Editing Karl-Otto Koch (section)

==Service with the SS==

Koch served with several ''SS-Standarten'' (Thirty-fifth SS Regiment Kassel, SS Special Detachment Saxony). In 1934, he took command of the [[Sachsenburg concentration camp|Sachsenburg Concentration Camp]]. Briefly, he was the officer in charge of the Esterwegen Concentration Camp guard unit, officer in charge of the preventive custody camp in the Lichtenburg Concentration Camp, and the adjutant at Dachau Concentration Camp. On 13 June 1935, he became commander of the [[Columbia concentration camp]] in [[Tempelhof|Berlin-Tempelhof]] and, in April 1936, he was assigned to the concentration camp at [[Esterwegen]]. Four months later, he was assigned to the [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]] concentration camp. By September 1937 he had advanced to [[Standartenführer|SS-Standartenführer]] (colonel).<ref name="buchen"/>

On 1 August 1937, he was given command of the new [[Buchenwald concentration camp]]. He remained at Buchenwald until September 1941, when he was transferred to the [[Majdanek]] concentration camp for POWs<ref name="bestie"/> near [[Lublin]], Poland. That was due largely to an investigation based on allegations of his improper behavior at Buchenwald, which included corruption, fraud, embezzlement, drunkenness, sexual offences and a murder. Koch commanded the Majdanek camp for only one year; he was relieved from his duties when 86 Soviet POWs escaped from the camp in August 1942. Koch was charged with criminal negligence and transferred to Berlin, where he worked at the [[SS Personnel Main Office]] and as a liaison between the SS and the German Post Office.<ref>Rescue and Resistance: Portraits of the Holocaust, Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1 January 1999 p. 311.</ref>