Aribert Ferdinand Heim (28 June 1914 in Bad Radkersburg, Austria-Hungary – 10 August 1992 in Cairo, Egypt) was an Austrian SS doctor, also known as "Dr. Death" and the "Butcher of Mauthausen". During World War II he served at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Mauthausen, killing and torturing inmates by various methods, such as direct injections of toxic compounds into the hearts of his victims. He wanted to discover the cheapest and quickest methods of killing people. Heim also took the skull of one victim to use as a souvenir.
On March 15, 1945 Heim was captured by US soldiers and sent to a camp for prisoners of war. He was released and worked as a gynecologist at Baden-Baden until his disappearance in 1962; he had telephoned his home and was told that the police were waiting for him. Having been questioned on previous occasions, he surmised the reason (an international warrant for his arrest had been in place since that date) and went into hiding. According to his son Rüdiger Heim, he drove through France and Spain onward to Morocco, moving finally to Egypt via Libya.
One of the most-wanted Nazis (the German government offered €150,000 for information leading to his arrest), Heim lived for many years in Cairo, Egypt, under the alias of Tarek Farid Hussein, and died there on 10 August 1992 according to testimony by his son and lawyer. This information, though set forth by a German court, has been challenged. In 2009, a BBC documentary stated that German police had found no evidence of Heim's death on their recent visit to Cairo; nevertheless, three years later, a court in Baden-Baden confirmed again that Heim had died in 1992, based on new evidence provided by his family and lawyer.
A tall and imposing individual (he stood 6'3" tall), Heim was also an elite hockey player prior to World War II. He played club hockey for EK Engelmann Wien during the late 1930s and won the 1939 German Championship with the club.[1] Heim also played in numerous international matches with Engelmann. He was later a member of VfL Bad Nauheim in 1947-48.[2]
Investigators researching Heim's crimes noted that he declined to be included in any team pictures, excusing himself from the group portraits, even when Engelmann won the championship in 1939.[3] Heim has been rightfully dubbed the most evil hockey player in the history of the sport by many people.[4][5]
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