Josef Witiska

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Josef Witiska (born July 5, 1894 in Iglau ; † 1946 ) was an Austrian lawyer, SS-Standartenführer and government advisor at the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD).

biography

Witiska, the son of a butcher, graduated from high school in his hometown with the Abitur . In August 1914 Witiska volunteered for the Austro-Hungarian Army and from June 1915 took part in the First World War as a soldier . During the war he was employed at the end of the war on the Italian front as an aircraft observer with the rank of first lieutenant . Then he stayed in the army and was commanded to the Pfalzdorf Air Base. At the beginning of April 1920 he began his police career in Graz . In addition, he studied law and graduated in 1922 with a doctorate to Dr. jur. from. At the beginning of May 1935 Witiska was appointed to the Police Council and soon afterwards to the Government Council.

After Austria was annexed to the German Reich , Witiska was transferred to the Gestapo in Graz. Witiska became a member of the NSDAP in May 1938 ( membership number 6.289.103). Witiska was later accepted into the SS (membership number 422.296). In September 1942 Witiska was promoted to Sturmbannführer and in November 1942 to Obersturmbannführer. In January 1945 Witiska was promoted to SS-Standartenführer.

After the outbreak of World War II , Witiska was deputy head of the Gestapo control center in Prague from June 1941 . In March 1943 Witiska moved to the Generalgouvernement as the successor to Helmut Tanzmann and was there as the last commander of the Security Police and SD (KdS) "Galicia". In his sphere of influence, Witiska also coordinated the shootings of Jews.

From September 10, 1944 Witiska was deployed as head of Einsatzgruppe H in Slovakia . In the course of the persecution of Jews that began by the Einsatzgruppen and the Hlinka Guard cooperating with them , almost 9,000 Jews from Slovakia were deported to the Auschwitz , Sachsenhausen and Theresienstadt concentration camps via assembly camps. In addition to the Jews transferred to the concentration camps, there were thousands more victims, including Jewish ones. Witiska held the post of Commander of the Security Police (BdS) in Slovakia from mid-November 1944.

After the war he was arrested and interned in the American zone of occupation. Before being extradited to Czechoslovakia , he committed suicide . The Graz Regional Court officially declared Witiska dead on November 6, 1947.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Tatjana Tönsmeyer: The Einsatzgruppe H in Slovakia . In: Joachim Hösler (Ed.): Finis mundi - End times and the ends of the world in Eastern Europe: Festschrift for Hans Lemberg on his 65th birthday , Stuttgart 1998, p. 184 f.
  2. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 682.
  3. ↑ Josef Witiska on www.dws-xip.pl
  4. ↑ Dieter Pohl: National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944. , Munich 1997, pp. 254, 270 f.
  5. ^ Tatjana Tönsmeyer: The Einsatzgruppe H in Slovakia . In: Joachim Hösler (Ed.): Finis mundi - End times and the ends of the world in Eastern Europe: Festschrift for Hans Lemberg on his 65th birthday , Stuttgart 1998, p. 183
  6. ↑ Dieter Pohl: National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944. , Munich 1997, pp. 388, 423
personal data
SURNAME Witiska, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer and SS leader
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Iglau
DATE OF DEATH 1946