Eduard von Saß

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eduard Heinrich Hartwig Reinhold Freiherr von Saß (born September 11, 1900 in Berlin , † February 1, 1946 in Velikiye Luki ) was a German colonel in World War II . In the German-Soviet war during the battle of Velikiye Luki he commanded the approximately 7,500 members of the Wehrmacht who were encircled in the city. A Red Army military tribunal sentenced him and others to death for war crimes in 1946; he was hanged.

Life

He was a professional soldier in the Reichswehr and later in the Wehrmacht . In 1935 he was first lieutenant in the 5th Infantry Regiment.

From November 1942 he was a lieutenant colonel in command of Grenadier Regiment 277 of the 83rd Infantry Division . On November 25, 1942, his regiment and other units in and around Velikiye Luki were encircled by the Red Army's 3rd Shock Army. A cauldron battle developed . Saß was given command of all approximately 7,500 soldiers in the boiler. In addition to his regiment, he now commanded soldiers from Launcher Regiment 3, Army Flak Division 286, Artillery Regiments 70 and 183, as well as Army Artillery Division 736 and various rear services. Several attempts at relief by the 8th Panzer Division , Klatt Group and the 291st Infantry Division failed. Saß repeatedly refused to surrender . Saß was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 19, 1942 and promoted to colonel from January 1, 1943 with seniority . On January 16, 1943, the remnants of the German troops under his command were finally overwhelmed by the Red Army. They captured 3,944 Germans, including 54 officers, and captured 113 artillery pieces, 97 mortars, 20 tanks and assault guns. The Red Army lost around 104,000 men, including 23,000 dead and missing.

On January 31, 1946, Saß and seven other members of the 277 Infantry Regiment, including Saß's predecessor as regimental commander Fritz-Georg von Rappard , were hanged in Velikije Luki after being sentenced by a military tribunal of the Red Army on February 1, 1946. The allegation was war crimes and crimes against the population in Velikiye Luki and in the anti- partisan operation "Greif" in the Vitebsk area .

family

Saß came from the Baltic noble family Saß . The family name is sometimes also spelled Sass. Saß married Elisabeth Sachse in 1928; In 1930 son Peer Anton was born.

literature

  • Andreas Weigelt, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944–1947). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, p. 581. ( online )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Nicolai von Essen: Genealogical Handbook of the Oeselschen Knighthood. Tartu 1935, p. 331
  2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives . Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 650.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Keilig (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Army 1944/45. Verlag Hans-Henning Podzun, Bad Nauheim 1955, p. 70.
  4. ↑ ОБОРОНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ОПЕРАЦИЯ В ЛИТВЕ И ЛАТВИИ ( Memento from March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Sat, Eduard von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saß, Eduard Heinrich Hartwig Reinhold Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German colonel in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH September 11, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1946
Place of death Velikiye Luki