20 August, 1947, Luneberg, Germany. After more than 8 months on trial, 23 defendants, who either
participated in deadly Nazi euthanasia program killing mentally or physically disabled people
deemed “ unworthy of life “ ; or conducted cruel, painful and often deadly medical experiments on
prisoners in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, hear their sentences read.
After gruesome testimonies of tens of witnesses, seven of these defendants are
sentenced to death by hanging. One of them is a German medical doctor named Waldemar Hoven.
Waldemar Hoven was born on 10 February 1903 in Freiburg, then part of the German Empire.
After working in Denmark, Sweden and the USA in the agricultural sector, he returned to Freiburg
and supported his brother as an employee in his sanatorium and did office work there.
Between 1931 and 1933 he worked as a journalist in Paris but returned to Germany in 1933 after his
brother had died and took over the administration of his late brother’s sanatorium. In 1934 Hoven
joined the SS and one year later in 1935 he began to study medicine at the University of Hoven.
He completed his medical studies after the outbreak of the war in
1939 and became a physician for the SS. His worst crimes are connected with Buchenwald
Concentration camp where he was known as “the Beautiful Waldemar”. His specialty at Buchenwald
were deadly medical experiments on camps’ inmates. He was involved in experiments regarding typhus
and the tolerance of serums containing phenol and Evipan. Hoven was responsible for hundreds
of ordered and also self-carried-out killings which were documented after the end of the war.
Waldemar received his doctorate from the University of Freiburg in 1943 with a
dissertation on the treatment of tuberculosis. At least 5 inmates died because of his medical
experiments when he attempted to treat pulmonary tuberculosis by inhalation of carbon colloid.
After the war it was revealed that not Hoven but two inmates had written this dissertation
and the Freiburg University revoked his doctorate in 1947.
In 1943 Hoven was arrested by the Nazis but not for the medical experiments he conducted
on the inmates. Allegedly he was a lover of Ilse Koch, the camp commandant’s wife,
who was being investigated together with her Husband Otto due to corruption.
Ilse Koch had an open marital relationship with her husband, and she was infamous for
her obsession with tattoos. When she found a tattooed prisoner, she sent them to their death
but before they were burned in the crematorium, she had carved out the part of their skin
where the tattoo was located. She used to call these pieces of skin her “ trophies”
and would go on to collect lampshades; book covers as well as a handbags – all made of human skin.
To protect his lover Ilse Koch, Hoven was accused of killing an SS man named Köhler.
Hoven injected him with phenol because he was a potential witness in Koch’s investigation.
Hoven was imprisoned for 18 months and sentenced to death by SS judge. However,
he was pardoned due to the prevailing shortage of doctors and released from prison on April 2, 1945
In the end, justice finally caught up with Hoven when he was arrested again,
this time by the allies, at the end of the WW2. Waldemar Hoven was convicted of war crimes,
crimes against humanity and membership in a criminal organization - the SS.
In summer 1947 a tribunal sentenced Hoven to death by hanging. The verdict was carried out on 2 June,
1948 in Landsberg Prison. He was 45 years old. There were no tears shed for Waldemar Hoven.
thanks for watching the world history channel and don't miss our next videos click the subscribe
button now for more interesting clips give us a like and see you in the following episode