Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg

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Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg

Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg (born March 17, 1897 in Grieskirchen ; † September 20, 1944 near Banja Luka ) was an Austrian lawyer, major general of the police and SS brigade leader and as SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in the Warsaw district and as a police area leader used in Essegg (Croatia).

Life

After completing an orderly school career in Wels and Linz, the son of a district court chief served in the infantry of the Austro-Hungarian Army from July 1915 to September 1920 . From February 1916 to the beginning of November he was on the front in the First World War , initially as a member of the Imperial and Royal Landesschützen Regiment "Trient" No. I (February 1916 to October 1916 and January 1917 to April 1917), then temporarily in the field hospital due to a grenade burial ( October 1916 to January 1917) and finally in Feldjäger Battalion No. 9 (April 1917 to early November 1918). On November 4, 1918, he was taken prisoner in Italy , from which he was released in September 1920. His discharge from military service also took place in 1920, his last rank was first lieutenant. He was then a member of the Bund Oberland (1920–1926), the German-Völkischer Turnverein (1922–1932) and the Styrian Homeland Security (1922–1932).

After his release from captivity ended Sammern-Frankenegg his law degree and doctorate in 1922. Dr. jur. after six semesters of study in Innsbruck . During this time he became a member of the University Choir of Skalds . After that he was employed at the regional and higher court in Wels for one year and then with a lawyer for six years. From 1929 he acted as a resident lawyer in Peuerbach (Upper Austria). Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg was married to Berta, née Humer, and had at least one illegitimate child.

Promotion in the NSDAP

Sammern-Frankenegg joined the SS as early as December 1932 (SS No. 292.792) and on March 1, 1933 the Austrian NSDAP ( membership number 1.456.955). He was also a member of Lebensborn e. V. Until the "annexation" of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, he was a part-time local group leader (February 1933 to March 1938), political leader and district leader (November 1935 to March 1938) and speaker . He also headed the 37th SS Standard (April 1935 to January 1939). Sammern-Frankenegg received a fine and two imprisonment sentences in Austria for subversive, National Socialist activities. He was interned in the Kaisersteinbruch detention center for three months . After the “Anschluss” of Austria he became a full-time SS leader and therefore left his legal practice on hold. From April 1938 until his death in September 1944, Sammern-Frankenegg was a member of the Reichstag for Austria. In addition, from March 1939 he was in charge of SS-Oberabschnitt IX in Würzburg and also served as an assessor at the Gau court in Saxony.

Announcement by the SS and Police Leader in the Warsaw District in September 1942 regarding the death penalty for supporting Jews who have left the Jewish districts without authorization

SS and police leader in the Warsaw district

From July 1942, Sammern-Frankenegg was SS and police leader in the Warsaw district. In this function he was responsible for the deportation of the Jewish population from the Warsaw Ghetto , which was gradually dissolved from July 22, 1942 as part of the “ Final Solution to the Jewish Question ”. 300,000 ghetto residents were sent to extermination camps, most of them to Treblinka . His tasks also consisted of the confiscation and exploitation of Jewish property. "Old gold of Jewish origin", pieces of furniture, foreign exchange, valuables of all kinds, machines for SS operations of the Jewish victims were sighted in the ghetto, recorded and fed into the German economy. A letter from him dated March 13, 1943 to the district headquarters in the Warsaw area reveals his intention:

"With reference to my on 11. d. M. I order that all Jews still in the individual towns or in the country, especially those without an armband, who could not be captured by the previous resettlement campaigns, immediately be determined and the gendarmerie with the greatest energy are to be supplied for liquidation. Special services, Polish police and about existing are primarily for this task V-men clamp. The Polish population themselves can also be used to the greatest possible extent for these findings. When such Jews are arrested, their assets are to be sent to the responsible gendarmerie platoon leader and these values, regardless of whether they are chattels, cash or other valuables, to my value recording, which I, on behalf of the Reichsführer SS, as Reich Commissioner for the consolidation of German nationality for the entire district Warsaw had to hand over. The gendarmerie platoon leaders have to record these values ​​in a register and to keep them in a suitable warehouse until my further order and to guard them accordingly. The persons who have given appropriate information about the arrest and liquidation of these Jews receive in each individual case up to a third of the property brought about by the Jew named by them. These premium claims are to be reported to the gendarmerie platoon driver and, after my approval, to be distributed by him. I ask that you organize this action at your own discretion after consulting the responsible gendarmerie platoon leaders. The SS and police leader in the Warsaw district, von Sammern, SS-Oberführer. "

Sammern-Frankenegg, who was able to register open resistance from the Jewish fighting organization for the first time when another planned “resettlement” of 16,000 Jews was taking place on January 18, 1943, was surprised by an armed uprising in an attempt to completely “dissolve” the ghetto in April 1943 . Immediately beforehand he had received reports of impending resistance, but Sammern-Frankenegg did not believe it. Despite secrecy, the evacuation of the Warsaw ghetto is said to have been known to the Jewish fighting organization on April 17th, one day before the planned action. In accordance with his duties, he informed the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF Ost) Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger of this. Thereupon Jürgen Stroop was ordered by Krüger to Warsaw on April 17, 1943 to carry out this "action". Stroop announced this to Sammern-Frankenegg, who at that time was not yet informed about transferring this mission to Stroop. Since Stroop was released at the time of handing over the command, and Sammern-Frankenegg knew the forces and locations, Stroop Sammern-Frankenegg initially started the mission as planned.

After the first day of the uprising, Sammern-Frankenegg was replaced by Jürgen Stroop on April 19, 1943, as SS and police leader in the Warsaw district. He was blamed for the total failure of the company and in particular the losses on the German side, at least 40 soldiers. On the first day of the uprising, Stroop is said to have told him literally:

"My dear collector, I notice that you are not up to your task and are not energetic enough."

Police area leader in Essegg

On April 23, 1943, Heinrich Himmler appointed Sammern-Frankenegg as police area leader in Essegg (Croatia). In this function, at least 10,000 police officers were constantly reporting to him. In September 1943 he was able to successfully defend himself against a possible replacement at this post by bypassing the official route and in July 1944 received the rank of SS brigade leader. On the orders of Konstantin Kammerhofer , Sammern-Frankenegg drove together with General Helmuth von Pannwitz to the location of the Kuban 6 Cossack regiment near Banja Luka on September 20, 1944 , where this unit was attacked by Yugoslav partisans . During the battle, Sammern-Frankenegg died as a result of a wound he suffered from being shot at by an anti-tank gun . Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg was buried on September 27, 1944 in the “Heroes Cemetery” in Essegg.

Awards

Sammern-Frankeneggs SS ranks
date rank
March 1933 SS Sturmführer
April 1935 SS-Untersturmführer
November 1936 SS-Obersturmführer
April 1937 SS-Hauptsturmführer
November 1937 SS-Sturmbannführer
March 1938 SS standard leader
January 1941 SS-Oberführer
July 1944 SS Brigade Leader

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.kjoe.at  
  2. ^ Albin Kulhanek: The Academic Choral Society Innsbruck and the Skälden singers 1907-1945 . Innsbruck May 2008.
  3. ↑ quoted in: Josef Wulf: Das Third Reich und seine Vollstrecker - The liquidation of 500,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto , Berlin 1961, p. 243 f.
  4. ^ Statements by Jürgen Stroop after the end of the war in the Mokotow prison in Warsaw, quoted in: Josef Wulf: The Third Reich and its Executors - The Liquidation of 500,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto , Berlin 1961, pp. 188 ff.
  5. ↑ quoted in: Josef Wulf: Das Third Reich und seine Vollstrecker - The liquidation of 500,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto , Berlin 1961, p. 245.
  6. ↑ Joseph Wulf: The Third Reich and its executors. The liquidation of 500,000 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Arani, Berlin 1961, p. 240
personal data
SURNAME Sammern-Frankenegg, Ferdinand von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (NSDAP), MdR, lawyer, major general of the police and SS brigade leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Grieskirchen
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1944
Place of death Banja Luka