Franz von Bodmann
Encyclopedia
Franz Hermann Johann Maria Freiherr von Bodmann, sometimes written as Bodman (born 23 March 1908 in Zwiefaltendorf
Riedlingen
Riedlingen is a town in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, in the south-west of Germany. It is one of the destinations of the Upper Swabian Baroque Route. There are ca. 10,000 inhabitants.- Geography :...

 - died 25 May 1945 in Altenmarkt im Pongau
Altenmarkt im Pongau
Altenmarkt im Pongau is a small town in the Salzburg state of Austria. Altenmarkt is situated 65 km South East of Salzburg. The town occupies an area of approximately 48 km² and sits at 842 metres above sea level.The town is principally known for its winter tourism...

) was German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 SS-Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...

 who served as a camp physician in several Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

.

Von Bodmann joined the Nazi Party in May 1932 (membership number 1,098,482) and the SS itself in 1934 (member number 267,787). From October 1939 to June 1940 and from July 1941 to January 1942 he served with the 79th SS-Standarte in Ulm
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...

 in the Second Bataillon as a physician. It was 1941 that he was promoted to the rank of Obersturmführer.

Von Bodmann was appointed camp physician at Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

 in February 1942 and the following year held a similar position at Majdanek concentration camp. He subsequently filled the same role at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and from September 1943 at Vaivara concentration camp. At some point he also worked at Neuengamme concentration camp although the exact dates are unknown. Eyewitnesses claimed that at Auschwitz von Bodmann killed inmates personally by injecting Phenol
Phenol
Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, phenic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid. The molecule consists of a phenyl , bonded to a hydroxyl group. It is produced on a large scale as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds...

 into their veins and also stated that he carried out similar procedures at other camps. Von Bodmann's departure from Auschwitz, where he had no superiors and as such acted largely as he pleased, was hastened when he contracted typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...

 not long after arriving.

He left the camps in September 1944 when he was sent to work for SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt
SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt
The SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt was responsible for managing the finances, supply systems and business projects for the Allgemeine-SS...

 and then to the Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle
The Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle was an NSDAP agency founded to manage the interests of the Volksdeutsche who lived outside the borders of Nazi Germany....

. His final assignment was as troop physician to the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking
5th SS Panzer Division Wiking
The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking was one of the elite Panzer divisions of the thirty eight Waffen SS divisions. It was recruited from foreign volunteers, from Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, The Netherlands, and Belgium under the command of German officers...

. He was taken as a prisoner of war and held in a military hospital where he killed himself just after the end of the Second World War.
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