He could have requested reassignment. One of the most oft-repeated misrepresentations of the Holocaust and the inner workings of the Third Reich is that the men committing the bloody work were forced to do it, lest they be sent to the firing squad or gas chambers themselves. Little could be further from the truth. Death camp duty was purely voluntary and refusing to work at a Death Camp as a member of SS-Totenkopfverbände, while certainly looked down upon, did not meet with lethal consequences, as it was a rather taxing and stressful job because of the monstrous task laid out before its members. Many soldiers could not handle it, either finding the work of industrial mass murder extremely unpleasant or morally reprehensible. The SS-Totenkopfverbände wanted absolutely dedicated men and women voluntarily working for them, and soldiers who refused were typically reassigned without much incident in
at least 135 documented cases. However, compared to fighting the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, murdering unarmed Jews, Gypsies and Slavs in a Death Camp was a downright cushy experience.
In short, he could have refused and simply been reassigned as many other Germans had and he most likely would have been reassigned to other work outside of the death camps.
