Felix Rühl

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Felix Rühl during the task force process

Fritz Gustav Felix Rühl (* 12. August 1910 in Neheim , † 2. June 1982 in Leverkusen ) was a German hauptsturmführer that the Sonderkommando 10b Einsatzgruppe D in the murder of Jews as amended by the German Reich occupied Ukraine was involved . Rühl was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the Einsatzgruppen trial in 1948 , but was released in 1951.

Life

Rühl attended high school and received his Abitur in 1926 . He then worked as a commercial assistant in Luckenwalde until 1929 and then spent a year in England . Rühl joined the NSDAP on November 9, 1930 at the age of 20 ( membership number 408,468). At the same time as he joined the party, Rühl became a member of the SA . From February 1931 to September 1933 Rühl was employed by a court in Luckenwalde. In September 1932, Rühl left the SA and immediately joined the SS in October 1932 (SS no. 51,305). In 1933 Rühl joined the Gestapo , and in 1935 he finally became a member of the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD). From 1935 Rühl was employed by the Gestapo State Police (Stapo) in Cologne and from 1939 headed counter-espionage in Prague and Brno . Like Lothar Fendler - his later co-defendant in the Einsatzgruppen trial - Rühl belonged to the next generation of security service leaders and, after being selected and recommended by his superiors, took part in courses at the security police and SS security service in Berlin-Charlottenburg .

From his course in Charlottenburg, Rühl was assigned to the Pretzsch / Elbe border police school in May 1941 to set up the task forces , where he was assigned to task force D special command 10b . The Sonderkommando 10b, led by Sturmbannführer Alois Persterer , consisted of 85 men and seven officers; as Hauptsturmführer (equivalent to the rank of captain ), Rühl was fourth in the special command in terms of rank and seniority . Rühl took part in the attack on the Soviet Union with Sonderkommando 10b from the end of June 1941 . In Sonderkommando 10b, he was responsible for the quartering (replenishment and accommodation) and for administrative tasks. On June 30, 1941, Rühl arrived with the Sonderkommando on Romanian territory, from where Einsatzgruppe D of the 11th Army and the Romanian army followed on the advance. On October 1, 1941, Rühl was replaced and returned to Berlin . Rühl was most recently deployed to the Augsburg Stapo .

From 1947 to 1948 Rühl was one of 24 defendants in the Einsatzgruppen trial ; his defense attorney was Heinrich Link, assisted by Dr. Kurt Helm. The judge was Michael A. Musmanno . The prosecution, headed by Benjamin Ferencz , accused Rühl of having led the unit temporarily in the absence or incapacity of the Sonderkommando leader Alois Persterer, who allegedly drank heavily. This charge was based on a written testimony from a Sonderkommando soldier. However, since the co-defendant Heinz Schubert stated in the trial that Rühl had never led Sonderkommando 10b, the corresponding charge was rejected in the judgment as not proven (“beyond a reasonable doubt”). The direct participation in the murder actions of the Sonderkommando in Chernivtsi after July 6, 1941 and in Chotyn at the end of July 1941 could not be reliably proven. On April 9, 1948, Rühl was charged on the first two counts - (1) crimes against humanity , (2) war crimes - given his only three-month membership in the task force and the unproven direct command responsibility for the murders committed by his unit during this time acquitted and found guilty on the third count - (3) membership in a criminal organization. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

In the course of the intensified discussion of the West German rearmament after the outbreak of the Korean War from the summer of 1950, High Commissioner John McCloy changed four of the 15 death sentences imposed in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison to life imprisonment on January 31, 1951 on the recommendation of the Advisory Board on Clemency for War Criminals six were sentenced to between ten and twenty-five years in prison, while five death sentences were to be carried out. The sentences have been reduced. In January 1951, Rühl was released after six years of imprisonment and his remaining imprisonment was waived. Rühl then lived in Leverkusen.

literature

  • Earl, Hilary: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-45608-1 .
  • Frei, Norbert: Politics of the Past: The Beginnings of the Federal Republic and the Nazi Past . Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-41310-2 .
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (Updated 2nd edition)
  • Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10 , Vol. 4 : United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. (Case 9: “Einsatzgruppen Case”) . US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950. In: National Archives Microfilm Publications, NM Series 1874-1946, Microfilm Publication M936. National Archives and Record Service, Washington 1973. (Excerpts from the grounds of the judgment on Felix Rühl: pp. 578 - 581. )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death register of the Leverkusen registry office No. 735/1982.
  2. ^ Earl, Hilary: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, p. 121 - "Table 3 - Education of the Defendants".
  3. ^ A b c d e Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 4, US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950, pp. 578-581.
  4. ^ Earl, Hilary: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial . Cambridge 2009, p. 126 - "Table 4 - Joining Date of Defendants".
  5. ^ A b Earl, Hilary: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial . Cambridge 2009, p. 129 - "Table 5 - Joining Date of the SA, SS, SD and Gestapo".
  6. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 513.
  7. ↑ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 4, United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950, p. 11.
  8. ↑ Norbert Frei: Politics of the Past . Beck, Munich 1996, pp. 195-233.
  9. ^ Earl, Hilary: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial . Cambridge 2009, p. 293 - "Table 11 - Sentence Modifications of the Einsatzgruppen Leaders between 1948 and 1958".
personal data
SURNAME Rühl, Felix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rühl, Fritz Gustav Felix (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS Hauptsturmführer
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Neheim
DATE OF DEATH 2nd June 1982
Place of death Leverkusen