Gebhardt, Karl Franz

PHYSICIAN, NAZI (GERMANY)
BORN 23 Nov 1897, Haag, Niederbayern - DIED 2 Jun 1948, Landsberg am Lech, Bayern
CAUSE OF DEATH executed by hanging
GRAVE LOCATION München, Bayern: Ostfriedhof, St.-Martins-Platz 1 (008-5-1/2)

Karl Gebhardt joined the NSDAP in 1933. In 1935 he also joined the SS. From 1938 onwards he was the personal physician of Heinrich Himmler, a friend from his youth.

During the Second World War he conducted medical experiments on mostly female prisoners at the concentration camps of Ravensbrück and Auschwitz. In 1944 he treated Albert Speer who was exhausted at the time and suffered from a swollen knee. In April, 1945 he approached Goebbels to take the latter's children out of Berlin, but Goebbels refused and they were killed by him and his wife Magda instead. After Hitler's death Gebhardt was president of the German Red Cross during the few days that the Reich lasted before it collapsed.

After the war he was tried before a military tribunal in Nuremberg and on 20 Aug 1947 he was sentenced to death. On 2 Jun 1948 he was excecuted in the prison in Landsberg.

Related persons
• was physician to Speer, Albert

Images

The grave of Karl Gebhardt at the Ostfriedhof, Munich.
Picture by Androom (19 Jan 2004)

 

Sources
• Scheibmayr, Erich, Wer? Wann? Wo? - Teil 2 -, Weitere Persönlichkeiten in Münchner Friedhöfen, Verlag Erich Scheibmayr, München, 1997
Karl Gebhardt - Wikipedia (EN)


Gebühr, Otto

Published: 28 Mar 2010
Last update: 25 Dec 2021