Franz Hermann Johann Maria Freiherr von Bodmann, sometimes written asBodman (born 23 March 1908 inZwiefaltendorf – died 25 May 1945 inAltenmarkt im Pongau) was a GermanSS-Obersturmführer who served as a camp physician in severalNazi concentration camps.
Von Bodmann joined theNazi Party in May 1932 (membership number 1,098,482) and the SS itself in 1934 (member number 267,787). From October 1939 to June 1940 and from July 1941 to January 1942 he served with the 79th SS-Standarte inUlm in the Second Bataillon as a physician.[1] It was 1941 that he was promoted to the rank of Obersturmführer.[2]
Von Bodmann was appointed camp physician atAuschwitz concentration camp in February 1942 and the following year held a similar position atMajdanek concentration camp.[1] He subsequently filled the same role atNatzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and from September 1943 atVaivara concentration camp.[2] At some point he also worked atNeuengamme concentration camp although the exact dates are unknown.[2] Eyewitnesses claimed that at Auschwitz von Bodmann killed inmates personally by injectingPhenol into their veins and also stated that he carried out similar procedures at other camps.[3] Von Bodmann's departure from Auschwitz, where he had no superiors and as such acted largely as he pleased, was hastened when he contractedtyphus not long after arriving.[4]
He left the camps in September 1944 when he was sent to work forSS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt and then to theHauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle. His final assignment was as troop physician to the5th SS Panzer Division Wiking.[1]
He was taken as a prisoner of war and held in a military hospital at a British internment camp[5] where he killed himself just after the end of theSecond World War.[2]
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