Adolf Sinzinger

Adolf Sinzinger (born January 29, 1891 in Suben ; † June 15, 1974 in Wels ) was an Austrian military officer and Lieutenant General in the German Wehrmacht during World War II .

Life

Sinzinger was born in 1891 as the son of a superintendent of the Suben prison. He embarked on a career in the military and became a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Tyrolean Jäger Regiment "Kaiserjäger" . After the First World War he was in the Austrian army. He joined the NSDAP for the first time in 1925 and rejoined the NSDAP in 1932 after leaving the same year. He was a member of the illegal SA Brigade 6. In the July coup of 1934, he took an active role. According to his own statements, in 1936 he co-founded the National Socialist Soldiers' Ring , the illegal association of National Socialist officers in the Austrian Armed Forces, and from 1937 Gauleiter of the western and northern divisions in Austria.

After the Anschluss in 1938, Sinzinger was accepted as a colonel in the German Wehrmacht. He was also a member of the Muff Commission, which decided whether officers from the Federal Army should be accepted into the Wehrmacht. In January and February 1942, Sinzinger was able to defend the Russian city of Welisch against a major attack by the Soviet Army as combat commander and was awarded the Knight's Cross in February 1942. From February 12 to November 2, 1942 he was commander of the 83rd Infantry Division . In 1943, probably as a personal thank you from Hitler for his staunch commitment to the party before 1938, he was awarded the NSDAP's Golden Party Badge .

On March 15, 1944, he became City Commandant of Vienna, in this capacity he obeyed the telegraphed orders of the Stauffenberg conspirators on July 20, 1944 and had the top party officials arrested. After the failure of the coup, he was deposed as city commander on July 29, 1944 and taken into custody, most recently in fortress custody in northern Germany, from which he was released by the US armed forces at the end of the war.

Sinzinger was placed on the 4th list of war criminals by the Commission for the Preparation of Serious War Crimes Trials in 1946; It is unclear whether he was actually convicted or even charged. He is said to have lived in Merano after World War II . Sinzinger died on June 15, 1974 in Wels and was buried there.

Prevention of a mass shooting in Welisch in 1942

In January 1942 Sinzinger was in command of the 257 Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division and combat commander in Welisch . The city was almost completely encircled and was facing the threat of reconquest by the Russian army. In this situation, the Sonderkommando 7a under Kurt Matschke arrived, a so-called Einsatzgruppe whose task was to liquidate Jews and partisans behind the front. Matschke asked Colonel Sinzinger for his consent to the shooting of the 200 or so Jewish townspeople interned in Welisch; he may even demand that Sinzinger's men take care of the liquidation themselves. Sinzinger firmly rejected Matschke's plan and was not deterred by the threat that he was currently refusing an order from the Fiihrer and would have to face the consequences. When Matschke's superior Erich Naumann arrived in Welisch a little later , he took note of Sinzinger's refusal and had Sonderkommando 7a withdrawn. Sinzinger is said to have directed the Jews in the direction of the Soviet front line and thus protected them from being attacked by German murder squads. Welisch remained under German control until 1943.

literature

• Marcel Stein: Austria's Generals in the German Army 1938–1945. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2002, ISBN 3-7648-2358-5 , pp. 293-297.
• Peter Broucek: A General in Twilight: The Memories of Edmund Glaise von Horstenau. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-205-08740-2 . (Short biography of Sinzinger: Volume 2, p. 196.)
• Kurt Bauer: Hitler's second putsch. Dollfuss, the Nazis and July 25, 1934. Residenz Verlag , Salzburg / Vienna 2014
• Helmut Langerbein: Hitler's Death Squads: The Logic of Mass Murder. Texas A&M University Press, College Station 2003, ISBN 1-58544-285-2 , p. 89.
• Manfred Schachinger: The sunken Lower Hofmark of the former Suben monastery on the Inn. Eduard Wiesner Verlag, Wernstein 2006, ISBN 3-900663-30-0 , p. 139.
• Erich Zanzinger: Heimatbuch der Gemeinde Suben - a place through the ages. Suben 1987, DNB 930293223 , p. 41.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Duplicate of the 1891 baptismal register. Accessed February 6, 2018.
2. ↑ See Kurt Bauer: Hitler's Second Putsch. Dollfuss, the Nazis and July 25, 1934. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg / Vienna 2014.
3. ↑ See in particular: Marcel Stein: Österreichs Generale im Deutschen Heer 1938–1945. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2002.
4. ↑ New bearers of the Knight's Cross. In: Wiener Kronen-Zeitung. April 16, 1942, p. 2. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
5. ^ On the course of the attempted putsch in Vienna: Ludwig Jedlicka: July 20, 1944 in Austria. 2nd Edition. Herold, Vienna 1966.
6. ↑ 4. List of war criminals. In: Wiener Zeitung. June 5, 1946, p. 1, Retrieved February 6, 2018.
7. ↑ However, an e-mail request to the registration office of the city of Merano in January 2018 revealed that there is no entry for Sinzinger in the registration data.
8. ↑ Place of death Wels confirmed by e-mail request to the Wels magistrate in January 2018.
9. ^ Funeral announcement in the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten of June 18, 1974, p. 14.
10. ↑ According to testimony from Sinzinger and his Major Giehl in a war crimes trial against Kurt Matschke in 1966 at the Essen Regional Court , see: Christiaan F. Rüter / Dick W. de Mildt (eds.): Justiz und NS-Verbrechen , Volume XXIII, pp. 149f. (Serial No. 620); also lectured in Helmut Langerbein: Hitler's Death Squads. The Logic of Mass Murder. 2003, p. 89.
11. ↑ From a letter from Albert Hellrung from Schwelm , amateur researcher dated July 20, 1944, to the archives of the City of Vienna of November 4, 1982: “An informant recently sent me information from the time when Gen. Sinzinger (Colonel and Kdr. Des IR 257) Kdr. Of a combat group in Velish, east (sic) Vitebsk (USSR) and on behalf of SS-Hauptsturmführer Matschke, Jewish residents in the city of Velish (on January 28/29, 1942) should have liquidated by members of his regiment and has rejected this order and opposed such an imposition on himself and his soldiers (sic). [Paragraph] The Sinzinger Regiment was enclosed by Soviet troops on January 30, 1942, and Gen. Sinzinger ordered his soldiers to expel all Jewish citizens of the city of Welish in the direction of the Soviet front line. "