Eduard Strauch

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Eduard Strauch during the Nuremberg Trials

Eduard Strauch (* 17th August 1906 in Essen ; † 15. September 1955 in Uccle ) was obersturmbannführer , commander of Einsatzkommando 2, then commander of the state police and the SD first in White Russia (Belarus), then later in Wallonia ( Belgium ) , transferred to the Waffen SS from October 1944 . He has been involved in serious war crimes and crimes against humanity .

Life

Strauch's father was a foreman in a factory. His family was badly affected by inflation after the end of the First World War . For years, Eduard Strauch and his brother had to work next to school in order to supplement their family income. During this time Strauch became politicized; he joined the nationalist Young German Order , to which he belonged until the end of 1927. He first studied theology at the Universities of Erlangen and Münster , but then switched to law . In 1932 he passed his first and in 1935 his second state examination in law.

On August 1, 1931, Strauch became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 623,392) and the SA . In December 1931 he joined the General SS from the SA (SS No. 19.312). From 1934 he worked for the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD).

Like many other members of the SD, Strauch took command of a unit of the Einsatzgruppen after the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union . From November 4, 1941, he led Einsatzkommando 2 within Einsatzgruppe A, which was commanded by Walter Stahlecker . On November 30, 1941, a 20-man commando from Einsatzkommando 2 under his leadership took part in the murder of 10,600 Jews in the Rumbula forest near Riga . He was appointed commander of the state police and the SD in White Russia (on 3 December 1941 including these "merits" Belarus appointed).

In July 1943 the General Commissioner for Belarus reported on a conversation with the "extremely capable [...] chief of the SD, SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. jur. Strauch ”, who had managed to“ liquidate 55,000 Jews in the last 10 weeks alone ”. On July 25, 1943, Strauch denounced General Commissioner Wilhelm Kube that he was not acting energetically enough against the Jews: "General Commissioner Kube's attitude to the Jewish question is such that one can speak of being a Jew."

Because of his alcoholism, Strauch was sometimes exposed to criticism even within the SS. His activities were, it was said, "predominantly instinctual", especially "under the disinhibiting effect of alcohol".

After the end of the Nazi regime, Strauch was sentenced to death in the Nuremberg Einsatzgruppen trial , but extradited to Belgium in the same position in Wallonia for his crimes. In Liège he was charged with shooting prisoners of war (1948) and sentenced to death again (1949). “Because of mental illness” the sentence was not carried out. Strauch died in a sanatorium in Uccle (Belgium) in 1955. The now deceased was included in a third trial in 1971. In Hamburg, a group of SS officers was charged with shooting hostages (1942–1944) in the Belgian towns of Charleroi and Dinant. The proceedings against all defendants were discontinued because the investigations had shown “no evidence” of “a cruel or insidious killing” and the facts identified were therefore “as manslaughter or bodily harm resulting in death or attempted manslaughter, not [but] as murder qualify "and therefore the statute of limitations for prosecution has occurred.

literature

  • Antonio Cassese, article "Strauch and others (Sipo-Case)", in: ders. (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice, article "Strauch and others (Sipo-Case)", Oxford / New York, p 938
  • Rudi van Doorslaer / Emmanuel Debruyne / Frank Seberechts, Gewillig België. Overheid en jodenvervolging tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, Meulenhoff / Manteau, Antwerp 2007
  • Hilary Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-45608-1
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Second edition, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hilary Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial. Cambridge 2009, pp. 132-133.
  2. ^ 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, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 606.
  3. ^ Hilary Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial. Cambridge 2009, p. 126: Table 4 - Joining Date of Defendants.
  4. ^ Hilary Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial. Cambridge 2009, p. 129: Table 5 - Joining Date of the SA, SS, SD and Gestapo.
  5. ↑ a b Quotation from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 607.
  6. ↑ All information according to: Stephan Lehnstaedt : Occupation in the East: Everyday occupation in Warsaw and Minsk 1939-1944 . Munich 2010, p. 322.
  7. ↑ Regionales Personenlexikon, article Karl Heinrich Mehden .
personal data
SURNAME Bush, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS, Security Police and SD commanders and war criminals
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH eat
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1955
Place of death Uccle