Otto Moll

Otto Moll
Born(1915-03-04)4 March 1915
Hohen Schönberg, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, German Empire
Died28 May 1946(1946-05-28) (aged 31)
Landsberg Prison, Landsberg am Lech, Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Other names
Criminal statusExecuted
MotiveNazism
Sadism
Conviction(s)War crimes
TrialDachau camp trial
Criminal penaltyDeath
SS career
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Service/branch Schutzstaffel
Years of service1935–1945
RankHauptscharführer

Otto Hermann Wilhelm Moll (4 March 1915 – 28 May 1946) was an SS non-commissioned officer who committed numerous atrocities at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. Moll held the rank of SS-Hauptscharführer "Head Section Leader", the equivalent to a US Military Master Sergeant and or British Military Warrant Officer. He was known as "Cyclops", due to having a glass eye, and as the "Butcher of Birkenau".[1]

SS Hauptscharführer Moll held the position of SS Rapportführer a senior SS position within the SS Guard Units the "Totenkopfverbände" sanctioned within the Camps.

He is said personally to have killed hundreds at Birkenau,[2] and oversaw the deaths of hundreds of thousands while at the camp, such as of the Hungarian Jews in 1944.[3] Otto Moll served as the chief of the crematorium/extermination zone at Birkenau from 1943 to 1945, a role that Moll carried out with immense cruelty.[4][5][6]

Otto Moll has been described as the "ultimate example of the cruel 'Nazi spirit'",[7] while doctor Miklós Nyiszli described Moll as the "most insane murderer of the World War".[8] Moll has also been described as "the sadistic and cruel executor of the 'Final Solution,' a man who was the terror of both the Jews and the SS men", and as one of the "most sadistic and evil figures in the history of Auschwitz".[9]

  1. ^ Gregorc, Tamara (2020). Im Herzen der Hölle: Das Sonderkommando von Auschwitz-Birkenau und seine Wahrnehmung nach 1945 (Thesis) (in German). Universität Graz. p. 28. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  2. ^ Kadar, Gabor; Zoltan, Vagi (2004). Self-Financing Genocide: The Gold Train, the Becher Case and the Wealth of Hungarian Jews. Budapest: Central European University Press. pp. 258. ISBN 9639241539.
  3. ^ Greif, Gideon; Levin, Itamar (2015). Aufstand in Auschwitz: Die Revolte des jüdischen »Sonderkommandos« am 7. Oktober 1944 [Uprising in Auschwitz: The revolt of the Jewish "Sonderkommando" on October 7, 1944] (in German). Böhlau Verlag. pp. 27–28, 347. ISBN 978-3-412-22473-8.
  4. ^ "The Prisoners' Fate in Auschwitz-Birkenau". degob.org. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  5. ^ Lewy, Guenter (2017). Perpetrators: The World of the Holocaust Killers. Oxford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780190661137.
  6. ^ Chare, Nicholas; Williams, Dominic (2019). The Auschwitz Sonderkommando: Testimonies, Histories, Representations. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 119, 124, 148–149, 184. ISBN 978-3-030-11490-9.
  7. ^ Petropoulos, Jonathan; Roth, John K., eds. (2015). Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. Berghahn Books. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-84545-071-7.
  8. ^ Nyiszli, Miklós (2005). Im Jenseits der Menschlichkeit. Ein Gerichtsmediziner in Auschwitz [Beyond Humanity: A Forensic Doctor in Auschwitz] (in German) (2nd ed.). Karl Dietz Verlag. p. 61. ISBN 9783320020613.
  9. ^ Greif, Gideon; Levin, Itamar (2015). Aufstand in Auschwitz: Die Revolte des jüdischen »Sonderkommandos« am 7. Oktober 1944 [Uprising in Auschwitz: The revolt of the Jewish "Sonderkommando" on October 7, 1944] (in German). Böhlau Verlag. pp. 28, 211. ISBN 978-3-412-22473-8.