Josef Werfel (April 6, 1910 - September 3, 1967) was a Waffen-SS Unterscharführer (Sergeant) and medic who served in the 15th Einsatzkommando Brigade and participated in the Perekhody Village Massacre.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Josef Eckhardt was born on April 6, 1910, in Graz, Austria, into a working-class family. His father, Franz Eckhardt, was a veteran of World War I, having served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Josef grew up in a period of economic hardship, and despite limited resources, he pursued studies in basic medicine and field surgery.
Eckhardt initially worked as a paramedic in Vienna, before enlisting in the Austrian Federal Army in 1935. Following the Anschluss in 1938, he joined the Wehrmacht medical corps, but by 1940, he had been transferred into the SS, where he served in various medical battalions before being reassigned to Einsatzkommando 15 in Byelorussia.
Military Career[]
Though technically a medic, Eckhardt was not exempt from participation in war crimes. As a member of an Einsatzkommando, he was expected to support SS anti-partisan efforts, including the execution of civilians.
His primary duty was assessing wounded prisoners—specifically, determining if a captured partisan could be kept alive for further interrogation and torture. He also helped with aiding many of his compatriots with their injuries but was known to loot them of valuables as well if they were to die.
Perekhody Massacre (1943)[]
During the Perekhody Massacre, Eckhardt was ordered to examine injured partisans and villagers. When Dirlewanger bandits asked if one badly wounded partisan near the church could survive "long enough for entertainment", Eckhardt gave his clinical, indifferent assessment:
"He’ll last a few hours if you keep him awake. Give him water."
Afterward, he continued eating his bread rations while Dirlewanger’s men disemboweled the man, using their bayonets to extract confessions before leaving him to die.
Unlike many SS men, Eckhardt did not take overt pleasure in sadism—but he did not object to it either. He saw himself as a medical professional fulfilling a duty, and his participation in atrocities was framed as "pragmatic" rather than ideological.
Escape and Postwar Life[]
As the Eastern Front collapsed in mid-1944, Eckhardt managed to flee westward, avoiding Soviet capture. Unlike many of his comrades, he surrendered to American forces in Austria, posing as a Wehrmacht medic rather than an SS officer. He was briefly interned but released in 1947, due to a lack of direct evidence tying him to war crimes.
In 1948, with the help of ODESSA (a secret network assisting SS officers in escaping Europe), Eckhardt fled to Argentina before settling in Paraguay under the alias Johann Ebner.
In Paraguay, he lived a quiet, obscure life, working as a rural doctor in a small village near Asunción. He avoided Nazi exile circles, preferring to distance himself from his past.
Demise[]
On September 3, 1967, Eckhardt died of a heart attack at the age of 57, collapsing in his home. His body was buried in an unmarked grave, and no one in Paraguay knew of his past.