In the autumn of 1941, Krebsbach became Standortarzt of Mauthausen concentration camp, tasked with supervising medical care and all medical personnel of the camp. He was responsible for initiating mass killing by lethal injection to the heart on handicapped and sick prisoners. Under his supervision approximately 900 Russian, Polish and Czech prisoners were murdered by lethal injections of gasoline. Because of this inmates nicknamed him 'Dr Spritzbach'. Krebsbach was also responsible for the construction of a gas chamber in the basement of the hospital in the Mauthausen camp. Krebsbach often inspected the prisoners and conducted selections for execution. A former inmate recalled Krebsbach's actions during such an inspection: "As the senior SS doctor in the camp, Dr Krebsbach sometimes came to block 5 and had the still surviving Jews paraded before him. He then asked if any of them were doctors. If there were, he would say: 'You Jewish pig, you’re just an abortionist.' The next day they were done away with by the kapos. If a Jewish inmate was lying on the floor with a broken limb - a not uncommon occurrence at work - he was usually thrown over a wall by a kapo. If Dr Krebsbach were passing, he would say ironically: 'Yes, this broken foot is a hopeless case.'" Josef Herzler, former Mauthausen inmate. Krebsbach was transferred to the Kaiserwald concentration camp in Latvia during the autumn of 1943, as it is believed he shot Josef Breitenfellner in his home. Breitenfellner was a German soldier from Langenstein on vacation when he and his friends awoke Krebsbach from his sleep on 22 May 1943. Here he conducted selections by forcing the prisoners to perform physical exercises to check their strength and then identifying the two thousand weakest to be killed. Following the camp's closure, Krebsbach resumed a career as “Epidemic Inspector for Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania”. Soon after he transferred to the regular army as a senior staff doctor, serving until late 1944. However this was short lived and at the end of 1944 he left the army and worked once again as a company doctor in a spinning mill in Kassel.
Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007,.
Hans Marsalek: Geschichte des Konzentrationslagers Mauthausen. Österreichische Lagergemeinschaft Mauthausen, Wien, 1980.
Review and Recommendations of the Deputy Judge Advocate for War Crimes: United States of America vs. Hans Altfuldisch et al. - Case No. 000.50.5 , 30. April 1947, in English.
