Hitler's Bandit Hunters (65 page)

Schutztruppen:
German colonial troops raised in the colonies from the indigenous population.

Sicherheitsdienst (SD):
SS intelligence service.

Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo):
security police part of the SS.

Sicherungs:
Security.

Sicherungsdivision (SichD):
Security Division.

Sicherungsregiment (SichR):
Security Regiment.

Sonderkommando:
special command.

SS-Totenkopfverbände:
Death’s Formations.

Volksdeutsche:
ethnic or racial Germans.

Wach-Bataillon (WB):
watch battalion or guard battalion.

Wasserschutzpolizei (WSP):
the Prussian river and coastal police force.

Wehrmacht:
armed forces.

Wehrmachtführungsstab:
Armed Forces Operations Staff.

Weissruthenien:
White Ruthenia, Byelorussia, and Belorussia; western Russia.

z.b.V.:
“zur besonderen Verwendung,” usually attached to unit names to designate assignment to “special purposes.”

These are only the main ranks. There were many others that would make this table impractical.

1. All SS ranks began with the initials SS (SS-Obergruppenfuhrer).

2. All police general ranks concluded with “der Polizei” (Generalleutnant der Polizei).

This is not an exhaustive list of all the men studied during this research, but a representative hall of shame.

Bach-Zelewski, Erich von dem
(SS-Obergruppenführer): Born March 1, 1899, in Lauenberg (Lebork). HSSPF Russia-Centre (1941–44), Ch.BKV (1943–45). Died in prison in 1972, while serving a life sentence.

Bader, Kurt
(Generalmajor der Ordnungspolizei und SS-Brigadeführer): Born February 26, 1899, studied law at Freiburg University. Served in the Great War as a Leutnant, took his doctorate in 1929. Expert in police law and regulation, joined the police in 1929, the Nazi Party in May 1932, and the SS in April 1933. Member of the Hauptamt Orpo administering codes of conduct of the police.
¹

Becker, Herbert:
born May 13, 1887, in Torgau; served in the Great War as a Leutnant; and in 1919 he became a police captain in Marienwerder. He remained a senior police officer until captured by the U.S. Army in 1945.

Berger, Gottlob
(SS-Obergruppenführer): born 1876. One of Himmler’s favorites. Member of the main office of the SS; responsible for manpower and recruitment. Received a twenty-five-year sentence following the Ministries Trial No. 12.

Bomhard, Adolf von
(Generalleutnant der Ordnungspolizei und SS-Brigadeführer): Epp’s former regimental adjutant and Daluege’s deputy. Be-

came inspector of training schools and downplayed his participation in Nazi crimes and was released as unimportant to the war crimes process. In the 1950s, he defied all attempts by the Federal Republic of Germany to denazify the Federal police.
²

Daluege, Kurt Max Moritz
(SS-Oberstgruppenführer): born in Kreuzburg in Upper Silesia, September 15, 1897. Chef der Ordnungspolizei (1936–43). His nickname was “Dummi-Dummi.” Executed in Prague in 1946.

Dirlewanger, Oskar Dr.
(SS-Oberführer): born 1895. Commanding officer of Special Battalion Dirlewanger (1942–44). Killed while in captivity 1945.

Epp, Franz Ritter von:
born in Munich, October 16, 1868. Former soldier and later the Nazi state leader of the Colonial Political office; represented the party in the Reichstag and governor of Bavaria. Died in U.S. captivity December 31, 1945.

Fegelein, Hermann
(SS-Gruppenführer): born 1906. Commander of SS cavalry division Florian Geyr and from 1943 Himmler’s adjutant to Hitler. Hitler ordered his summary execution for cowardice in April 1945.

Frank, Karl Hermann
(SS-Gruppenführer): born 1898. Protector of Bohemia-Moravia from 1943. Executed in Prague in May 1946.

Gempp, Friedrich
(Generalmajor): born in Freiburg/Br in July 1873. He joined the army in 1893 and became a Leutnant in 1895. He served throughout the period 1893 to 1943. For the majority of that time, he was with the German army intelligence service under Oberst Nicolai and later Admiral Canaris. Missing since 1946.

Globocnik, Odilo
(SS-Gruppenführer): born in Trieste in 1900. Responsible for
Aktion Reinhard
the systematic murder of the Jews in Poland. Committed suicide in May 1945. His nickname was “Globus.”

Gottberg, Curt von
(SS-Obergruppenführer): Gottberg became Bach-Zelewski’s substitute as HSSPF Russia-Centre in the latter half of 1942 and also replaced Wilhelm Kube as Reichskommissariat in 1943. Committed suicide in May 1945.

Hannibal, Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm
(Oberst der Schutzpolizei and SS-Standartenführer): born November 19, 1889, Protestant, served through-

out the Great War. Joined the Hamburg Schutzpolizei on July 16, 1920, and the Nazi Party on February 1, 1932. Initially in the SA, on May 1, 1939, he became an SS-Sturmbannführer. Formed Kampfgruppe Hannibal, subject to one of Hitler’s last recorded military conferences. Surrendered in Königsberg in February 1945.

Jeckeln, Friedrich
(SS-Obergruppenführer): born in 1895; became a professional soldier. Early member of the SS and Nazi Party, the HSSPF Russia-North. He was hanged in Riga in 1946.

Jedicke, Georg Bruno
(Generalleutnant der Ordnungspolizei and SS-Gruppenführer): born March 26, 1887, in Dresden. Regarded as seventh in line from Daluege. In 1940, he became Befehlshaber der Ordnungspolizei (BdO) Saarland, Elsaβ, and Lothringen and BdO Ostland, 1941–44.

Jüttner, Hans
(SS-Obergruppenführer): born 2 March 1894 in East Prussia, the son of a schoolteacher. Chief of staff of the Waffen-SS (1940–45). Himmler’s deputy in the Reserve Army after July 20, 1944. Died in the 1970s.

Kaltenbrunner, Dr. Ernst
(SS-Obergruppenführer): born in 1903, in Austria. Joined the Austrian SS in 1931. In 1943, he was promoted to take Heydrich’s position at the RSHA. He brought Skorzeny to the SD in June 1943. He was regarded as the significant SS representative at Nuremberg, found guilty of war crimes in 1946, and executed.

Korn, Ernst
(Oberstleutnant der Schutzpolizei): born June 11, 1899. Served in the army in the 8th Jäger Battalion (1917–18) as a lieutenant. Served with 213th Security Division and then as battalion commander of the 1st Police Rifle Regiment. During the Nuremberg Tribunals, he was the only witness to testify against Bach-Zelewski in the courtroom.

Krüger, Friedrich-Wilhelm
(SS-Obergruppenführer): born May 8, 1894, in Alsace. A professional soldier (1913); served in the Freikorps and joined the Nazi Party in 1925. Became HSSPF Ost and controlled the police and security in the General Government. Committed suicide in May 1945.

Lammerding, Heinz
(SS-Brigadeführer): born in Dortmund August 27, 1905, and qualified as building engineer from the Munich Technical University. He was a highly regarded protégé of Theodor Eicke and rose through the rank of the SS officer corps. Died in Germany in 1970.

Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul von
(General of Infantry): The “Lion of East Africa” was born in 1870. He served under von Trotha in China and Namibia. Took command of the German East African Schutztruppen in 1914. Participated
in the Freikorps attempted coup, Kapp putsch; critical of the Nazis but not a major opponent. Died in Hamburg in 1962.

Lombard, Gustav
(SS-Brigadeführer): born April 10, 1895, and joined the SS May 1, 1933, and the Nazi Party April 1, 1933. March 1941 to December 28, 1943, was with the 1st SS-Cavalry Regiment. On January 15, 1944, became commander of Stossgruppe v.d.Bach.

Lurker, Otto
(SS-Standartenführer): born July 28, 1896, in Griesheim. A businessman with two semesters at commercial school. He joined the SS on April 1, 1929. Rösener’s chief of intelligence 1941–44?. He had the notoriety of being Hitler’s prison warder at Landsberg.

Pannier, Rudolf
(SS-Standartenführer): born July 10, 1897, in Gera, protestant, businessman by profession. Served 1917–18, served in a Reserve Battalion on the Eastern Front. Was in the Freikorps 1919–20. Between May 1943 and April 1944 he was the supply officer for the HSSPF Russia-Centre.

Pannwitz, Helmut von
(general of cavalry): commander of all Cossack forces under German command; an acquaintance of Bach-Zelewski and a senior participant in the Buchrucker putsch of 1923. Hanged in Moscow in January 1947.

Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, Karl von
(SS-Obergruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei): “top soldier” of the Order Police. Joined the army in 1907 as an artillery officer, served on the Eastern Front, in the military mission to Baghdad in 1917, and on the Western Front. In 1919, joined the Prussian Schutzpolizei, served in staff positions, became member of the Nazi Party in 1932, assigned to Chile during the Chaco War and became inspector of police training schools. In 1938, he joined the SS and took command of the SS Polizei Division in 1939. Became inspector of the colonial police and served as an SS corps commander. Died in retirement in 1965.

Phleps, Artur
(SS-Obergruppenführer): born in Siebenbürgen, Rumania, in 1881. A career soldier from 1896, first with the Austrian army, then as a general of the Rumanian army, and finally with the Waffen, from 1941. Killed while serving as SS V Mountain Corps commander in 1944.

Prützmann, Hans-Adolf
(SS-Obergruppenführer): Joined the SS and Nazi Party in 1930. Became HSSPF Russia-South, later the leader of the Wehrwolves. Committed suicide in British captivity in May 1945.

Reinefarth, Heinz
(SS-Gruppenführer): born 1903 in Cottbus, a Protestant
later turned believer (
gottgläubig
). Studied law in Jena and, in 1932, joined the SS and the Nazi Party. He was a member of the German Police Comrades Association (
Kameradschaftsbundes Deutscher Polizeibeamten
) where he came into contact with Kurt Daluege, for whom he conducted legal work. Served with the army in Poland and France; he received the Knight’s Cross. In January 1942, he joined Himmler’s staff, rising to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Polizei. In February 1944, he became the HSSPF Warthegau, an area of Poland. After the war, he was elected town mayor in Schleswig-Holstein and died in 1979.
³

Rode, Ernst
(Generalmajor der Ordnungspolizei und SS-Brigadeführer): born in 1894, in Silesia. A Protestant, Freikorps (1919), Schutzpolizei (1920), Nazi Party (May 1930), and the SS. Chief of staff to both the KSRFSS and Ch. BKV.

Rösener, Erwin
(SS-Gruppenführer): born 1902, joined the Nazi Party in 1926 and the SS in 1929. Served in the Aachen SA until 1929, became the president of Aachen police and HSSPF Alpenland (1941). Executed in Yugoslavia in 1946.

Schenckendorff, Heinrich Moritz Albert von
(general of infantry): born in 1875. By 1914, a battalion commander; commander of the 29th Infantry Regiment (1918), 13th Border Defence Guard (1939), and general of infantry (1940). Became commander of the rear-area command of Army Group Centre on the May 15, 1941. Died in service of a heart attack in July 1943.
⁴

Skorzeny, Otto
(SS-Obersturmbannführer): born in 1908, Catholic, in Austria. He joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and the SS in 1934. He escaped from Nuremberg, and justice, in 1946, and remained in exile for the rest of his life and died in 1975.

Sporrenberg, Jakob
(SS-Gruppenführer): SS officer. Born in Düsseldorf, in 1902. In 1923, under the French occupation authorities, he was given two years’ imprisonment for illegal activities associated with the Nazi Party in the Ruhr. He served in Russia from August 1941 as SSPF Minsk under Bach-Zelewski. Joined the 2nd SS-Police Police Regiment in 1943 to gain Bandenbekämpfung experience. In August 1943, Sporrenberg became SS and Police Leader in the Lublin district. Responsible for the implementation of Aktion Erntefest, the killing of 42,000 Jews. Captured by the British and subsequently executed by the Polish government in 1952.

Strauch, Eduard
(SS-Obersturmbannführer): born in Essen in August 1906, he joined the SS in 1931. Was a lawyer by profession and became one of Heydrich’s senior SD officers. In February 1942, he was the commander of the SIPO and SD in Russia-Centre. In July 1943, he was assigned to Ch.BKV as intelligence officer (Ic). Diagnosed insane in 1947.