Albert Battel

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Albert Battel (born January 21, 1891 in Klein Pramsen ( district Neustadt OS ); † March 17, 1952 in Hattersheim am Main ) was a German lawyer, first lieutenant of the Wehrmacht and Righteous Among the Nations .

Career

Albert Battel grew up in a Catholic family, attended grammar school in Breslau, where he also passed the school leaving examination. He was a soldier in the First World War . He studied economics and law in Munich and Breslau, received his doctorate and worked as a lawyer and notary in his hometown from 1925.

Battel joined the NSDAP in 1933 and took on functions in the National Socialist Legal Guardian Association . In the same year Battel also helped his Jewish brother-in-law to flee to Switzerland. In 1936 party proceedings were brought against him because he had expressed pity for the plight of a Jew. According to credible statements, he protected Jewish colleagues and politically persecuted people; he is even said to have released clients from the concentration camp.

The Przemyśl Jewish Rescue

As a 51-year-old reservist and lawyer from Wroclaw , Battel was stationed in Przemyśl in southern Poland in 1942 as an adjutant to the local military commander, Major Max Liedtke . After the SS surrounded the ghetto on July 26, 1942 in order to prepare the first large-scale "evacuation" ( deportation ) of the Jews from Przemyśl , some ghetto inmates fled at night. They asked Battel to protect themselves and their loved ones. Battel was able to convince his superior Liedtke to put at least the Jews who worked for the Wehrmacht under their protection.

Battel then had the only bridge over the San blocked, which was the entrance to the ghetto . When the SS-Kommando arrived around noon, Battle's men threatened them with armed violence if they did not abandon their plan. Thereupon the SS command withdrew without having achieved anything. Formally, BATTLE's actions were covered by the state of siege imposed.

Battel gave protection to 90 Jewish workers and their relatives in the courtyard of the commandant's office. In the late afternoon he sent two trucks into the ghetto and in five trips was able to get 240 people, around 100 of his “working Jews” and their families, from the ghetto to the nearby barracks. There they were kept hidden in the basement for about a week while the SS "evacuated" the ghetto and deported the inmates to the Belzec extermination camp . A total of 500 Jews survived the evacuation of the Polish city of Przemysl under the protection of the Wehrmacht.

Consequences of the act

Letter from Himmler to Bormann, October 9, 1942

Albert Battel had previously attracted attention for his respectful and humane treatment of the Jews. In Przemyśl, too, he was considered a committed friend of the Jews. When his deed became known, the SS started a secret investigation, of which Battel himself learned nothing. On Heinrich Himmler's orders , Battel was to be removed from the NSDAP and imprisoned at the end of the war. But that never happened.

Battle's intervention for the "Wehrmacht Jews" could be presented as a logistical necessity. Apparently Battel as well as Liedtke got away with minor disciplinary punishments: room arrest, withdrawal of the War Merit Cross and transfer to another location. There may be a causal connection with an order issued later by the Army High Command of October 31, 1942, which required officers to adopt an “uncompromising attitude” towards Judaism; otherwise an officer would be intolerable.

Norbert Haase points out that there was no transfer to the front or tougher sanctions. Situational possibilities that were found, group cohesion in the Wehrmacht and biographical dispositions would have led to successful rescue operations.

After the Wehrmacht

In 1944 Battel retired from the military due to a heart disease and went back to his hometown of Wroclaw. With the occupation of Germany, Battel fell into Soviet captivity. After his release he moved to West Germany . In the denazification proceedings , he was accused of benefiting from an " Aryanization " in one specific case . He is also said to have threatened the Gestapo. Other witnesses documented his advocacy for the persecuted and the loyal legal representation of Jewish business people. The contradicting information before the court led to the classification as a "fellow traveler", so that Battel was no longer allowed to practice his legal profession.

Albert Battel died of a heart attack in Hattersheim, Hesse, in 1952 .

Honor

On January 22nd, 1981, Battel was immortalized as Righteous Among the Nations in the Israeli Yad Vashem Memorial . His superior, Max Liedtke , was also honored in 1994 for rescuing the Jews of Przemyśl in Yad Vashem.

Others

Albert Batte's act was reconstructed in the third part of the BBC documentary Auschwitz .

literature

  • Norbert Haase: First Lieutenant Dr. Albert Battel and Major Max Liedtke - Confrontation with the SS in Przemyśl, Poland in July 1942. In: Wolfram Wette (Ed.): Retter in Uniform. Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-596-15221-6 , pp. 181-208.
  • Seev Goshen: Albert Battels Resistance to the Extermination of the Jews in Przemyśl. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (VfZ) 33, issue 3, 1985, pp. 478–488 ( online , PDF, 7.6 MB)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death register of the registry office Hattersheim / Main No. 7/1952.
  2. ↑ Norbert Haase: First Lieutenant Dr. Albert Battel ..., p. 194
  3. ↑ Norbert Haase: First Lieutenant Dr. Albert Battel ... , p. 199
  4. ↑ Norbert Haase: First Lieutenant Dr. Albert Battel ..., pp. 194/195

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Battel, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, first lieutenant of the German armed forces and Righteous Among the Nations
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Klein Pramsen
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1952
Place of death Hattersheim am Main