Eugen Kogon (2 February 1903 – 24 December 1987) was a German historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor. A well-known Christian opponent of the Nazi Party, Kogon was arrested more than once and spent six years at Buchenwald concentration camp. Known in Germany as a journalist, sociologist, political scientist, author, and politician, he went on to be considered one of the "intellectual fathers" of both West Germany and European integration. His 1946 book The Theory and Practice of Hell - The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them still stands as a basic reference on Nazi crimes (translated 1950).
Contents
Early years
Eugen Kogon was born in Munich, the son of an unmarried Russian-Jewish mother from Mykolaiv (a city then part of the Russian Empire, now in Ukraine). When he was 2 years old, she died and he was given foster parents and later attended a Catholic boarding school. He spent the larger portion of his youth in Catholic monasteries. After studying economics and sociology at the universities in Munich, Florence, and Vienna, Kogon received his doctorate in 1927 in Vienna with a dissertation on the Faschismus und Korporativstaat ("Corporate State and Fascism"). That same year, Kogon got a job as editor of the Catholic magazine Schönere Zukunft ("Brighter Future") and stayed there till 1937. Through his work, he made the acquaintance of sociologist Othmar Spann, who recommended him for the Zentralkommission der christlichen Gewerkschaften ("Central Committee of Christian Unions"). Kogon was an advisor there several years later. In 1934, after the July Putsch, Kogon took over the asset management of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Koháry for Prince Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg.