220px|thumb|right|kurt gerstein kurt gerstein (11 august 1905 &ndash; 25 july 1945) was a german ss officer and member of the institute for hygiene of the waffen-ss. he witnessed mass murders in the nazi extermination camps belzec and treblinka. he gave information to the swedish diplomat gÃ¶ran von otter, as well as to members of the roman catholic church with contacts to pope pius xii, in an effort to inform the international public about the holocaust. in 1945, following his surrender, he wrote the gerstein report covering his experience of the holocaust. he died, an alleged suicide, while in french custody. ==biography== ===family background=== kurt gerstein was born in mÃ¼nster, westphalia on 11 august 1905, the sixth of seven children in a prussian middle class family, described as strongly chauvinistic and "totally compliant to authority".friedlÃ¤nder, saul, kurt gerstein: the ambiguity of good new york: alfred a knopf, 1969, p. 4. his father, ludwig, a former prussian officer, was a judge and an authoritarian figure. ludwig gerstein proudly proclaimed that in his family's genealogical tree there was only aryan blood and exhorted future generations to "preserve the purity of the race!"friedlÃ¤nder, p. 10. as late as 1944 he wrote to his son kurt: "you are a soldier and an official and you must obey the orders of your superiors. the person who bears the responsibility is the man who gives the orders, not the one who carries them out."quoted in friedlÃ¤nder 1969, p. 4 ===education=== kurt was no more tolerant of discipline in secondary school than within the family. however, in spite of earning many bad reports, he managed to graduate at the age of 20. going directly on to study at the university of marburg for three semesters, he then transferred to the technical universities in aachen and berlin/charlottenburg where he graduated in 1931 as a mining engineer.friedlÃ¤nder 1969, p. 11 while he was in marburg he joined, at his father's request, the teutonia, "one of the most nationalistic student associations in germany".friedlÃ¤nder 1969, p. 8 while he was uncomfortable with the frivolity of the fraternity students, he didn't seem to mind their ultra-nationalism. on 4 september 1937, gerstein started studying medicine at the university of tÃ¼bingen. however his medical studies were interrupted by the outbreak of war. ===religious faith=== although his family was not a particularly religious one, gerstein received christian religious training in school. while at university, almost as an antidote to what he saw as frivolous activities of his classmates, he began to read the bible.quoted in friedlÃ¤nder 1969, p. 13 from 1925 onwards, he became active in christian student and youth m
1905_births 1945_deaths German_military_personnel_who_committed_suicide German_people_who_died_in_prison_custody People_from_MA 1/4 nster People_from_the_Province_of_Westphalia Prisoners_who_died_in_French_detention Protestants_in_the_German_Resistance SS-ObersturmfA 1/4 hrer Waffen-SS_personnel