Waldemar Hoven

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Waldemar Hoven (February 10, 1903 – June 2, 1948) was chief Doctor for the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where he was responsible for euthanizing prisoners with injections of either phenol or gasoline.

Hoven was born in Freiburg, Germany. After studying medicine in the United States, Hoven joined the SS in 1934. He rose to the rank of Hauptsturmführer (Captain) in the Waffen SS.

[edit] German Trial

He was also responsible for the lethal injections of aconitine given to several imprisoned former SS officers who were potential witnesses in an investigation against Ilse Koch, with whom Hoven was rumoured to be having an affair.

Hoven was then put on trial by the SS, and unlikely rumors suggest that the presiding SS judge Konrad Morgen proved Hoven's guilt by feeding aconitine to Russian prisoners of war who then died of the same symptoms as the SS officers. He was convicted and sentenced to death, though he only spent 18 months in captivity at Buchenwald before being pardoned - given the Nazi shortage of doctors.

[edit] War Crimes Trial

During the Doctors' Trial (a part of the larger Nuremberg Trials), he was found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and membership in a criminal organization; he was sentenced to death, and was hanged on June 2, 1948 at Landsberg prison in Bavaria.