Siegfried Handloser
{{Short description|Nazi physician and war criminal (1885–1954)}}
{{More sources|date=November 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Siegfried Handloser
| image = Generaloberstabsarzt Siegfried Handloser (1885-1954).jpg
| image_upright = .75
| caption = Handloser, {{circa|1942}}
| order =
| office = Chief of the German Armed Forces Medical Services
| term_start = 28 July 1942
| term_end = 13 August 1944
| deputy =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| birth_name = Siegfried Adolf Handloser
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1885|03|25|df=y}}
| birth_place = Konstanz, German Empire
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1954|07|03|1885|03|25|df=y}}
| death_place = Munich, West Germany
| death_cause = Cancer
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| children =
| parents = Konstantin Handloser (father)
Anna Maria (mother)
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| education =
| alma_mater = Kaiser Wilhelm Medicinal Academy
University of Giessen
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| allegiance = German Empire
Nazi Germany
| branch = German Army
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| rank = Generaloberstabsarzt
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| battles = World War I{{hr}}World War II
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| image_size = 200px
}}
Siegfried Adolf Handloser (25 March 1885 – 3 July 1954) was a Nazi physician and convicted war criminal, convicted for overseeing medical atrocities at concentration camps.
He was convicted at the 1947 Doctors' Trial during the subsequent Nuremberg trials and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was ultimately reduced to a 20-year term, though Handloser was released in 1954 and died of cancer the same year.
Nazi Party membership
Born in Konstanz, he had been a member of the German Army Medical Service since the First World War.
Handloser joined the committee of the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM) in 1937 as a de facto Nazi emissary.{{Cite web |title=Handloser, Siegfried - Biography ° Gedenken und Erinnern, DGIM |url=https://www.dgim-history.de/en/biography/Handloser;Siegfried;1126 |access-date=2023-04-27 |website=www.dgim-history.de}} In 1938, Handloser was promoted to the position of Army Group physician of the Nazi Army Group Command 3. In October, 1939, he was named honorary professor.
From February 1941 during World War II, he held the position of Chief of the Medical Services of the Wehrmacht, the most important medical position in the Nazi Armed Forces and Waffen-SS. He was also Doctor Professor of Medicine and Generaloberstabsarzt (Four stars, NATO Rank OF-9) of the German Armed Forces Medical Services.{{Cite web |title=Handloser, Siegfried - Biography ° Gedenken und Erinnern, DGIM |url=https://www.dgim-history.de/en/biography/Handloser;Siegfried;1126 |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=www.dgim-history.de}}
= War crimes =
Handloser attended a meeting on December 29, 1941, at which it was decided to conduct human experiments to test typhus vaccines at Buchenwald concentration camp. They resulted in the deaths of about 100 people.{{Cite web |title=Handloser, Siegfried - Biography ° Gedenken und Erinnern, DGIM |url=https://www.dgim-history.de/en/biography/Handloser;Siegfried;1126 |access-date=2023-04-27 |website=www.dgim-history.de}}
Handloser actively operated the organization of forced prostitution in the territories occupied by the German Reich, in his position as chief of Wehrmacht Medical Service. Handloser strove to minimize the danger of venereal disease and to prevent "sexual intercourse with Jewish women."{{Cite web |title=Handloser, Siegfried - Biography ° Gedenken und Erinnern, DGIM |url=https://www.dgim-history.de/en/biography/Handloser;Siegfried;1126 |access-date=2023-04-27 |website=www.dgim-history.de}}
Conviction and death
He was convicted by the American Military Tribunal No. 1 (the Doctors' Trial) in August 1947, and sentenced to life imprisonment.{{Cite web |title=Sentences — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/doctors-trial/sentences |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=www.ushmm.org}} This was later reduced to 20 years. He was released on health grounds in 1954 shortly before dying of cancer in Munich at the age of 69.
References
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Category:German Army generals of World War II
Category:Physicians in the Nazi Party
Category:People from the Grand Duchy of Baden
Category:German people convicted of war crimes
Category:German people convicted of crimes against humanity
Category:German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Category:People sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals
Category:Nazi human subject research
Category:Deaths from cancer in Germany
Category:Recipients of the Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross
Category:Generals of the German Army (Wehrmacht)