English source-aligned edition
Hermann Becker-Freyseng
Hermann Becker-Freyseng served as aviation-medicine consultant and co-planner of the Dachau seawater experiments. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Berlin and Dachau concentration camp, 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
- Hermann Becker-Freyseng was born on 18 July 1910 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein and died on 27 August 1961 in Heidelberg. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- Becker-Freyseng was the chief consultant for aviation medicine under Oskar Schröder and attended the May 1944 conference after which a plan was drawn up for experiments on 40 prisoners. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- The tribunal found him criminally connected with planning the seawater experiments at Dachau concentration camp, in which prisoners were subjected to brutal treatment, pain and suffering. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- The tribunal found him guilty on the war-crimes and crimes-against-humanity counts and on 20 August 1947 sentenced him to 20 years; the term was reduced to 10 years and he was released in November 1952. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; 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 Hermann Becker-Freyseng 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; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Key events and mechanisms
- In May 1944 he attended the conference that deemed earlier research inadequate and then helped draw up a plan for seawater experiments on 40 prisoners at Dachau concentration camp. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
- On 20 August 1947 he was sentenced to 20 years; the term was later reduced to 10 years and he was released in November 1952. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; 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
After his sentence was reduced from 20 to 10 years, Becker-Freyseng was released in November 1952; he died on 27 August 1961 in Heidelberg. (Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record; Source: cited institutional or judicial record)
Limits of the evidence
The conviction concerned the seawater experiments. The tribunal found the evidence insufficient to impose criminal responsibility for the high-altitude, freezing or typhus experiments, so the profile does not attribute them to him. The birth date 18 July 1910 is taken from his sworn testimony, resolving conflicting secondary data. 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; 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.