Hans Loritz

SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Loritz (1932/1933)

Oberführer (Senior Colonel) Hans Loritz (12 December 1895, Augsburg – 31 January 1946) joined the SS in September 1930 and the NSDAP in August 1930. In 1933, he formed and commanded the SS Standarte at the Dachau concentration camp.

Commander in concentration camps

In July 1934, Loritz became commander of KZ Esterwegen. He made camp rules stricter, interrogated prisoners and ordered torture. In 1935, he was promoted to SS-Oberführer. After the close of Esterwegen, Loritz became camp commander in Dachau in April 1936.

His self-enrichment and corruption brought scrutiny from the SS-Verwaltungsamt. He took prisoners to work at his private villa in St. Gilgen at the Wolfgangsee. In July 1939, Loritz was sent against his will to Graz. He immediately tried to return to concentration camp service. In December 1939, Loritz was transferred to KZ Sachsenhausen. He became the camp commandant in place of Walter Eisfeld in March 1940 on the orders of Heinrich Himmler. He selected prisoners unable to work, who were killed in June 1941 in Sonnenstein Euthanasia Centre. In the same year, he organised the shooting of at least 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war.

Loritz became a section leader of the General SS in Klagenfurt. He remained until 1942, when he was removed at the suggestion of Oswald Pohl, leader of the SS-WVHA. He was then sent to oversee camps in Beisfjord, Elsfjord, Rognan and Karasjok in northern Norway where Yugoslavian prisoners were used as forced labour to construct roads and military installations.

After the war, he was arrested and imprisoned at the internment camp in Neumünster to await trial by the Soviets. Loritz committed suicide in January 1946.

Ranks and promotions

Loritz's SS-Ranks
Date	Rank
15 November 1931	SS-Untersturmführer
11 April 1932	SS-Hauptsturmführer
23 August 1932	SS-Sturmbannführer
15 July 1933	SS-Obersturmbannführer
22 March 1934	SS-Standartenführer
15 September 1935	SS-Oberführer

Bibliography

• Dirk Riedel: Ordnungshüter und Massenmörder im Dienst der "Volksgemeinschaft": Der KZ-Kommandant Hans Loritz. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940938-63-3.
• Rudolf Hoess, Constantine Fitzgibbon, Primo Levi. Commandant of Auschwitz: The Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2000. ISBN 978-1-84212-024-8
• ALLGEMEINE-SS: THE COMMANDS, UNITS, AND LEADERS OF THE GENERAL SS. Schiffer Publishing, 1997 Mark C. Yerger