Georg Konrad Morgen

Born to a railwayman in Frankfurt, he graduated from the University of Frankfurt and the Hague Academy of International Law, before becoming a judge in Stettin.

Considered a pacifist by many, Morgen published the book War Propaganda and the Prevention of War in 1936, a year after first meeting Adolf Hitler, dissuading the militarization of Germany. It was published by the Reich.

As a Sturmbannführer he was sent to serve the Wiking Division on the front lines as punishment for insubordination. In 1943 Morgen was sent to investigate other SS members on charges of corruption, but eventually prosecuted so many Nazi officers that by the following April, Heinrich Himmler personally ordered him to restrain his cases. Among the people he investigated was the commandant of Buchenwald and Majdanek Karl Otto Koch, husband of Ilse Koch - as well as the Buchenwald concentration camp's doctor Waldemar Hoven, who was accused of murdering both inmates and camp guards who threatened to testify against Koch. He later testified at the Nuremberg trials where he claimed the stories of Koch's fetish with lampshades made of human skin was merely a legend. Indeed, he kept denouncing this while being threatened with beatings and while actually being beaten twice by his Allied investigators after the war.

In 1944, while investigating the Auschwitz commander, Rudolf Höß, Morgen's assistant Hauptscharführer Gerhard Putsch disappeared and was not heard from again. Some theorized this was a warning for Morgen to ease up on his investigations, as his quarters were burned down shortly thereafter.

He later claimed that he fought for justice during the Nazi era, and cited his long list of 800 investigations into criminal activity at concentration camps during his two years of activity.

Indicted

• Karl Otto Koch – Commandant of Buchenwald and Majdanek – executed for the murder of two hospital orderlies who had treated him for syphilis
• Martin Sommer – Buchenwald officer, indicted along with Koch. Transferred to the Russian Front.
• Hauptscharfuehrer Blanck – Buchenwald officer, indicted along with Koch. Unknown.
• Hermann Florstedt – Commandant of Majdanek – executed for murder
• Hermann Hackmann – in charge of protective custody in Majdanek – condemned to death for murder but eventually posted to a penal unit
• Hans Loritz – Commandant of Oranienburg – proceedings initiated on suspicion of arbitrary killing
• Adam Grünewald – Commandant of 's-Hertogenbosch – found guilty of maltreatment of prisoners and posted to a penal unit
• Karl Kuenstler – Commandant of Flossenburg – dismissed for drunkenness and debauchery
• Alex Piorkowski – Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp – accused of murder but not sentenced
• Maximilian Grabner – Head of Political Section in Auschwitz – accused of murder but not sentenced.
• Gerhard Palitzsch – Sentenced to prison
• Amon Göth – Sentenced to prison
• Hans Aumeier – Sentence commuted.

Morgen died on 4 February 1982, after continuing his legal career in Frankfurt following the war.

Footnotes