Max Möller (SS officer)

Max Möller
Treblinka staff (left to right): Paul Bredow, Willi Mentz, Max Möller, Josef Hirtreiter
Nickname(s)	Amerikaner
Born	(1889-12-06)6 December 1889 Marburg, German Empire
Died	5 January 1945(1945-01-05) (aged 55) Suwalki, Poland
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service / branch	Schutzstaffel
Rank	Unterscharführer, SS
Unit	SS-Totenkopfverbände
Commands	Treblinka extermination camp

Max Möller was an SS functionary in Nazi Germany and a Holocaust perpetrator. He worked at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust in Poland.^[1][2]

Originally from Hamburg, Max Möller belonged to a police detachment before his service at Treblinka. He worked as ordinance in Camp 2 Auffanglager "undressing yard", nicknamed "Amerikaner" (or, the American) by the prisoners because of his massive build. Survivors of the prisoner uprising testified that Möller along with Feodor Fedorenko were helping August Miete at the Lazaret killing station where Jews were being shot point-blank upon arrival at the camp.^[3]

Möller became a notable figure ahead of the prisoner uprising, because he watched over the German armoury and had to be tricked before the weapons could be stolen from it. Prisoner Sadovits told Möller that he was needed in the potato-workers team due to labor problems there. They left the barracks together, allowing the insurgents to begin removing the weapons. After the closing of the camp, he was assigned to Trieste region in Italy by the SS. After the war he disappeared and no further details are known about him.^[4]

References

1. Kopówka, Edward; Rytel-Andrianik, Paweł (2011), "Treblinka II – Obóz zagłady" [Monograph, chpt. 3: Treblinka II Death Camp] (PDF), Dam im imię na wieki [I will give them an everlasting name. Isaiah 56:5] (in Polish), Drohiczyńskie Towarzystwo Naukowe [The Drohiczyn Scientific Society], ISBN 978-83-7257-496-1, archived from the original (PDF file, direct download 20.2 MB) on 2014-10-10, with list of Catholic rescuers of Jews imprisoned at Treblinka, selected testimonies, bibliography, alphabetical indexes, photographs, English language summaries, and forewords by Holocaust scholars.
2. Arad, Yitzhak (1987). Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Google Books preview). Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253213053.
3. Victor Smart (2008). "Treblinka Death Camp Guard – Brought to Justice". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Retrieved 26 October 2013. Sources: Yitzhak Arad, Tom Teicholz, Wiener Library et al
4. ARC (23 September 2006). "The Treblinka Perpetrators". An overview of the German and Austrian SS and Police Staff. Aktion Reinhard Camps ARC. Retrieved 22 October 2013. Sources: Arad, Donat, Glazar, Klee, Sereny, Willenberg et al.