English source-aligned edition
Hans Koch
Hans Koch served as disinfection-unit member who introduced Zyklon B. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Auschwitz in occupied Poland through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- From October 1940 to January 1945 he belonged to the Auschwitz staff and worked in the disinfection unit. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162; Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, article on SS staff testimony, passage on Hans Koch)
- His duties included introducing Zyklon B; the court found his participation in gassing people through carrying out that task. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162; Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, article on SS staff testimony, passage on Hans Koch)
- The Supreme National Tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment, treating obedience to orders as mitigation rather than a bar to guilt. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162)
Place in the chain of responsibility
Responsibility concerns a specific technical act within the killing mechanism; his postwar denial quoted by the museum is the defendant’s position, not a court finding. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162; Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, article on SS staff testimony, passage on Hans Koch)
Key events and mechanisms
- In October 1940 he began service at Auschwitz. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162)
- On 22 December 1947 the Supreme National Tribunal sentenced him to life imprisonment. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162)
- On 14 July 1955 he died of tuberculosis in Gdańsk prison. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162)
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
In the first Auschwitz trial he received life imprisonment. He died while serving the sentence at Gdańsk prison. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162)
Limits of the evidence
No number of people killed in operations in which he participated is stated because the cited sources provide no source-safe individual total. The quotation from his postwar deposition is presented only as his defense. No portrait was selected because file rights were not verified. (Source: Institute of National Remembrance, study of the first Auschwitz trial, printed p. 162; Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, article on SS staff testimony, passage on Hans Koch)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.