Righteous Among The Nations

Langbein, Hermann

In August 1942 Langbein was sent to Auschwitz to help combat an outbreak of typhus. He became a clerk and spent his time typing out death notices. Later he became clerk to the chief medical officer at Auschwitz, Dr Eduard Wirtz. Andrew Mollo, the author of To The Death's Head: The Story of the SS (1982): "Langbein reminded us that the camp doctors were the only academics on the camp staff, and while some of them, like Doctors Mengele and Entress, were anti-Semites and worked willingly in the murder system, there were others like Wirtz who tried whenever possible to alleviate the suffering around them. By the judicious use of his Viennese charm and by insisting on addressing Wirtz as 'Herr Doktor' instead of using his SS rank, Langbein feels he was able to exert a tiny but very important civilizing influence on him."