinka-urteil.shtml |title=Treblinka-Prozess - Urteil |publisher=Holocaust history.org |work=LG Düsseldorf vom 3.9.1965, 8 I Ks 2/64 |access-date=25 July 2014 |author=Dr. Kraus |language=German |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140325073850/http://www.holocaust-history.org/german-trials/treblinka-urteil.shtml |archive-date=25 March 2014 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/ARleadership.html |title=Potzinger, Karl (SS – Scharfuhrer) |publisher=Holocaust Research Project.org |work=Aktion Reinhard. SS, Police, Railroad and Civilian Personnel |year=2007 |access-date=25 July 2014 |author=Carmelo Lisciotto & C.R.W. for HEART}}

Treblinka was built as part of the most deadly phase of the Final Solution, known as Aktion Reinhard, and operated between {{Dts|1942|July|23}} and {{Dts|1943|October|19}}.[http://www.holocaustresearchproject.net/ar/treblinkadaytoday.html Treblinka Death Camp Day-by-Day] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522164956/http://www.holocaustresearchproject.net/ar/treblinkadaytoday.html |date=2013-05-22 }} Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, H.E.A.R.T. Retrieved August 11, 2013. During this time, more than 800,000 Jews – men, women, and children – were murdered there,{{cite web |url=http://www.treblinka.bho.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=201&Itemid=127 |title=The number of victims |publisher=Muzeum Treblinka |work=Extermination Camp |date=4 February 2010 |access-date=25 August 2013 |author=Staff writer}}{{cite book |author=Donald L. Niewyk & Francis R. Nicosia |title=The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust |year=2000 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-11200-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/columbiaguidetot00niew/page/210 210] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/columbiaguidetot00niew/page/210 }} with other estimates exceeding 1,000,000 victims.Donat, Alexander, ed. The Death Camp Treblinka: A Documentary. New York: Holocaust Library, 1979. LOC 79-53471Franciszek Ząbecki, Wspomnienia dawne i nowe, PAX Association Publishing, Warsaw 1977. {{in lang|pl}}

Karl Pötzinger was transferred from Treblinka to Sobibór extermination camp temporarily before being posted to Italy. He died on 22 December 1944 from the shrapnel wound sustained in an air-raid. He is buried at the German Military Cemetery in Costermano near Verona, Italy.