Researching Hans Koch

Koch was born in Bartenstein, East Prussia (modern Bartoszyce, Poland), he graduated in law from the University of Königsberg. In 1923, he began working at the Prussian Ministry of Trade and later as the second state commisar of the Berlin stock exchange. In 1927, he opened his own law office. In 1937, he helped win an acquittal for pastor Martin Niemöller.

During World War II, he developed contacts with Claus von Stauffenberg and the 20 July plot conspirators, including Carl Goerdeler. In the 20 July plot, once the Nazis had been routed, Koch was slated to become the presiding judge of the Reichsgericht, the highest court in the German Reich. The plot failed, however, and Koch sheltered one of the conspirators. An informer denounced him and Koch and his family were arrested. He was murdered extrajudicially in Berlin by a Sonderkommando of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt on 24 April 1945.

Koch was born in Tangerhütte, German Empire. He worked as a laboratory assistant. A member of the SS, he was at Auschwitz from 1940 to 1945. On the basis of his professional background, he worked in the medical department dealing with disinfection. One of his responsibilities (along with SS-Oberscharführer Josef Klehr among others) was to insert the Zyklon B into the gas chambers. He later admitted that after participating in an extermination action, he was unable to sleep without drinking large quantities of alcohol beforehand.

Koch was located by the Allies and handed over to the Polish authorities on May 3, 1947. He was tried by the Supreme National Tribunal at the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków and was found guilty of perpetrating the genocide of the Jews, but the court sentenced him to life imprisonment as opposed to death. The court cited the orders given to him as attenuating circumstances. He died in prison in Gdańsk in 1955.