Wilhelm Zorichta
May 31, 1920 – Unknown
![]()
Wilhelm Zorichta, 1942 (Yad Vashem, Jerusalem)
From Orphanage to Concentration Camp
Wilhelm Zorichta came from Hindenburg in Upper Silesia. Like his siblings, he spent his youth in orphanages. His parents were both deaf and lived in a poorhouse. Because he frequently left the orphanage without permission, the police transferred Zorichta to the concentration camp for youth in Moringen in 1941. Boys who were considered uneducable and “aliens to the community” were interned at the Moringen camp.
Doctors and psychologists conducted mass “criminal biological” examinations of the young prisoners. Under the leadership of Dr. Robert Ritter, the Nazis sought to create a comprehensive “archive of asocials and criminals.” According to Dr. Ritter’s evaluation, Wilhelm Zorichta was classified as “degenerate to a high degree” and “hereditarily tainted.” By this time, Zorichta was too old for the youth concentration camp. The Reich Security Main Office ordered his transfer to a facility in Upper Bavaria. Zorichta broke the strict facility regulations by twice leaving the grounds without permission.
![]()
Memorandum by Dr. Robert Ritter, August 18, 1943 (Herzogsägmühler Heime, Diakonie in Oberbayern)
On the basis of the evaluation performed at the Moringen youth concentration camp, Ritter issued a “recommendation” that Zorichta continue to remain in institutional custody. In the last sentence, Ritter refers to the possibility of “parole” to a workhouse. However, Zorichta was instead transferred to the Dachau concentration camp.
In early 1944, Wilhelm Zorichta was transferred to Dachau via the Kaufbeuren police jail. He was registered as an “asocial” and received a black triangle. On September 3, 1944, he arrived at the Flossenbürg Rabstein subcamp. Whether Wilhelm Zorichta survived his internment at Rabstein is unknown.
![]()
Letter from Friederike Wieking, head of the Reich Main Office for Combating Youth Criminality, to the Herzogsägmühle Home, April 14, 1944 (Herzogsägmühler Heime, Diakonie in Oberbayern)
This letter authorized the transfer of Wilhelm Zorichta to a concentration camp.
