Benno Martin

Benno Franz Theodor Martin (born February 12, 1893 in Kaiserslautern , † July 2, 1975 in Munich ) was a German lawyer, police officer ( Bavarian Political Police , Secret State Police ) and SS leader, most recently with the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen SS and police . At the time of National Socialism he was Police President in Nuremberg - Fürth and Higher SS and Police Leader Main.

Life

Origin and First World War

Benno Martin was born the son of a senior government councilor . After graduating from high school in his hometown, he first studied forestry for one year from 1911 and then began studying law . He took part in the First World War as a volunteer with the Royal Bavarian 10th Field Artillery Regiment , most recently with the rank of lieutenant . In 1914 he was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class. In 1918 he received the wound badge in black.

After the end of the war he resumed his law studies and was a member of the Epp Freikorps in 1919 , before joining the Bavarian State Police in 1920 . During his studies he joined the Corps Rheno-Palatia Munich . In 1920 he passed the trainee examination and in 1922 the assessor examination. Then his doctorate in 1923 he at the University of Erlangen for Dr. jur. In May 1923 he was accepted into the Bavarian civil service as a senior administrative lawyer: he was initially employed as a government assessor for the government in Ansbach, before moving to the newly created police headquarters in Nuremberg-Fürth in October 1923. At the same time he was promoted to the government council. There he worked in various departments before finally taking over the management of the administrative and theater department.

time of the nationalsocialism

At the beginning of May 1933 he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 2,714,474). Martin had already been appointed acting police president of Nuremberg-Fürth in March 1933 . In September 1933 he became deputy police chief of Nuremberg-Fürth and in early October 1934 regular police chief there. After he had already headed the political police in Nuremberg , he took over the management of the state police station in Nuremberg in November 1937. His deputy was Georg Kiessel , who managed the Stapo office.

In April 1934 Martin was accepted into the SS with the rank of SS-Untersturmführer (membership number 187.117), where he was quickly promoted. When the SS Upper Section Main was organizationally separated from the Upper Section South on May 1, 1941 and made independent, Martin took over its management. His promotion to major general of the police took place on January 30, 1942. On December 17, 1942 he was finally appointed Higher SS and Police Leader Main. Further promotions were made on April 20, 1942 to SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Police and on July 1, 1944 to General of the Waffen-SS and Police and on August 1, 1944 to SS-Obergruppenführer . In this function he took part in the group leader conference in Poznan on October 4, 1943, at which Heinrich Himmler gave the first speech in Poznan . Heinrich Himmler awarded him the SS sword of honor and the SS skull ring.

In his function as police chief of Nuremberg-Fürth, Martin was jointly responsible for their fate by organizing and carrying out the deportation of the Franconian Jews to the extermination camps .

→ Main article : Deportation of Jews from Nuremberg

At the beginning of October 1944, he was also the Higher Commander of POWs in military district XIII. Before the battle for Nuremberg , Martin left Nuremberg on April 15, 1945.

post war period

At the end of the war , Martin was arrested by the Allies and remained in Allied internment until August 1948. After that, he was of German authorities in remand taken. He was then tried several times in German courts. On November 14, 1949 and July 1, 1953, Martin was acquitted twice by the Nuremberg-Fürth regional court : the subject of the first case was the mistreatment of two German prisoners in the Nuremberg police prison in 1934 and 1936 and the continued mistreatment of Russian prisoners in the Langenzenn prison for foreigners between 1943 and 1944. Some of the Russian prisoners had died. The second case concerned Martin's involvement in four of seven transports of Jews from Franconia to Riga , Lublin and Theresienstadt between November 1941 and September 1942. Martin lived in Munich in the early 1960s.

Others

Benno Martin was a member of the Rotary Club in Nuremberg.

Fonts

• Legal handbook for the police sergeant . Verlag "Open Words", 1926 (several editions)

literature

• Utho Grieser: Himmler's husband in Nuremberg. The Benno Martin case. A study on the structure of the 3rd Reich in the "City of the Nazi Party Rallies". (= Nuremberg work pieces on city and state history. Volume 13) Nuremberg city archive, Nuremberg 1974, ISBN 3-87432-025-1 .
• Ruth Bettina Birn : The Higher SS and Police Leaders. Himmler's representative in the Reich and the occupied territories. Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-0710-7 .
• Friedrich Wilhelm: The police in the Nazi state , Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-506-77503-0 .
• Ernst Klee : “Benno Martin” entry in ders .: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Updated edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .
• Regional Court of Nuremberg-Fürth, May 10, 1949 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicides 1945–1966, Vol. IV, edited by Adelheid L Rüter-Ehlermann, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1970, No. 140, pp. 523–616 Trial of seven defendants for participating in the deportation of Jews from Franconia to Riga, Lublin, Theresienstadt and Auschwitz in 7 'partial actions'
• Regional Court Nuremberg-Fürth, November 14, 1949 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, Vol. V, edited by Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1970, No. 179, pp. 561–567. Abuse of two German prisoners in the Nuremberg police prison (1934 and 1936) and continued abuse - sometimes resulting in death - of Russian prisoners in the 'foreigners' prison' Langenzenn (1943/1944 )
• Regional Court of Nuremberg-Fürth, June 2, 1951 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal convictions for Nazi homicides 1945–1966, Vol. VIII, edited by Adelheid L. Rüter-Ehlermann, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1972, No. 283, pp. 461–514 Administrative preparation and implementation of the deportation of Jews from Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia to Riga, Trawniki, Izbica, Theresienstadt and Auschwitz in 7 'partial actions'. Blackmailing a Jewish businessman and his non-Jewish wife into selling a company and several properties

Web links

• Literature by and about Benno Martin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Joachim Lilla : Martin, Benno , in: ders .: Minister of State, senior administrative officials and (NS) officials in Bavaria from 1918 to 1945 , URL: < http://verwaltungshandbuch.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de/martin-benno > ( As of January 30, 2012, accessed on May 19, 2012)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://verwaltungshandbuch.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de/martin-benno , Benno.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Utho Grieser: Himmler's husband in Nurnberg :. The Benno Martin case , Nuremberg 1974, p. 309 f.
3. ↑ Utho Grieser: Himmler's husband in Nurnberg :. The Benno Martin case , Nuremberg 1974, p. 103.
4. ^ Romuald Karmakar : Das Himmler-Projekt , DVD 2000, Berlin, ISBN 3-89848-719-9 .
5. ↑ Joachim Lilla: Martin, Benno , in: ders .: Minister of State, senior administrative officials and (NS) officials in Bavaria 1918 to 1945.
6. ↑ Justice and Nazi crimes ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2014 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Summary of the judgment of November 14, 1949. 
7. ↑ Justice and Nazi crimes ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2014 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Summary of the judgment of July 1, 1953. 
8. ↑ Manfred Wedemeyer : Committed to people - 75 years of Rotary in Germany: 1927–2002 , Hamburg 2002, ISBN 978-3-00-009212-1