# Karl Chmielewski

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{{Short description|Nazi war criminal (1903–1991)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Karl Chmielewski
| image             = KarlChmielewski.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Chmielewski in the 1940s
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1903|07|16|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [Frankfurt am Main](/source/Frankfurt_am_Main), [German Empire](/source/German_Empire)
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1991|12|01|1903|07|16|df=y}}
| death_place       = [Bernau am Chiemsee](/source/Bernau_am_Chiemsee), [Germany](/source/Germany)
| occupation        = Commandant of [Herzogenbusch concentration camp](/source/Herzogenbusch_concentration_camp) (1943)
| criminal_penalty  = '''Nazi Germany'''<br>15 years imprisonment<br>'''West Germany'''<br>[Life imprisonment with hard labour](/source/Life_imprisonment)
| criminal_status   = [Deceased](/source/Deceased)
| conviction        = '''Nazi Germany'''<br>[Rape](/source/Rape)<br>[Embezzlement](/source/Embezzlement)<br>'''West Germany'''<br>[Murder](/source/Murder)<br>[Perjury](/source/Perjury)<br>[Fraud](/source/Fraud)<br>[Bigamy](/source/Bigamy)
| motive            = [Nazism](/source/Nazism)
}}

'''Karl Chmielewski''' (16 July 1903 – 1 December 1991) was a German ''[SS](/source/Schutzstaffel)'' officer and concentration camp commandant. Such was his cruelty, he was dubbed ''Teufel von [Gusen](/source/Gusen_concentration_camp)'' or the Devil of Gusen.<ref name="Sagel-Grande">"Sagel-Grande, et.al.: ''Justiz und NS-Verbrechen - Strafverfahren gegen Chmielewski Karl (Lage, Aufbau und personelle Besetzung des Lagers Gusen und Lebensbedingungen seiner Häftlinge''. Band XVII, Amsterdam 1977. p. 160 ff.</ref>

Chmielewski joined the SS whilst unemployed in 1932 and joined the [Nazi Party](/source/Nazi_Party) the following year.<ref name="Sagel-Grande"/> After initially serving in the office of [Heinrich Himmler](/source/Heinrich_Himmler), he was transferred to the [Columbia concentration camp](/source/Columbia_concentration_camp) in 1935, before moving to [Sachsenhausen concentration camp](/source/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp) the following year. He was promoted to [Untersturmführer](/source/Untersturmf%C3%BChrer) in 1938 and attached to the ''[Schutzhaftlagerführung](/source/Schutzhaftlagerf%C3%BChrer)'', the '[Protective custody](/source/Protective_custody)' units of the ''[SS-Totenkopfverbände](/source/SS-Totenkopfverb%C3%A4nde)''.<ref name="Sagel-Grande"/>

From 1940 to 1942 Chmielewski, by then a ''[Hauptsturmführer](/source/Hauptsturmf%C3%BChrer)'', served as ''[Schutzhaftlagerführer](/source/Schutzhaftlagerf%C3%BChrer)'' at [Gusen concentration camp](/source/Gusen_concentration_camp), and it was there that he developed a reputation for extreme brutality.<ref>Schiffkorn Elisabeth: "Zur Forschungsgeschichte des urnenfelderzeitlichen Gräberfeldes von Gusen". In: ''EuroJournal Mühlviertel-Böhmerwald'', 2.Jg, Sonderheft 1, Linz 1996.</ref> He then became commandant of the newly established [Herzogenbusch concentration camp](/source/Herzogenbusch_concentration_camp) in the [Netherlands](/source/Netherlands), where he further developed a reputation for cruelty.

Amongst the claims made against him was that during inspections he ordered the drowning of prisoners in buckets of water.<ref>[Tom Segev](/source/Tom_Segev), ''Soldiers of Evil'', Berkley Books, 2001, p. 137</ref> Fellow camp commandant [Franz Ziereis](/source/Franz_Ziereis) claimed after the war that Chmielewski had used the skin of prisoners to make things such as wallets and book bindings, something Ziereis claimed was strictly forbidden by the Nazi authorities.<ref>Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil'', p. 145</ref> During his reign at Herzogenbusch, Chmielewski gained a reputation for corruption, and he was eventually tried for personally enriching himself through stealing diamonds from prisoners. He was deprived of his position and rank in 1943, being succeeded as commandant by [Adam Grünewald](/source/Adam_Gr%C3%BCnewald). In 1944, an SS court sentenced Chmielewski to 15 years in prison for rape and embezzlement. He spent the rest of the war as an inmate at [Dachau concentration camp](/source/Dachau_concentration_camp).<ref>Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil'', p. 153</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Camp Commander Karl Chmielewski - KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen |url=https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/Gusen/The-Concentration-Camp-Gusen/The-SS/Camp-Commander-Karl-Chmielewski |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=www.mauthausen-memorial.org |archive-date=17 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517235829/https://www.mauthausen-memorial.org/en/Gusen/The-Concentration-Camp-Gusen/The-SS/Camp-Commander-Karl-Chmielewski |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Chmielewski disappeared into [Austria](/source/Austria) after the war. By 1953, he was back in Germany, under an assumed identity, where he had taken up farming. He was tried that year for perjury, fraud, and bigamy, and sentenced to a year in prison. After his real identity was established, he was arrested by [West German](/source/West_Germany) police in January 1959, accused of nearly two hundred counts of murder. At his trial in 1961, he was found guilty of causing the deaths of prisoners through his brutality, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.<ref>Michael Bar-Zohar, ''The Avengers'', Hawthorn Books, 1969, p. 254</ref><ref name=redcap>{{Cite web|url = http://www.redcap70.net/A%20History%20of%20the%20SS%20Organisation%201924-1945.html/C/CHMIELEWSKI,%20Karl.htm|title = Chmielewski, Karl|accessdate = 18 October 2015|website = RMP World|publisher = Royal Military Police}}</ref> The court pronounced him a sadist who took pleasure in killing prisoners, whom he did not see as human, by scalding them with boiling water.<ref>Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil'', p. 203</ref><ref>Segev, ''Soldiers of Evil'', p. 33</ref>

He was released from prison in March 1979, on mental health grounds, and spent his last years in a care institution at Chiemsee.<ref name=redcap/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chmielewski, Karl}}
Category:1903 births
Category:1991 deaths
Category:Mauthausen concentration camp personnel
Category:Nazi concentration camp commandants
Category:Dachau concentration camp survivors
Category:Military personnel from Frankfurt
Category:SS-Hauptsturmführer
Category:German people convicted of murder
Category:German people convicted of rape
Category:German people convicted of perjury
Category:20th-century German criminals
Category:German male criminals
Category:German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany
Category:Nazis convicted of war crimes
Category:Sexual violence in Europe during World War II

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Karl Chmielewski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Chmielewski) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Chmielewski?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.