Es ist ein schwarz-weißes Porträtfoto von Kurt Eimann. Er trägt eine SS-Uniform mit dem Totenkopf-Emblem am Kragen und an der Schirmmütze. Kurt Eimann steht leicht seitlich zur Kamera. Er blickt mit festem Blick direkt in die Kamera. Seine Uniformmütze sitzt leicht schief auf dem Kopf. An seiner Uniform prangt ein Orden.

Kurt Eimann, 1938.

BArch R 9361-III/522779.

KURT EIMANN (1899 – 1980)

Kurt Eimann was the son of a wheelwright. From 1905 to 1913, he attended elementary schools in Görlitz and Leschwitz. He then worked as a messenger and factory worker. He survived the First World War without injury. In 1920, he enlisted in the Reichswehr, from which he was discharged in 1930 with the rank of sergeant. In 1932, he joined the judicial service in the Breslau Higher Regional Court district. In the same year, he became a member of the NSDAP, the SA and the SS. He enjoyed a meteoric career. On 1 January 1939, Kurt Eimann took over command of the 36th SS Standard in Danzig and remained its commander until May 1945. His »Sonderkommando« was given special assignments. In addition to guarding the Stutthof concentration camp, these also included the murder of sick people.

Sick people from other Polish institutions in occupied Poland, the Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia were also shot by Eimann’s unit. In the Sprengawsken forest, it murdered 2,000 sick people from the Konradstein, Schwetz and Riesenburg sanatoriums and nursing homes. In addition to Eimann’s unit, members of the »Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz and Einsatzkommandos« were also involved in these murders.

From 1940 onwards, Kurt Eimann was deployed in various theatres of war on the Western Front as part of the SS Totenkopf Division and thus the Waffen-SS. He was repeatedly involved in crimes committed by the Waffen-SS.

After his unit was transferred, Eimann witnessed the retreat of German forces in Hungary in the spring of 1945. He was captured by Soviet troops near Linz. After escaping, he was taken prisoner by the Americans. He managed to escape from there as well. He then voluntarily surrendered to British occupation forces. He was released from captivity in 1946. He worked near Bremen and, from 1947, in Misburg near Hanover as a construction labourer. Around 1950, he ran a detergent business.

The trial against Kurt Eimann began in 1967 before the Hanover Assize Court. On 20 December 1968, Kurt Eimann was sentenced to four years in prison for the joint murder of at least 1,200 people and was released from prison two years later. He died on 7 August 1980 in Wolfsburg.