Hans Wilhelm Münch (14 May 1911 – 6 December 2001), also known as The Good Man of Auschwitz, was a German Nazi Party member who worked as an SS physician during World War II at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1943 to 1945 in German occupied Poland.
1934
In 1934, he joined the NSDStB.—Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (National Socialist German Students' League)—and the NSKK—Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (National Socialist Motor Corps).
1937
In May 1937, he joined the NSDAP.
1939
In 1939, he received a doctorate, and in the same year, married another physician.
When World War II began, he replaced country doctors in their practices in the Bavarian countryside as they had been inducted into the army; Münch's attempt to enlist in the Wehrmacht was rejected as his work as a doctor was considered too important.
1943
In June 1943, he was recruited as a scientist by the Waffen-SS and was sent to the in Raisko, about 4 km from the main camp at Auschwitz.
Münch worked alongside the infamous Josef Mengele, who was the same age and also came from Bavaria.
Münch continued the bacteriological research he was known for before the war, as well as making occasional inspections of the camps and the prisoners.
Along with other doctors, Münch was expected to participate in the "selections" at the camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, to decide who among the incoming Polish and Jewish men, women and children could work, who would be experimented on, and who would be murdered in the gas chambers.
He found this abhorrent and refused to take part; this was confirmed by witnesses' testimony at his trial.
1945
After the evacuation of Auschwitz in 1945, Münch spent two months at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich.
However, there are doubts as to the truth of this story – another former inmate, Imre Gönczy, alias "Emmerich," paints a very different picture: allegedly, Münch not only participated in selections, but also used the flesh of the dead bodies to cook a broth which was used as a medium for his microbes.
He also allegedly infected people, including Gönczy, with rheumatism, Gönczy still suffering the effects of which at the time of a later interview.
They met shortly before Münch's death, and the meeting was covered by a journalist from the German newspaper Die Welt.
In the meeting, Münch said if he could go back in time and choose to go to Auschwitz again, he'd absolutely do it, because he saw it as a huge opportunity.
After the war in 1945, Münch was arrested in a US internment camp after being identified as an Auschwitz physician.
1946
He was extradited to Poland in 1946 to stand trial in Kraków.
He was specifically accused of injecting inmates with malaria-infected blood, and with a serum that caused rheumatism; however, many former prisoners testified in support of Münch in their witness speeches.
1947
He was acquitted of war crimes at a 1947 trial in Kraków.
Münch was nicknamed The Good Man of Auschwitz for his refusal to assist in the mass murders there.
He developed many elaborate ruses to keep inmates alive.
He was the only person acquitted of war crimes at the 1947 Auschwitz trial in Kraków, where many inmates testified in his favour.
After the war and the trial, he returned to Germany and worked as a practicing physician in Roßhaupten in Bavaria.
While suffering from Alzheimer's in old age, he made several public remarks that appeared to support Nazi ideology, and was tried for inciting racial hatred and similar charges.
Münch was never sentenced, as all courts ruled that he was not of sound mind.
The court acquitted him on 22 December 1947, "not only because he did not commit any crime of harm against the camp prisoners, but because he had a benevolent attitude toward them and helped them, while he had to carry the responsibility. He did this independently from the nationality, race-and-religious origin and political conviction of the prisoners."
The court's acquittal was based, among other things, on his strict refusal to participate in the selections.
Of the 40 Auschwitz staff tried in Kraków at the Auschwitz Trial, only Münch was acquitted.
He was called the "Good Man of Auschwitz", who had saved prisoners from being murdered in the gas chambers.
He took over a rural doctor's practice in Roßhaupten in Ostallgäu, Bavaria.
1964
In 1964, Münch testified in the first Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt on Main and in the following trials, he was called on for his expert opinion.
In West Germany, Münch took part in discussion meetings and commemoration ceremonies.
He was appreciated for having saved many Auschwitz prisoners at the risk of his own life.
1986
The book on SS physicians of Auschwitz by Robert Jay Lifton (1986) mentions Münch as the only physician whose commitment to the Hippocratic oath proved stronger than that to the SS.
While Münch did conduct human experiments, these were often elaborate farces intended to protect inmates, as experiment subjects who were no longer useful were usually killed.
According to testimony from inmate Dr. Louis Micheels, Münch's last act before the camp was abandoned was to provide him with a revolver to assist his escape.
1995
In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he made a journey back to the concentration camp.
2001
He died in 2001.
After graduating from a gymnasium, Hans Münch studied medicine at the University of Tübingen and the Munich University.
He was active in the political section of the Reichsstudentenführung (Reich’s leadership of university students).
