Robert Karl Ludwig Mulka ( Hamburg , December to April of 1895 - ibid , 26 of April of 1969 ) was a Hauptsturmführer ( captain ) of the SS , Assistant Rudolf Hoess , commandant of the extermination camp of Auschwitz and participant in the Holocaust during World War II .
Youth
The son of a postal clerk, Mulka took a baccalaureate course at the Realschule in Hamburg , served in the military for a year, and then entered an apprenticeship at a trades firm. In August 1914 , the outbreak of the First World War , he volunteered, fighting in France , Russia and Turkey , service in which he attained the rank of lieutenant in the Army.
At the end of the war in November 1918 , he joined the Baltic Guard , a paramilitary force of the extreme right “to prevent the advance of Bolshevism in the West .” In 1920 , he returned to Hamburg to rejoin the merchant community, that same year, a court of law sentenced him to eight months’ imprisonment and two years of civil rights loss, for irregular management of funds confiscated from leftists during his participation in The Baltic Guard. Mulka denied these intentional maneuvers all the time.
In 1931 , he founded his own company to import and export products, while maintaining himself as reserve officer, being promoted to first lieutenant. Due to his legal problems he was discharged from the Army .
At the service of the Third Reich
Mulka voluntarily joined the SS , the 8 of June of 1941 . In early 1942 , he was assigned to the extermination camp of Auschwitz , where he had told her he would serve in a “big concentration camp with a farm and required supervision.” In May 1942, he was appointed as Deputy SS Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Hoess , Commandant of the field and his office was installed next to the gas chamber and crematorium experimental del Campo Auschwitz I.
In March 1943 , he was arrested by the SS for criticizing a speech by Joseph Goebbels , Propaganda Minister of the Third Reich , however he was released very early and charges were dismissed. She returned to Hamburg where it remained until the Allies began to bomb the city, he volunteered for the Command of the SS , in the North Sea. At the beginning of 1944 , it was reassigned to the School of Engineering of the SS; In Prague . While there, Mulka seriously ill and was discharged and returned to Hamburg where he remained until the Nazis surrendered in May of 1945 .
Between the 8 of June of 1945 and 28 of March of 1948 , he was interned in several prison camps, such as the Iserbrook, Neumunster, Eselheide / Paderborn and Camp for Prisoners of War Fischbek and the Neuengamme .
Later life and judgment
Upon release of the Allies , he was arrested by a court of denazification of Hamburg which sentenced him to 18 months in prison for their relative share in Auschwitz ; However the sentence was revised and lowered the status of Mulka to Level V, which left him free and allowed him to return to work indefinitely.
Mulka was married and had two sons and a girl. The eldest son had died as a soldier in World War II .
After this period of imprisonment, Mulka refounded his company of imports and exports until in December of 1963 , was imputed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Frankfurt of the Meno , in the called Second Judgment of Auschwitz . From the outset he was the main accused but remained at liberty during the initial stage of the trial. However in early 1964 , the prosecution managed to get several purchase orders to IG Farben , signed by Mulka where requested remitieran al Campo, several lots of the pesticide ” Zyklon B ” for “Special Actions” which was the code name The exterminations. From this moment Mulka was arrested and placed at the order of the Court. His second son took over the company’s family import.
During the trial, Mulka denied all knowledge about the extermination of Jews and Gypsies , as well as about the gas chambers , however the evidence of pesticide purchases and maintenance to the crematorium ovens signed by him were conclusive to demonstrate his responsibility, Which was silent.
After 183 days of hearings, between August 19 and 20, 1965, the verdict was announced. Mulka was accused of “complicity in the murder at least 750 people, four separate times”, with his sentence of 14 years in prison. Mulka was sent to prison in Kassel , where he tried to commit suicide in vain. In 1968, he became seriously ill and finally died in April 1969, still in prison.