Franz Straub

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Franz Straub (born February 25, 1889 in Bergrothenfels , Rothenfels , † 1977 ) was a German police officer and SS leader. Among other things, he became known as the head of the Gestapo in German-occupied Belgium from 1940 to 1944.

Live and act

After attending school, Straub studied law . In 1913 he entered the police force. After the handover of power to the National Socialists , he moved to the Bavarian Political Police in 1933 . Around 1936 Straub joined the NSDAP ( membership number 3,651,455) and the SS (SS number 342,170).

During World War II officiated Straub of 13 June 1940 to withdraw the occupation troops from Belgium in September 1944 with the rank of detective Director and with the service name of a "head of the Gestapo in the Representative of the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service" in Brussels as head of all Gestapo workers deployed in Belgium. Organizationally, Straub's Gestapo was located as Department IV at the Security Police and SD in Brussels, which was successively led by Karl Hasselbacher (July 1940 to September 1940), Constantin Canaris (September 1940 to October 1941), Ernst Ehlers (October 1941 to February 1944 ) and Eduard Strauch (March to September 1944).

In his capacity as head of the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels, Straub was instrumental in organizing the deportation of Belgian Jews from 1943 at the latest , which was carried out by a special Jewish department that had been under Department IV since the end of February 1943.

During this time he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer on April 20, 1943 . In autumn 1944, Straub was sent to the Vienna State Police Headquarters as a special representative of the Reich Main Security Office with the task of building up a coordination staff "to combat resistance groups for the entire former Austrian territory" .

At the end of World War II came Straub in Allied captivity . As a result, he was interrogated as a witness during the Nuremberg Trials and his statements about the activities of the Gestapo in Belgium were summarized in a report by Colonel Neave. This report was quoted in the negotiations of the Nuremberg Trial against the main war criminals . During the interrogation, Straub admitted that he had ordered fifty inmates to be tortured during interrogation (“third degree interrogation”).

In 1950 Straub was sentenced to fifteen years of forced labor by a Brussels military court, but was deported to Germany in 1951. After being reinstated in the police force, he worked as a police officer in the Presidium of the Bavarian Border Police until his retirement .

literature

  • Serge Klarsfeld ; Maxime Steinberg (ed.): The final solution of the Jewish question in Belgium. Documents , the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, New York, ca.1981.
  • Insa Meinen: The Shoah in Belgium , Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2009 ISBN 978-3-534-22158-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Susanne Meinl, Joachim Schröder: “Attitude towards the democratic state: no concerns”. On the early history of the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (1949–1965). o. O. 2013, p. 48. ( PDF ( Memento from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )).
  2. ^ Ludwig Nestler: Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands , 1990, p. 90.
  3. ^ Klaus Michael Mallmann: The Gestapo. Myth and Reality , 1996, p. 449.
  4. ↑ International Military Tribunal: The trial of the main war criminals before the International Military Court, Nuremberg November 14, 1945 - October 1, 1946. Vol. 42. Documents and other evidence, Col. Neave , Nuremberg 1949, p. 38; digitized at avalon
  5. ↑ Nuremberg Trial at zeno.org . Commission hearing, references: Vol. XXI, 555, 568, 575, 582 f; XXII, 22, 46, 282.
personal data
SURNAME Straub, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German policeman
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Bergrothenfels ( Rothenfels )
DATE OF DEATH 1977