Josef Hartinger  Josef Michael Hartinger (14 September 1893 – 1984) was a German lawyer who worked for the Bavarian State authorities in the latter years of the Weimar Republic when the Nazis came to power. Tasked with investigating some unnatural deaths at the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, Hartinger together with his medical examiner colleague, Moritz Flamm, discovered the SS policy of summary executions and faked suicides at the camp. At great risk to his own safety, Hartinger issued an indictment of the camp authorities, which was ultimately betrayed and suppressed. Josef Michael Hartinger was born on 14 September 1893 in the village of Pertolzhofen, Bavaria. He studied law at the Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich and was employed as state solicitor of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice, servicing initially the Munich I (central) district and later Munich II (the outer limits). Having come from a family with a strong military tradition, Hartinger dropped out of college in August 1914 to enlist in the 10th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment under the III Royal Bavarian Corps. After two years of training, he was sent to the Western Front as a petty officer, where he saw action on the Vosges plateau, at Verdun and Flanders in 1917, where he was awarded the Iron Cross. In September 1917 he was transferred to the 6th Bavarian Field Artillery and in February 1918 was promoted to third sergeant. After some successes in the German Spring offensive of 1918, the Bavarian 6th Field Artillery crossed the Somme and were charged with weakening the British defenses around Villers-Bretonneux. The regiment was decimated, however, under a 4-hour barrage from the British guns. Hartinger was awarded the Military Merit Cross (Bavaria) and subsequently promoted to Lieutenant, committing to three more years of military service. After the armistice in November 1918, the Royal Bavarian Corps were disbanded and absorbed into the Reichswehr. After the armistice in November 1918, Hartinger returned home to find Bavaria in a state of political chaos. As with many war veterans from a middle-class background, he joined with the Freikorps in opposition to the Munich Soviet Republic but in early 1919, he left the militia, resigned his commission at the Reichswehr (foregoing a guaranteed monthly payment) and re-enrolled as student in the law department of Ludwig Maximilian University. Despite living in poverty for most of his time in University, Hartinger excelled in his studies and qualified in June 1924.