Hans Hüttig
| Hans Huttig | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
April 5, 1894 Dresden |
| Died | February 23, 1980 (aged 85) Wachenheim |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Service/branch | Schutzstaffel |
| Years of service | 1932 - 1945 |
| Unit | SS-Totenkopfverbände |
Hans Hüttig (born 5 April 1894 in Dresden – died 23 February 1980 in Wachenheim) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and Nazi concentration camp commandant.
Hans Hüttig was born on April 5, 1894. The son of a carpenter, Hüttig's father would eventually open a shop selling photographic equipment and this became the family trade, with Hans Hüttig's brother a founder of Zeiss Ikon. Sent to a boarding school in south Germany he attempted to enter the army in 1911 but failed the exam and returned home to work as a salesman in his father's shop. Early in 1914 he left the shop to take a post with an import-export company in German East Africa.
Following the outbreak of the First World War Hüttig enlisted in the German Imperial Army, seeing action in the East African Campaign and eventually rising to the rank of Feldwebel. Wounded in December 1917, the military hospital where he was being treated was captured by the British Army. Thereafter, Hüttig was sent to a POW camp in Cairo where he was held for two years.
He returned to Germany in March 1920, working initially at the shop again before filling on a number of clerical jobs. Hüttig joined the right-wing Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten in 1925 although he claimed that this was largely to feel a sense of belonging rather than because of any deep political convictions. After running his own photography shop (which closed in 1930), Hüttig enlisted in the SS in March 1932 at age 37 as an unpaid volunteer and he joined the Nazi Party soon afterwards.
Following the Nazi seizure of national power in 1933, Hüttig was offered and accepted a full-time billet with the SS as part of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV). For the next six years Hüttig spent his time touring the concentration camps and being trained for a career in them. His first assignment came when he was appointed deputy to Karl Otto Koch, commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp and a man already known to Hüttig from Dresden. At Buchenwald Hüttig was praised by his superiors for his attitude whilst inmates would later testify to his personal cruelty.
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