Erich Deppner

Wilhelm Harster , Karl Maria Demelhuber , Erich Deppner and Hanns Albin Rauter

Erich Deppner (born August 8, 1910 in Neuhaldensleben ; † December 13, 2005 in Anzing ) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer and, during the Nazi era, head of the Anti-Opposition Department of the Commander of the Security Police and SD (BdS) in The Hague (Netherlands) ). In this role he had 450 prisoners of the Dutch resistance shot, and he was also involved in the execution of 65 Soviet prisoners of war. After the war, Deppner worked for the Gehlen Organization and the Federal Intelligence Service .

Life

Origin and professional training

Deppner's father was a businessman. After attending the humanistic grammar school in Haldensleben, Deppner passed the school leaving examination in 1929. He studied in Marburg , Munich and Halle jurisprudence . In 1933 he passed the first state examination and in 1937 the second. Deppner was married and the marriage had five children.

In 1932, while still a student, Deppner joined the NSDAP ( membership number 1.254.844), and in November 1933 also the SS (membership number 177.571). In 1937 he applied to the Security Service (SD) and was hired as a probationary assessor in February 1938. After the formation of the Reich Main Security Office , in the spring of 1940 he headed Division III C 1 there, which was responsible for nutrition issues.

Head of the Anti-Adversity Department in the occupied Netherlands

Shortly after the occupation of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht , Deppner was transferred to the task force of the Security Police and SD at the end of May 1940 . In July 1940, the task force was reorganized and henceforth referred to as the office of the commander of the security police and the SD (BdS) in The Hague . As a member of the government, Deppner headed the department for combating opponents; on January 30, 1941, he had achieved the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer in the SS . Deppner's superiors as BdS were Wilhelm Harster , Erich Naumann and Karl Eberhard Schöngarth .

Memorial at the site of the shootings and the mass grave of Soviet prisoners in Amersfoort

At the beginning of April 1942, Deppner was called to the Higher SS and Police Leader in the Netherlands, Hanns Albin Rauter . He instructed Deppner to shoot Soviet prisoners of war who were housed in the Amersfoort transit camp . The next day, Deppner put together a firing squad that consisted of four SS men, including Karl Friedrich Titho . The at least 65 prisoners of war were driven into a forest area in two trucks, had to line up in groups on the edge of a pit and were shot in the back of the head. Deppner convinced himself that death would occur and gave the order for additional shots in cases of doubt. He shot himself in one or two cases.

In July and August 1942, Deppner was the first German commandant of the Westerbork transit camp , one of the two transit camps for the deportation of Dutch Jews to the extermination camps in the east. Deppner was responsible for the first transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz . A riot broke out when he sent children without their parents and women newly arrived in the camp on the transport to reach the planned number of 1,000 deportees. Himmler praised Deppner in June 1943 for the “good work” he had done in the Netherlands.

After the Allies landed in Normandy, the German occupiers rushed 1,500 prisoners from the police prison in Scheveningen to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp for security reasons . In Herzogenbusch, the prisoners, most of whom had been arrested for their work in the resistance, were strictly isolated in the so-called SD camp . At the end of July or August 1944, Deppner was sent to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp to carry out the so-called extermination order - Hitler's terror and sabotage decree of July 30, 1944. In contrast to his superior Schöngarth, Deppner was familiar with the structures of the Dutch resistance. In August and September 1944 450 prisoners, mostly from the top of the resistance, were murdered without trial. Deppner himself ordered them to be shot in the neck.

At the beginning of 1945 Deppner returned to Germany. At the end of the Second World War he was used as a soldier in the Berlin area and was taken prisoner by the Soviets, from which he returned in 1950.

After the end of the war

Back in Germany, Deppner worked for the Gehlen organization , which in 1956 became the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). Deppner was in charge of department 12, also called GV-G, which operated espionage in the GDR from Berlin. Reinhard Gehlen was familiar with Deppner's previous life, who worked for the intelligence service under the names "Egon Dietrich", "Ernst Borchert" and "Agent V-616". Investigations by the public prosecutor's office at the Munich I Regional Court led to Deppner being held in custody for nine months in 1960. After his release, Deppner continued his work for the BND: According to CIA documents from 1966, he did “research” on “non-sensitive topics” while working from home.

After several delays, a trial against Deppner for aiding and abetting murder took place from January 20 to 22, 1964 before the jury court at the Munich District Court I. The subject of the proceedings was the execution of at least 65 Soviet prisoners of war in Amersfoort in April 1942, but not Deppner's involvement in the murder of the 450 prisoners of the Dutch resistance and his activities in Westerbork concentration camp. Deppner stated in court that the shooting of the prisoners had been ordered by Hanns Albin Rauter . Rauter had told him that Himmler had ordered the execution as reprisal for atrocities that the Red Army had committed against German prisoners and wounded. In addition, he found himself in a state of emergency because his superior Rauter had a great deal of power and was also known for his determination to enforce his instructions. As far as other persons involved in the crime were still alive, they confirmed Deppner's representations in testimony.

On January 22, 1964, the jury at the Munich District Court I Deppner acquitted. The public prosecutor's office had also pleaded for acquittal. According to the information in the judgment, the court was not in a position to refute Deppner's submissions, in particular because Hanns Albin Rauter had been executed in the Netherlands as early as 1949. Deppner could have acted in the belief that it was a case of reprisal that was permissible under international law at the time. In the judgment, Deppner is referred to as an industrial and economic consultant who has been working in Munich since the beginning of 1952 .

Dutch courts had come to a different legal assessment of the executions in Amersfoort: three Deppner subordinates had been indicted between 1949 and 1951. One of them was sentenced to death and executed, and the other two received prison terms of six and ten years. According to the Munich judgment, one of those sentenced to prison initially refused to take part in the execution. Deppner However, the refusal believed "in the interest of military proper implementation of the shooting not to take into account." .

It is doubtful whether the shooting of the Soviet prisoners of war was actually a retaliatory measure, as Deppner presented in court: the prisoners, mostly from the Republic of Uzbekistan , had been brought to the Netherlands by order of Rauter to be supposed to be "subhumans." "To be demonstrated: " According to Rauter's presentation, this measure [...] was intended to ensure that the Dutch, whom he regarded as a 'Germanic people' and therefore sought to win over to the German cause, under the impression of the 'racially presented' to them Inferior 'prisoners' would recognize the absurdity of the policy pursued by their government-in-exile of a joint struggle with the Soviet Union against the German Reich, which was defending the 'vital interests of Europe against the Bolshevik East', and would at least be willing to cooperate with the German occupation but their hostile attitude a ufgäben. " But Rauter's plan did not work, on the contrary: The citizens Amersfoort tried the prisoners fruit, bread and water to give as they were driven from the station through the city to the camp. Fellow prisoners in the Amersfoort transit camp also showed their solidarity. The SS then isolated the prisoners of war and tried to starve them to death. 23 of them died of malnutrition and disease before the survivors were shot by Deppner's firing squad.

From the Reich Security Main Office to the Federal Intelligence Service

Erich Deppner had already joined the NSDAP before it came to power. That points to a staunch National Socialist. Like many other employees of the Reich Security Main Office, he was also active in the countries occupied by the German Reich during World War II. At the same time he was able to analyze the structures of the resistance at his desk and to lead a firing squad. This corresponded to Heydrich's idea of a "fighting administration" .

After the end of the war, Deppner was able to continue the secret service career he had started in 1938 with the Security Service (SD): He found work at the Gehlen Organization , which had been formed in 1946 under the care of the Americans. They resorted to Gehlen because at the beginning of the Cold War they were neither adequately staffed nor familiar with the local conditions. The Gehlen organization included at least 100 people who, like Deppner, were with the SD, the Gestapo or the Waffen SS before 1945 . At least three other such persons were found in Deppner's office 12 alone. This group of people had been discontinued by Gehlen; American agencies that financed the Gehlen organization, however, did nothing against Gehlen's personnel policy.

literature

Loe de Jong : The Kingdom of the Netherlands in World War II , Part 10, 1980.
LG Munich I, January 22, 1964 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicidal crimes 1945–1966, vol. XIX, edited by Irene Sagel-Grande, HH Fuchs, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1978, No. 563, pp. 687–701 Subject of the proceedings: shooting of at least 65 sick Russian prisoners of war, allegedly as reprisal for violations of international law by Russian troops against German wounded and prisoners of war on the Eastern Front

Individual evidence

↑ Obituary notice Süddeutsche Zeitung 289/2005 (December 15, 2005), p. 18, in dossier 1673 Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie
↑ Deppner's curriculum vitae, unless otherwise stated, based on the information in the judgment of the Munich Regional Court I of January 22, 1964. in: Justiz und NS-Verbrechen. Volume XIX, p. 689.
^ The membership numbers of Deppner in: Norbert Podewin (Ed.): Braunbuch: War and Nazi criminals in the Federal Republic and Berlin (West). Reprint of the 1968 edition (3rd edition). Edition Ost published by Das Neue Berlin, Berlin, approx. 2002. ISBN 3-360-01033-7 . P. 88.
↑ Michael Wildt: Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office. Hamburger Edition , Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1 , p. 514.
↑ The presentation follows the information in the judgment, see: Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 691. In the judgment it says: "The determination of the actual occurrence [...] did not cause any difficulties worth mentioning despite the large time lag from the events at that time." Ibid, p. 693.
↑ on the Westerbork concentration camp see Yadvashem Memorial (English, accessed on September 4, 2012)
↑ on the Herzogenbusch concentration camp see commemoration in BeNeLux (appeal on April 20, 2007) and Coenraad JF Stuhldreher: The Herzogenbusch concentration camp - a "model operation of the SS"? in: Ulrich Herbert u. a. (Ed.): The National Socialist Concentration Camps - Development and Structure. (Volume I) Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, 1998. ISBN 3-89244-289-4 . Pp. 327-348.
^ German Historical Museum (accessed April 15, 2007)
↑ on Deppner's work for the Gehlen Organization and the BND see: Timothy Naftali: Reinhard Gehlen and the United States in: Richard Breitman et al. (Ed.): US Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005. ISBN 0-521-61794-4 . Pp. 375-418. The work evaluates documents that were released in the USA on the basis of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 . For the release of files see H-Soz-u-Kult (appeal from April 21, 2007)
↑ Georg Bönisch, Axel Frohn: Pig dogs welcome . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 2006, p. 32 f . ( online - March 27, 2006 ).
↑ Timothy Naftali, p. 410.
^ Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 696 ff.
^ Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 691.
↑ on the commemoration of the Soviet prisoners of war in BeNeLux (appeal on April 20, 2007)

^ Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 690.

↑ Michael Wildt: Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1 , pp. 203 ff.

^ Karl Guse was head of the Gestapo in Rome before 1943. Werner Krassowski belonged as SS-Hauptsturmführer to the SS-Totenkopfverband and to the guards of a concentration camp in Poland. Ernst Makowski was a Gestapo officer in southwest Germany. See Timothy Naftali, p. 383.

personal data
SURNAME	Deppner, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dietrich, Egon; Borchert, Ernst; Agent V-616
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German SS-Sturmbannführer
DATE OF BIRTH	August 8, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH	Neuhaldensleben
DATE OF DEATH	December 13, 2005
Place of death	Anzing

[1] Obituary notice Süddeutsche Zeitung 289/2005 (December 15, 2005), p. 18, in dossier 1673 Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie

[2] Deppner's curriculum vitae, unless otherwise stated, based on the information in the judgment of the Munich Regional Court I of January 22, 1964. in: Justiz und NS-Verbrechen. Volume XIX, p. 689.

[3] The membership numbers of Deppner in: Norbert Podewin (Ed.): Braunbuch: War and Nazi criminals in the Federal Republic and Berlin (West). Reprint of the 1968 edition (3rd edition). Edition Ost published by Das Neue Berlin, Berlin, approx. 2002. ISBN 3-360-01033-7 . P. 88.

[4] Michael Wildt: Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office. Hamburger Edition , Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1 , p. 514.

[5] The presentation follows the information in the judgment, see: Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 691. In the judgment it says: "The determination of the actual occurrence [...] did not cause any difficulties worth mentioning despite the large time lag from the events at that time." Ibid, p. 693.

[6] the Westerbork concentration camp see Yadvashem Memorial (English, accessed on September 4, 2012)

[7] the Herzogenbusch concentration camp see commemoration in BeNeLux (appeal on April 20, 2007) and Coenraad JF Stuhldreher: The Herzogenbusch concentration camp - a "model operation of the SS"? in: Ulrich Herbert u. a. (Ed.): The National Socialist Concentration Camps - Development and Structure. (Volume I) Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, 1998. ISBN 3-89244-289-4 . Pp. 327-348.

[8] German Historical Museum (accessed April 15, 2007)

[9] Deppner's work for the Gehlen Organization and the BND see: Timothy Naftali: Reinhard Gehlen and the United States in: Richard Breitman et al. (Ed.): US Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005. ISBN 0-521-61794-4 . Pp. 375-418. The work evaluates documents that were released in the USA on the basis of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 . For the release of files see H-Soz-u-Kult (appeal from April 21, 2007)

[10] Georg Bönisch, Axel Frohn: Pig dogs welcome . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 2006, p. 32 f . ( online - March 27, 2006 ).

[11] Timothy Naftali, p. 410.

[12] Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 696 ff.

[13] Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 691.

[14] the commemoration of the Soviet prisoners of war in BeNeLux (appeal on April 20, 2007)

[15] Justice and Nazi crimes. Volume XIX, p. 690.

[16] Michael Wildt: Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1 , pp. 203 ff.

[17] Karl Guse was head of the Gestapo in Rome before 1943. Werner Krassowski belonged as SS-Hauptsturmführer to the SS-Totenkopfverband and to the guards of a concentration camp in Poland. Ernst Makowski was a Gestapo officer in southwest Germany. See Timothy Naftali, p. 383.