Friedrich Entress

Confirmed findings

• Friedrich Entress was born in Poznań on 8 December 1914. He served as an SS physician at Auschwitz, and later also at Mauthausen and Gross-Rosen. (Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Friedrich Entress person record, lines 13–23; Source: Medical Review Auschwitz — A preliminary list of the doctors in the Gross-Rosen camp, “Dr Friedrich Entress” list entry and note 6)
• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum name Entress among SS doctors who tested the efficacy and tolerance of pharmaceuticals on Auschwitz prisoners. (Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Bayer, section on Bayer drug testing in Birkenau Block 20, paragraph naming Vetter, Wirths and Entress; Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — Other doctor-perpetrators, “Other doctor-perpetrators”, opening paragraph on drug trials)
• A US military court sentenced him to death in the main Mauthausen staff trial. The sentence was carried out at Landsberg on 28 May 1947. (Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Friedrich Entress person record, lines 13–23; Source: National Archives and Records Administration — Reference Information Paper 115, printed p. 67, document NO-2368, Entress affidavit and Mauthausen case ETO 000-50-5; Source: Medical Review Auschwitz — A preliminary list of the doctors in the Gross-Rosen camp, “Dr Friedrich Entress” list entry and note 6)

Place in the chain of responsibility

Two memorial institutions document his involvement in drug testing on prisoners. His death sentence came in the separate Mauthausen staff trial and should not be presented as a judicial ruling on every experiment at Auschwitz. (Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Bayer, section on Bayer drug testing in Birkenau Block 20, paragraph naming Vetter, Wirths and Entress; Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — Other doctor-perpetrators, “Other doctor-perpetrators”, opening paragraph on drug trials; Source: National Archives and Records Administration — Reference Information Paper 115, printed p. 67, document NO-2368, Entress affidavit and Mauthausen case ETO 000-50-5)

Key events and mechanisms

• 1941–1943 — medical service at Auschwitz and involvement in pharmaceutical testing on prisoners. (Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — Other doctor-perpetrators, “Other doctor-perpetrators”, opening paragraph on drug trials; Source: Medical Review Auschwitz — A preliminary list of the doctors in the Gross-Rosen camp, “Dr Friedrich Entress” list entry and note 6)
• 1946–1947 — Mauthausen trial, death sentence and execution on 28 May 1947. (Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Friedrich Entress person record, lines 13–23; Source: National Archives and Records Administration — Reference Information Paper 115, printed p. 67, document NO-2368, Entress affidavit and Mauthausen case ETO 000-50-5; Source: Medical Review Auschwitz — A preliminary list of the doctors in the Gross-Rosen camp, “Dr Friedrich Entress” list entry and note 6)

Postwar accountability

Entress was a defendant in the main Mauthausen staff trial from March to May 1946. He received a death sentence and was executed at Landsberg Prison on 28 May 1947. (Source: Harvard Law School Library — Nuremberg Trials Project, Friedrich Entress person record, lines 13–23; Source: National Archives and Records Administration — Reference Information Paper 115, printed p. 67, document NO-2368, Entress affidavit and Mauthausen case ETO 000-50-5; Source: Medical Review Auschwitz — A preliminary list of the doctors in the Gross-Rosen camp, “Dr Friedrich Entress” list entry and note 6)

Limits of the evidence

Sources

The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.

• Harvard Law School Nuremberg Trials Project
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
• archives.gov
• mp.pl