Konrad Morgen

Georg Konrad Morgen
Dr. jur. Konrad Morgen
Nickname	The Bloodhound Judge
Birth date	8 June 1909(1909-06-08)
Place of birth	Frankfurt am Main, Province of Hesse-Nassau, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date	4 February 1982 (aged 72)
Place of death	West Germany
Allegiance	National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel
Years of service	1933–1945
Rank	SS-Sturmbannführer
Commands held	Chief judge of the SS and Police Court in Krakow Chief judge of the SS and Police Court in Breslau

Valentin Georg Konrad Morgen (8 June 1909 - 4 February 1982) was a German SS officer, jurist and judge during World War II. After the war, he continued a successful career in law in West Germany.

Life

Valentin Georg Konrad Morgen was born in 1909 in Frankfurt am Main. His father was a train driver. In 1929, Konrad passed his final exam at the Oberrealschule. Subsequently he studied law at the universities of Frankfurt am Main, Rome and Berlin. He also studied at the Academy of International Law in The Hague and the Institute of World Economics and Shipping in Kiel. He received his doctorate in Frankfurt in 1936 with his dissertation “War Propaganda and War Prevention”. Being specialized in international law, a brilliant career was waiting for him in Hitler’s ‘new’ Germany, where young academics like him enjoyed ample career opportunities.

Morgen felt little enthusiasm for National Socialism prior to Hitler’s rise to power. He considered himself a ‘National liberal’. Not long after Hitler’s appointment as Reichskanzler in January 1933 though, he joined the ranks of the National Socialists. On 1 March 1933, he enrolled in the Allgemeine SS. One month later, he became a member of the NSDAP. He was a member of the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (NSDStB or NS Student Union) and the Nationalsozialistischer Rechtswahrerbund (NS Legal Guardian Association).

After the war, Morgen worked as a lawyer in Frankfurt am Main and was registered with the local bar association until 19 January 1979.

Investigations of possible SS and German crimes

During WWII, Morgen investigated some 800 cases of possible crimes within the SS, which resulted in about 200 trials. Five camp commanders were arrested, and two of them were shot. For example, Buchenwald commandant Karl-Otto Koch was executed by the SS for corruption and murder.

This has been seen as being incompatible with many descriptions of the Holocaust and the alleged treatment of Holocaust camp prisoners.

Furthermore, Morgen has been stated to have confirmed "that an internal inquiry established that there was no German or SS extermination policy."

See also the "Quotes on camp conditions" section below on the conditions in the camps.

See also World War II German punishments for mistreatment of Jews.

Politically correct statements

However, Morgen also made politically correct statements on the Holocaust, which revisionists have argued is related to Morgen being "told by the Americans that if he didn’t testify the way they wanted, he would be handed over to the Soviets (Toland 1976, p. 774)."

Furthermore, Morgen stated that he believed mass gassings had occurred at Auschwitz-Monowitz (Auschwitz III). No historian argues that Monowitz had homicidal gas chamber(s) or exterminations. That this would have been a mistake by Morgen regarding the correct Auschwitz sub-camp is argued to be unlikely since he referred to "the extermination camp Monowitz" several times and said that it "lay far away from the concentration camp. It was situated on an extensive industrial site and was not recognizable as such and everywhere on the horizon there were smoking chimneys." It is not argued to be surprising that Morgen might have made the mistake of believing that mass killings were being carried out at Auschwitz-Monowitz, since apparently many Auschwitz inmates also believed this, and Morgen may have relied on their testimonies. Morgen was never able complete his judicial investigation of the Monowitz extermination story before the Soviets arrived to Auschwitz.

Much later, at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, Morgen made a completely contradictory testimony, alleging that the Auschwitz gas chambers had been at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II). This has been criticized: "Morgen had sung like a bird at the Nuremberg trial, admitting that he had personally; "... investigated the entire stretch of territory and studied the layout and installations", meaning the Auschwitz gas chambers. But unfortunately for the Holocaust Industry, Morgen had gotten a rather major detail about the gas chambers utterly wrong: "By "Extermination Camp Auschwitz" I did not mean the concentration camp. It did not exist there. I meant a separate extermination camp near Auschwitz, called "Monowitz."" Morgen, insisted four separate times that the Auschwitz extermination camp was the "Monowitz" camp, and not the "concentration camp", meaning either Auschwitz I, but more probably Auschwitz II (Birkenau). This rather major slip by Morgen, would not have gone unnoticed by those who had invited him testify to the gas chambers, and escape at least a lengthy prison sentence, but far more probably, the gallows.

When you hear Morgen's voice at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, you can not miss the fear and trepidation it reveals. The Industry must have made sure that this time, Morgen's testimony would be about gas chambers in Auschwitz II (Birkenau) and not Monowitz (one of the 40 odd camps known as Auschwitz III). According to the documentary's English subtitles of the comments made by trial prosecutor Joachim Kügler, Morgen "broke down during his testimony and wept bitter tears" (from 53:51 on the first video)."

Quotes on camp conditions

"The prisoners were healthy, normally fed, sun-tanned, working ... The installations of the camp were in good order, especially the hospital. The camp authorities, under the Commander Diester, aimed at providing the prisoners with an existence worthy of human beings. They had regular mail service. They had a large camp library, even books in foreign languages. They had variety shows, motion pictures, sporting contests and even had a brothel. Nearly all the other concentration camps were similar to Buchenwald. (Source: IMT "blue series," Vol. 20, p. 490)"

—Morgen on the Buchenwald camp where he lived for eight months.

"To a great extent the horrible conditions at times prevailing in some concentration camps did not arise from deliberate planning, but developed from circumstances which in my opinion must be called force majeure, that is to say, evils for which the local camp leaders were not responsible. I am thinking of the outbreak of epidemics. At irregular intervals many concentration camps were visited by typhoid fever, typhus, and other sicknesses caused especially by the arrival of prisoners from the concentration camps in the eastern areas. Although everything humanly possible was done to prevent these epidemics and to combat them, the death rates which resulted were extremely high. Another evil which may be considered as force majeure was the fluctuating numbers of new arrivals and the insufficient billets. Many camps were overcrowded. The prisoners arrived in a weakened condition because, due to air raids, the transports were under way longer than expected. Towards the end of the war, there was a general collapse of the transportation system. Supplies could not be carried out to the necessary extent; chemical and pharmaceutical factories had been systematically bombed, and all the necessary medicines were lacking. To top all, the evacuations from the East further burdened the camps and croweded them in an unbearable manner. (IMT "blue series," Vol. 20, pp. 498-499)"

—Morgen on the conditions in the camps in the final months of the war.

See also

• World War II German punishments for mistreatment of Jews
• Auschwitz camp: General description of the Auschwitz punishment system

External links

• My Role in the Zündel Trial - the section "Konrad Morgen Testimony"
• The Hoax of the Twentieth Century—The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry - Chapter 6: Et Cetera: More ‘Extermination’ Camps (pages 216-217)
• Auschwitz: A Judge Looks at the Evidence - Chapter Three: Testimony and Personal Accounts: Allied "War Crimes" Trials

Note that besides the external sources listed here, an alleged Holocaust confessor/witness may be extensively discussed in the external sources listed in the articles on the particular Holocaust camps and/or other Holocaust phenomena the individual is associated with.