Inside of the concentration camps, there were many guards who became notorious for their
use of violence and brutality upon vulnerable prisoners. Guards such as Irma Grese became
infamous for her use of the whip and also encouraging her dog to attack inmates at camps
such as Auschwitz, Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen. To carry out their murderous intent of the
Holocaust, the Nazis scared millions of people into submission, and many thought that the
gas chambers was their way out from the hellish ordeal within the barbed wire fences they
were subjected to. There were many guards who after World War Two were never brought
to justice, and managed to escape and live a very quiet life, with their crimes pushed
to the backs of their mind. There were a small percentage of former SS members of staff who
were executed following war crimes trials but some were sentenced to long prison sentences.
Today we look at a man who despite being relatively small in his stature was a horrifically savage
guard, who inflicted such misery onto prisoners at sites such as Dachau. Join us today as
we look at the disgusting crimes of Egon Zill. To support our channel, please make sure to
subscribe.
Egon Hill was born in Plauen on the 28th March 1906, and his father was a brewer. But his
father was seriously injured as he fought during the First World War, and because of
this Egon Zill then had to become an apprentice baker very early in his life to bring money
into his family. He became the breadwinner at a young age, but at 17 he then enlisted
in the Nazi Party and he then joined the SA, Hitler’s brownshirts. He was attracted to
the politics of the Nazis and Hitler, but then when the SS came to his hometown he joined
up and was SS member number 535 meaning he signed up incredibly early on. Before the
Second World War broke out, he worked as a security guard inside of a curtain making
factory, and in 1934 he became a full time SS man at the age of 28, and then he served
inside of the concentration camps.
Egon Zill was sent to Chemnitz concentration camp, where he first served as a guard and
this was the first position he obtained within the horrific system. He would rise through
the different ranks at times, and he then was sent to Lichtenburg concentration camp,
which was considered one of the earliest sights opened by the Nazis. This camp held up to
2000 prisoners at a time, and it became incredibly overcrowded inside of the run down castle
where the camp was based. It would later be transferred to become a womens camp before
Ravensbruck opened up. Zill then worked between many different camps, and he would see work
at Dachau, Ravensbruck, and Hinzert in a number of different roles. But whilst at Dachau,
he became infamous for his role in the cruelty and brutality of the concentration camps.
He was described as, ‘Having received his Death’s Head unit training in Dachau, he
was familiar with all the terrors the camp had to offer its inmates. Egon Zill became
one of the most sadistic commandants in the history of concentration camps. Not only
did he devise new and organized methods of torture for the unfortunate prisoners, he
took joy in taking part in the punishment personally, or else watching from the sidelines
as the prisoners died at the hands of equally sadistic guards. Zill thrived on watching
men beaten, drowned, hung, and broken until their bodies were unrecognizable masses of
bone and skin. A tag attached to their toes listed an identification number so they could
be properly recorded in the record books as having died from a heart attack or some other
medical ailment.’
One former prisoner of Dachau would state after the war that, ‘Egon Zill had his dogs
trained to react to the raising of his arm. On special amusement days, Zill would have
a table of food placed in front of the starving prisoners who stood at attention. Should a
person relax his body, the dogs would react automatically. As time went by and Zill became
impatient, he raised his arm signaling the dogs into action. They attacked the genital
areas of the prisoners until they were dead. At this point the bored commandant would leave
the scene. Having the prisoners sing anti-Semitic songs as they dug pits to be filled with stones,
only to have the stones dug up and used to fill other pits, was a common pastime for
the guards. At other times, they would bind the prisoners’ hands and feet and have them
crawl on the ground grunting like pigs. As the prisoners approached the pigsty, food
was put out for their meal to be eaten by the pigs. The SS men stood watching as the
bound prisoners fought with the pigs for the food. This type of torture was used with Jews,
priests, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Poles. Inside of Dachau there was a bunker reserved
for torture, and many prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, but tortures such
as the standing cells were cruel, and Zill used these.
But then Egon Zill transitioned to becoming the Commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof, before
he then took charge at Flossenburg. At both of these sites, dozens of thousands of people
would be killed. At Flossenburg, around 90,000 prisoners passed through the gates, but around
30,000 would die from malnutrition, executions, death marches and the brutal work they had
to do. When Zill was there, he oversaw many deaths and prisoners were forced. To work
inside of the quarries there where the death rate was higher due to the demanding work.
There were other factories based there, but Zill made many of the prisoner functionaries
such as Capo’s corrupt and he forced them to be brutal towards other prisoners. Many
of the inmates would be beaten to death, and prisoners were often mistreated being covered
with cold water in freezing weather, leading to hypothermia and many were shot by guards.
There were a large number of executions carried out there during Zill’s time, in which many
were shot dead. There was a crematoria established to deal with the large amount of dead bodies,
and following an evening in the camp jail many were executed on the firing range. Also
lethal injection was used at times, because shockingly the local residents complained
that in the nearby rivers, they were flowing with blood and body parts were washing up
there.
At Natzweiler-Struthof, another camp where he served, 52,000 people were imprisoned there
with over 22,000 dying inside Natzweiler. The work the prisoners had to do was very
strenuous, and work, hunger and a lack of health care led to many deaths. Disease would
spread around the camp, and there was a gas chamber that executed selected prisoners.
Egon Zill continued to be incredibly brutal, and as a commandant he expected his guards
to act with discipline and violence, and he believed those who worked there should be
the strongest Nazis, but he believed that some prisoners could be brainwashed inside
of his camps to become Nazis and then be turned over to the war effort. His regime was one
which was considered incredibly cruel, and prisoners would state he committed many crimes.
Some of his most shocking crimes include when he would tie prisoners to trees and then encourage
his dog to attack them. He was judged though to have been an effective commandant, and
his sacking came after villagers complained that the camp guards were living in excellent
conditions compared to the locals inside the nearby villages. He also had created a culture
of corruption within the guards, and following his sacking he was then transferred to become
a soldier on the Eastern Front.
At his evaluation as a commandant it was said he had a, strident personality, and was a
long time talented SS officer, but he did suffer from a lack of schooling in a military
capacity, and he struggled with the small details. He was physically well suited for
the demands of the work, and made quick decisions, but he has had no chance to prove himself
at the front. He wanted to work on his shortcomings in his military abilities, but he was not
strong enough to become a significant member of the military. However he was a brutal and
barbaric war criminal, and he became known as ‘Little Zill,’ for his short size but
after the war had come to an end, he went underground and he tried to avoid any form
of justice.
However he slipped up when on the birth certificate of an illegitimate child he wrote his real
name by accident, and then following this he was arrested. He was then brought to trial,
and if he had been brought to trial earlier it was probable that he would have been executed
and killed, as in the decade after the war German courts swayed towards prison sentences
rather than a one way trip to the gallows for war criminals. Egon Zill was sentenced
to life imprisonment by a Munich court, but then he appealed and his sentence was reduced
to 15 years, but then after his release shockingly Zill would return to one area where he inflicted
such suffering. For some reason after his release he returned to Dachau and the area
near the concentration camp where he worked, and he settled there for a number of years
until he died in 1974.
Egon Zill is an SS concentration camp guard who is not the most well known, but he was
known for being a brutal and horrific member of staff that served at many sites, a couple
as the commandant. He was a terrifying man who would encourage his dogs to attack prisoners,
and also would force many people to their deaths by the conditions inside of the places
where he worked. He was a man who if brought to trial earlier would probably have been
executed, but ultimately he would spend some time in prison for his actions.
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