Kurt Gerstein

Kurt Gerstein (August 11 1905 in Münster, Westfalia - July 25 1945), was a member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS and witnessed mass murders in the concentration camps Belzec and Treblinka. He is said to have contacted a Swedish diplomat as well as members of the Catholic Church with contacts to Pope Pius XII in order to inform the international public about the holocaust. In 1945 he wrote the Gerstein Report about this. Afterward he committed suicide.

A semi-fictional movie about his emotional search of his Christian values and ultimate decision to betray the SS by attempting to expose the Holocaust by way of informing the Catholic Church, Amen, was released in 2002, starring Ulrich Tukur as Kurt Gerstein and directed by Costa-Gavras.

External links

• http://www.olokaustos.org/bionazi/leaders/gerstein.htm - Biography and picture of Gerstein (Italian)
• http://www.ns-archiv.de/verfolgung/gerstein/gerstein-bericht.shtml - the "Gerstein Report"

References

• Joffroy, Pierre: Der Spion Gottes. Berlin: Aufbau, 2002. ISBN 3746680174.
• Hey, Bernd u.a.: Kurt Gerstein (1905 - 1945). Widerstand in SS-Uniform. Bielefeld, 2003. ISBN 3895344869.
• Hochhuth, Rolf: Der Stellvertreter. ISBN 3499109972. (Roman über Kurt Gerstein und die Rolle des Vatikans während des Holocaust)