Siegfried Handloser

Siegfried Adolf Handloser (25 March 1885 – 3 July 1954) was a German physician, career military officer and war criminal. As the chief of all medical services in the Wehrmacht, he was brought to trial for overseeing medical atrocities at concentration camps during World War II. He was convicted at the 1947 Doctors' Trial during the subsequent Nuremberg trials and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was reduced to a 20-year term, though he was released in 1954 and died of cancer the same year.

Early career Handloser was born in 1885 at Konstanz in the Grand Duchy of Baden. In 1903, he began studying medicine at the Kaiser Wilhelm Academy for Military Medical Education in Berlin and became a member of the student corps Pépinière-Corps Franconia. After passing the state medical examination in 1910, he received his doctorate in medicine in 1911. He became a member of the Imperial German Army Medical Service as a Fähnrich (officer cadet) in the 14th (Baden) Foot Artillery Regiment. He participated in World War I as a Oberarzt and was promoted to Stabsarzt in September 1916.

Interwar years At the end of the war, Handloser remained in the post-war Reichswehr, the armed forces of the Weimar Republic. He rose steadily through the ranks, becoming the chief physician in Wehrkreis (military district) V in Stuttgart in 1932. He was promoted to Generalarzt in January 1935, and served as the chief medical officer of Army Group Command 3 from 1935 to March 1938. Handloser joined the committee of the German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM) in 1937 as a de facto Nazi emissary. Promoted to Generalstabsarzt in April 1938, he was chief medical officer to Army Group Command 5 until August 1939. He was released on health grounds in 1954 shortly before dying of cancer in Munich at the age of 69.

Awards and decorations Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class Honor Cross 3rd class of the Princely House Order of the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords Knight's Cross 2nd class of the Order of the Zähringer Lion with swords Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg Friedrich-August-Kreuz 1st class Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order with war decoration Honor Badge for Services to the Red Cross 2nd class Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross with swords