About Karl-Otto Koch
Karl-Otto Koch was a German military officer who was a mid-ranking commander in the Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany, and the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. From September 1941 until August 1942, he served as the first commandant of the Majdanek concentration camp in occupied Poland, stealing vast amounts of valuables and money from murdered Jews. His wife, Ilse Koch, also participated in the crimes at Buchenwald. Koch's actions at Buchenwald first caught the attention of SS-Obergruppenführer Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, in 1941. As a soldier, he behaved well and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class, the Observer's Badge and the Wound Badge in Black. After World War I, Koch worked as a commercial manager, an authorized signatory and insurance agent and became unemployed in 1932 (he had served a prison sentence in 1930 for embezzlement and forgery).
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