Friedrich Engel (SS member)

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Friedrich Engel

Friedrich Wilhelm Konrad Siegfried Engel (born January 3, 1909 in Warnau an der Havel , † February 4, 2006 in Hamburg ) was the commander of the Security Police and the SD of Genoa . In international media he is also referred to as the Butcher of Genoa (butcher of Genoa).

Life

Until 1945

The doctorate scholar went to his studies (u. A. According to its own statements in 1934 activity as Nazi student leader at the Christian-Albrechts-University at Kiel and in Innsbruck ) for SD of the SS (membership number 272593) and was Speaker for "ideological education" in the Reich Security Main Office . He also became a member of the NSDAP (membership number 1.305.576).

In May 1940 he was stationed with the commander of the Security Police and the SD in Norway . He rose to Obersturmbannführer (1945) and SD chief of Genoa . In retaliation after a partisan attack against a soldiers' casino in Genoa, in which five or six members of the Wehrmacht were killed, Engel ordered the massacre at the Turchino Pass on May 19, 1944 , of the 59 inmates of the Marassi prison on the Turchino Pass in Liguria were shot. Engel gave orders to carry out further massacres for the massacres of Bendicta (from April 3 to 11, 1944 with 147 victims), Portofino (on December 2 and 3, 1944 with 23 victims) and Carvasco (on March 23, 1945 with 20 To sacrifice).

In January 1945 he was awarded the War Merit Cross First Class with Swords.

1945-1960

In 1947, while in American captivity, Engel managed to escape from Camp King in Oberursel . In 1948 he was still working as a lumberjack and pool attendant in Braunlage under the name Friedrich Schottenberg . But as early as 1949 he became an authorized signatory at a timber importing company in Hamburg and then remained undisturbed for a very long time. In Italy , too , investigation files were not processed for decades , presumably out of political consideration for Germany . A complaint during the 1960s remained without consequences and the investigation files disappeared without a trace.

Closet of shame

In 1956, in an exchange of letters between the Italian Foreign Minister Gaetano Martino and the defense minister Paolo Emilio Taviani decided that the opening of trials against former German members of the armed forces to upset the Federal Republic could have led, as these on 12 November 1955, the Bundeswehr had built up and since May 6, 1955 wanted to integrate politically and militarily into the unity against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact as a member of NATO .

In 1960, by order of the then general military prosecutor, Enrico Santacroce , 695 bundles of files, including files on Friedrich Engel's war crimes, were "temporarily archived". It was not until 34 years later, in 1994, the files of the seat were randomly general military lawyers in Rome in Palazzo Cesi called in a sealed, provided with the door to the closet, cupboard of shame , rediscovered. This archiving was deemed completely unlawful in 1998 following the conclusion of the Military Tribunal's investigation.

After 1999

In 1999 Engel was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by an Italian military court for 249 murders . As a result, Engel was also brought to justice in Germany. Engel commented on the allegations with the words: “Yes, I was involved. I'm sorry, but I have nothing to regret. ”He was afraid to contradict his boss. The Hamburg Regional Court , which was dealing with the case, recognized that under the international law of war at the time, the shooting of hostages with a reprisal rate of 1:10 as retaliation for fatal partisan attacks was permitted under customary law. Engel, however, had the shooting carried out too cruelly (at a pit, the following could overhear the shooting of the previous one) and thus violated the so-called “humanity barrier”. In July 2002, the Hamburg district court sentenced the 93-year-old angel to seven years in prison. However, because of his old age, Engel remained at large.

In June 2004, the Federal Court of Justice overturned the judgment against the now 95-year-old Engel on appeal, because the murder characteristic of cruelty was not sufficiently proven. At the same time, the 5th Criminal Senate discontinued the proceedings because Engel's old age and the long passage of time since the offense would not allow a new trial.

Engel died in Hamburg in February 2006, one month after his 97th birthday.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Old men, late judgments. In: sueddeutsche.de . April 15, 2009, accessed October 13, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b IL CASO ENGEL: LA SENTENZA DI CONDANNA ALL'ERGASTOLO , court judgment in the Engel case, accessed May 21, 2015
  3. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 136
  4. ↑ http://www.rbb-online.de/kontraste/ueber_den_tag_hinaus/diktaturen/kriegsverbrecher_in.html
  5. ↑ Report from the library of the Bolzano City Archives on the “Shame Cabinet”: 1960–1994
  6. ↑ The "Executioner of Genoa" as honest man - Der Spiegel
  7. ^ Ingo von Münch : History in front of the court. The angel case . Ellert & Richter Verlag, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8319-0144-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Engel, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Engel, Friedrich Wilhelm Konrad Siegfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS man, war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Warnau an der Havel , Havelland
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 2006
Place of death Hamburg