English source-aligned edition
Heinrich Schmitz
Heinrich Schmitz served as contract physician and head of the Flossenbürg prisoner hospital. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Flossenbürg, Germany 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
- Heinrich Schmitz was born on 3 July 1896 in Braunschweig and died on 26 November 1948 in Landsberg am Lech. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- From 2 May 1944 to 22 March 1945, Schmitz served as a civilian contract physician and headed the prisoner hospital at Flossenbürg concentration camp. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- The judicial review attributed to him the selection of sick prisoners for killing by phenol or Evipan injections, as well as participation in unnecessary operations and neglect of patients. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- A United States military court found him guilty and sentenced him to death; the reviewing authority found the guilt proved, recommended no clemency, and Schmitz was executed on 26 November 1948. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Place in the chain of responsibility
The profile attributes to Heinrich Schmitz only the documented role and conduct described in the cited sources, without transferring to him every crime committed by the institutions or units with which he was associated. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Key events and mechanisms
- On 2 May 1944 he began contracted medical service at Flossenbürg concentration camp and headed the prisoner hospital until 22 March 1945. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- On 12 December 1947 he received a death sentence, carried out on 26 November 1948 at Landsberg am Lech. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
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
The review of 27 February 1948 approved the finding of guilt and sentence and recorded no petition for review or clemency; the execution was carried out on 26 November 1948. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Limits of the evidence
The conduct summary retains the procedural character of the findings and gives no individual victim total. Schmitz had earlier been a victim of forced sterilisation under Nazi law, but the sources do not indicate that his later camp service or conduct resulted from coercion; this biographical victimisation is not presented as limiting responsibility. No individual victim total is assigned, and no additional order or act is attributed without an explicit source finding. No portrait with clearly documented publication rights was found. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.