Description
This is the SS-Unterführer Ausweis Nr. 77737 from SS-Scharführer im Kdtr.-Stab K.L. Dachau [Kommandantur-Stab = the Staff of Konzentrationslager [Concentrationcamp] Dachau], Georg Engelschall.
Engelschall was born on 30 April 1911. The pass is on the front complete with passphoto of Engelschall in black SS uniform, displaying the vertical SS Guard Totenkopf Division 1 collartab and SS-Scharführer tab on the right.
The pass is on the lower right personally signed by Engelschall. On the lower left is an inkt stamp of “Kommandantur Konzentrationslager Dachau“. Engelschall also held NSDAP Parteimitgliedsnummer 1925035.
On the back the pass is dated 30. Januar 1939 for his promotion, and place Berlin. Again the same stamp that reads: “Kommandantur Konzentrationslager Dachau” is here present, as is the blue date stamp for the Schutzstaffeln der NSDAP , dated oktober./Dec, 1939.
The pas is personally handsigned by Dachau concentrationcamp commander Hans Loritz. Loritz was known as one of the most brutal camp commanders at Dachau, personally cruel, he allowed barbaric behavior by the guards, including Engelschall who would after the war be convicted to two years in prison for his behavior in Dachau. More on Loritz can be read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Loritz
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Finding original concentrationcamp SS personal (guard)passes is near impossible, let alone a pass of a Staff member of Concentrationcamp Dachau. This is of the utmost rarity!
However, while Engelschall was first employed at Dachau, his career would soon place him from the immediate start in Concentrationcamp Auschwitz.
After the German attack on Poland in September 1939, the Germans faced increasing resistance and opposition. Many Polish political opponents were arrested. At the end of 1939, SS-Gruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, together with the inspector of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) Arpad Wigand, proposed to Heinrich Himmler to build a concentration camp for these Polish resistance fighters and criminals from Silesia. On 27 April 1940, after several exploratory terrain inspections, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler gave the order to build a concentration camp near the village of Auschwitz – in the south of Poland. For this purpose, a walled Polish army barracks was converted with stone barracks. Only very shortly after the put to use of Auschwitz, already on 27-05-1940, Goerg Engelschall was transfered from Dachau to the new Concentrationcamp Auschwitz. Here he would first be Stellvertreter Rapportführer and from 01 apil 1940 become Blockführer in the infamous Block 11 in KL Auschwitz. Engelschall would remain as a camp guard in Auschwitz for the whole existence of the concentrationcamp, up untill just before the liberation of the camp in january 1945. As such Georg Engelschall is one of the very few SS men who has been active in Auschwitz for the whole existence of the camp.
More on Block 11 can be read here: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_11_(KZ_Auschwitz)
Block 11 (Block 13 until August 1941), or Death Block, is the name given to a two-story brick building in the main camp of Auschwitz concentration camp. The camp prison was located in its basement from July 1940 until the concentration camp’s evacuation in January 1945. The inmates referred to the camp prison as a bunker; officially, it was called the Commandant’s Arrest. Many of the inmates held there died due to the cruel conditions and mistreatment. Thousands of prisoners were shot after bunker selections and police court-martials in front of the Black Wall located in the courtyard between Blocks 10 and 11. In the fall of 1941, the first mass gassing of people with Zyklon B was carried out in the basement of Block 11. Due to these special functions, Block 11, as a prison within a prison, assumed a special significance in the Auschwitz concentration camp’s system of terror.
The crimes committed against prisoners in Block 11 were also the subject of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial. Today, Block 11 is today part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and is open to the public. A scientific study of Block 11 is not yet available.
During his camp guard career in Auschwitz Engelschall became the “Führer des Elektrikerkommando’s and Führer der Lagerfeuerwehr im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz Birkenau und Monowitz“.
For sure Engelschall participated in the nazi atrocities that are known as the Holocaust and that took place in Dachau and Auschwitz. A simple search via google shows countless hits of Engelschall on e.g. wikipedia and the Shoah website here: http://www.shoah.freeservers.com/blank_1.html
and here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_command_of_Auschwitz_concentration_camp
Throughout its short history, the entire Auschwitz concentration camp system had between 7000 to just over 8000 camp personnel, but only a handfull appear to have been active during the whole existence of the camp, Georg Engelschall is one of those few, as can also be seen on the above Wikipedia link.
Proof of his atrocities are a plenty, as can be read for example here: https://www.jta.org/archive/auschwitz-trial-told-75-of-jewish-victims-met-death-immediately
Meanwhile, a former SS sergeant who had served two years for torturing inmates at Dachau was arrested again at the Auschwitz trial here, after testifying on behalf of one of the defendants. The prosecution announced that George Engelschall, who was also a guard at Auschwitz as well as at the Dachau death camp, was under suspicion of participating in some of the atrocities committed by his friend, former SS Sgt. Hans Stark, one of the 22 men on trial. Previous witnesses had testified that Engelschall had joined Stark in forcing a Polish Jew called “Big Isaac” to drown 21 fellow inmates, including Isaac’s own father. Engelschall was sent to jail to await trial.
It is clear that Engelschall was involved in a lot of the atrocities that were commited in Auschwitz. One story that comes forward is the largely UNknown revolt in Auschwitz in 1944. Engelschaft was as part of the Firebrigade involved again. The atrocities are sadly clear: https://taz.de/Weitestgehend-unbekannt/!1539751/
That afternoon, we noticed an unusually large number of SS guards, all wearing helmets, and that was a sign that something serious had happened. The SS guards had already boarded their military trucks and motorcycles. SS Hauptscharführer Georg Engelschall, whispered to us: “Serious trouble in the forest crematorium.” The Germans called Crematoria VI and V “forest crematoria.” The first group was stopped at the main entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but we drove right through with our vehicles and pumped water from a pond near Crematoria IV. The SS also dumped the ashes of the victims from the forest crematoria into this pond. Meanwhile, Group 1 tried to save Crematoria I, but the roof had already collapsed by the time we arrived.
While leading our unit of nine firefighters, I had the opportunity to look around a bit. I saw small groups of naked Jews being led out of the slightly damaged gas chambers that served as temporary prisons. They were led to a large pine tree; that tree still stands there today. They were ordered to lie face down on the approximately 30 already dead bodies. SS Oberscharführer Wilhelm Claussen, who once served as a referee when I was boxing with a German capo and whom I knew well, killed the Jews lying on the ground with a shot to the back of the neck. Claussen wore leather gloves and leisurely smoked a cigarette while waiting for the next group of victims. His knee-high rubber boots dripped with human blood. That was the only time in my four and a half years of imprisonment in Auschwitz that I witnessed the mass murder of Jews so closely and as an eyewitness.
The term “rare” is often used, but in the case of this SS-Unterführer Ausweis of a SS campguard who was first a Staffmember in concentrationcamp Dachau and then later a guard in Auschwitz, it is an understatement. This SS pass is a once in a lifetime opportunity of great historical value. Preferably i would like to see this pass go to a museum or educational institution to be used as educational material.
Of course Dutchmilitaria distances itself from the political views or terrible history behind this object. Dutchmilitaria is specialised in finding rare historical artefacts, and this is one of the utmost rare objects we have ever had the chance to offer on our website. Any object related to the Dachau Staff or to the Auschwitz concentrationcamp is rare, but this pass just breaths so much history. It is also unbelievable it still exists as items like this were at the end of the war always destroyed. Offered only for historical and/or research purposes.
Lastly is under here a short overview of Georg Engelschall’s career. it is take from this website: http://www.tenhumbergreinhard.de/1933-1945-taeter-und-mitlaeufer-teil-2/1933-1945-biografien-seite-2-eka/engelschall-georg.html
SS-Hauptscharführer Georg Engelschall Career/biography:
* 30.04.1911 in Aich (Ob)
† 19.05.1979 in Dachau
letzter bekannter Wohnort: Odelzhausen
Vater: Landwirt
Beruf: Elektromonteur
ab 25.03.1933
Mitglied der Allgemeinen SS (Mitglieds Nu. 77 737)
ab 01.04.1933
Mitglied der NSDAP (Mitglieds Nu. 1 925 035)
ab 00.04.1934
Angehöriger des SS-Totenkopfverband Oberbayern in Dachau
ab 01.10.1934
Mitglied der Bewaffneten Verbände der SS
01.10.1934
Beförderung zum SS-Schützen
09.11.1934
Beförderung zum SS-Sturmmann
25.03.1936
Beförderung zum SS-Rottenführer
01.11.1937
Beförderung zum SS-Unterscharführer
01.02.1939
Beförderung zum SS-Scharführer
ab 27.05.1940
Stellv. Rapportführer im KL Auschwitz
ab 1941
Blockführer im Block 11 im KL Auschwitz
01.04.1941
Beförderung zum SS-Oberscharführer
Auschwitz, 3. April 1941
Kommandanturbefehl Nr. 2/41
ab 1942
Leiter der Technischen Abteilung im Stammlager (Abt. IV: Verwaltung (Technische Abteilung NCO)
01.09.1942
Beförderung zum SS-Hauptscharführer
Auschwitz, 11. September 1942
Kommandanturbefehl Nr. 17/42
00.11.1943 – 00.01.1945
Führer des Elektrikerkommandos (Wartung der elektrisch geladenen Zäune) und der Lagerfeuerwehr im KL Birkenau und Monowitz
Orden, Ehrenzeichen und Medaillen
Kriegsverdienstkreuz II. Klasse mit Schwertern (01.09.1942)
SS-Dienstauszeichnung nach 4-jähriger Dienstleistung die 4. Stufe
Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938 (Ostmark-Medaille)
Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938 (Sudetenland-Medaille)
1945 – 1949 bei einem Bauern in Geisenkamm b. Türwang in Oberbayern untergetaucht
30.11.1950
Urteil LG München II Gen KMs 20/50 gg. Georg Engelschall vom 30.11.1950 (SA 216)
am 16.07.1964 als Zeuge im 1. Auschwitz Prozeß
(Protokoll der Hauptverhandlung vom 16.07.1964, 4 Ks 2/63, Hauptakten, Bd. 100, Bl. 510: Beschluß zum Zeugen Georg Engelschall, dessen Aussage nicht aufgenommen worden ist.)
28.08.1973
Antrag ZSt Köln 130 Js 167/74 vom 28.08.1973, das Ermittlungsverfahren gg. Sorge und Baehr außer Verfolgung zu setzen
Einstellungsverfg. ZSt Köln 130 Js 44/65 gg. Baumann, Bohn, Bestle, Büttner, Engelschall, Stuck, Arnold und Meier vom 14.09.1973
Die Peronalakte des SS-Hauptscharführers Engelschall Georg befindet sich:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Reel 2
113pp.
