Friedrich Merdsche

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Frederick "Fritz" Merdsche later Merdche (* 1. August 1906 in Frankfurt am Main ; † 16th June 1985 in Ühlingen-Birkendorf ) was a German lawyer, who during the Second World War as hauptsturmführer commander of the state police and the SD ( KdS) was deployed in German-occupied France .

Life

After completing his school career, Merdsche studied law and became a member of the NSDAP and the SA during the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933 . After completing his studies, he initially worked as a judge at the Wiesbaden Regional Court . He later moved to the Frankfurt am Main regional court , where on June 11, 1939, as counselor, he convicted the Jewish businessman Sally Kneip for racial disgrace .

After the beginning of the Second World War he was a soldier in the Wehrmacht , but was discharged from the troops due to illness. After the western campaign , he was employed as a war administrator at the field command in La Roche-sur-Yon . As SS-Hauptsturmführer in the SD , Merdsche was initially deployed as KdS in Dijon from the beginning of June 1942 . From September 1942 to August 1944 he was KdS in Orléans . In the course of the Allied advance in France, Merdsche had his office vacated. Shortly before that, Mersche probably ordered the murder of 47 Jews who were no longer deported from Bourges to the extermination camps in German-occupied Poland due to the war . In Saint-Amand-Montrond in the Cher department , people were led in groups to a farm, shot and their bodies thrown into a well. Others were thrown alive into the well and drowned. Merdsche was transferred from Orléans to the BdS in Wiesbaden . During the Ardennes offensive Merdsche temporarily led a command z. b. V. 5 of the task force Luxembourg .

After the end of the war, Merdsche returned to Frankfurt am Main, where he got a job in a law firm. He was denazified as exonerated in 1949 in Frankfurt am Main after a court proceedings , although the prosecution u. a. had demanded his classification as the main offender for the imposition of a verdict on racial disgrace . Merdsche's classification as exonerated was confirmed in the appeal. France meanwhile operated its extradition, which was prevented by the responsible "extradition board". In absentia, he was sentenced to death in 1950 by the military court in Lyon and in 1955 by the military court in Paris . Although he was wanted as a war criminal in Luxembourg, after the assurance of safe conduct he gave testimony before the court in Luxembourg at the end of 1950 . Merdsche was able to return to the Hessian judicial service in 1960 and, as a judge, took over the chairmanship of a chamber for commercial matters at the Frankfurt am Main regional court. Against Merdsche, u. a. also the Attorney General Fritz Bauer , who had to stop his investigation: Merdsche could not be proven guilty due to his judicial work at the special court in Frankfurt am Main. He eventually resigned for health reasons out of the judicial service and worked until 1974 in his hometown as editor of the New Legal Wochenschrift the publisher CH Beck . Merdsche, against whom the Central Office of the State Justice Administration was investigating and who was targeted by Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld , died in 1985.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Bernhard Brunner: The France Complex. The National Socialist Crimes in France and the Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany . Wallstein, Göttingen 2004, p. 58f.
  2. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 404.
  3. ^ Bernhard Brunner: The France Complex. The National Socialist Crimes in France and the Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany . Wallstein, Göttingen 2004, p. 74
  4. ^ Bernhard Brunner: The France Complex. The National Socialist Crimes in France and the Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany . Wallstein, Göttingen 2004, p. 76
  5. ^ Bernhard Brunner: The France Complex. The National Socialist Crimes in France and the Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany . Wallstein, Göttingen 2004, p. 169f.
personal data
SURNAME Merdsche, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merdsche, Fritz (nickname); Merdche, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1985
Place of death Ühlingen-Birkendorf