Horst Schumann facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Horst Schumann
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| Born | 1 May 1906 Halle an der Saale, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
| Died | 5 May 1983 (aged 77) Frankfurt am Main, West Germany |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Service/ |
 Luftwaffe Schutzstaffel |
| Years of service | 1939–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) |
| Unit | Auschwitz |
Horst Schumann (1 May 1906 – 5 May 1983) was an SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and medical doctor.
Early life
Schumann was born on 1 May 1906 in Halle an der Saale. His father, Paul Schumann, was also a doctor. Schumann entered the Nazi party in 1930 and joined the Sturmabteilung in 1932. In 1933, he received his medical degree after producing a thesis entitled "Frage der Jodresorption und der therapeutischen Wirkung sog. Jodbäder" ("The Question of Iodine Absorption and the Therapeutic Effects of so-called Iodine Baths"). He started his career as an assistant doctor in the Surgical Clinic of the clinic of Halle University.
Nazi doctor
From 1934, Schumann was employed in the Public Health Office in Halle. He was recruited to the air force as a physician in 1939.
Auschwitz
On 28 July 1941, Schumann arrived in Auschwitz. He worked at Block 30 in the women's hospital, where he set up an X-ray station in 1942.
Schumann performed typhus experiments by injecting people with blood from typhus patients and then attempting to cure the newly infected subjects. Schumann left Auschwitz in September 1944 and was appointed to the Sonnenstein Clinic in Saxony which had earlier been converted into a military hospital.
Medical career after the war
While serving as a military doctor on the Western Front, he was captured by the Americans in January 1945. He was released from captivity in October 1945. In April 1946, he began to work as a sports doctor for the city of Gladbeck. An application for a license for a hunting gun led to his identity being exposed in 1951 so the GDR issued an arrest warrant. According to his own statement, Schumann served as a ship's doctor for three years and because he did not have a German passport, he applied for one in Japan in 1954 and received it under his own name. Schumann then fled, first to Egypt and eventually settled in Khartoum in Sudan as head of a hospital. He was forced to flee from Sudan in 1962 after being recognized by an Auschwitz survivor. Then he went to Ghana, where he received the protection of the head of state, Kwame Nkrumah, until he was overthrown.
Imprisonment and death
In 1966, Schumann was extradited from Ghana to West Germany where the trial against him was opened in Frankfurt on 23 September 1970. Charged with killing 30,000 Jews, Schumann admitted to killing as many as 80,000 Jews, saying "I have no numbers". However, Schumann was released from prison on 29 July 1972 due to his heart condition and generally deteriorating health. He died on 5 May 1983, 11 years after he had been released.
