Fritz Bracht

Fritz Bracht

Fritz Bracht (right) with SS officers at the National Socialist exhibition “Planning and Construction in the East” in 1941, photo from the Federal Archives

Fritz Bracht (born January 18, 1899 in Heiden (today in Lage (Lippe) ), † May 9, 1945 in Bad Kudowa ( suicide )) was the NSDAP Gauleiter of Upper Silesia from 1941 .

Life

Bracht's father was a worker. After attending elementary and advanced training school from 1905 to 1914, Fritz Bracht trained as a gardener . In February 1917 he volunteered for the First World War . Most recently private, he received the Iron Cross II. Class and the Front Fighter Badge. From the end of the war until December 1919 he was a British prisoner of war . During the Weimar Republic he also worked as a machinist, as he could not find a job as a gardener. He married in the late 20s or early 30s, and the marriage resulted in a child.

On April 1, 1927 Bracht joined the NSDAP ( member number at 77,890), at the same time he became SA - lieutenant . Between 1928 and 1931 Bracht was the local group leader of the NSDAP in Plettenberg and at the same time district leader of the party in the Sauerland . Between 1929 and 1933 he was a city councilor for the NSDAP in Plettenberg. He also headed the NSDAP district association in Altena from March 1, 1931 to April 30, 1935 . From April 24, 1932 to October 14, 1933, Bracht belonged to the NSDAP parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament .

After the " seizure of power ", Bracht was elected to the now insignificant Reichstag on November 12, 1933 . Bracht was promoted several times in the SA: on October 15, 1933 to SA-Sturmbannführer, on April 30, 1938 to SA-Brigadführer, on January 30, 1941 to SA-Gruppenführer and on April 20, 1944 to SA-Obergruppenführer. In 1938 he was SA leader for use in the staff of the SA group in Silesia.

On May 1, 1935, he took over the post of Deputy Gauleiter in Silesia . After the dismissal of the local Gauleiter Josef Wagner , Bracht was entrusted with the management of the Gau Silesia from April 27, 1940, before the Gau Silesia was divided into Upper and Lower Silesia. On January 27, 1941, Bracht took over the Gauleitung of Upper Silesia , based in Katowice . His official residence was in the former director's villa of the Giesche company in Gieschewald .

From February 9, 1941, he was also President of the Prussian Province of Upper Silesia . Other functions were connected with the Gau leadership: Bracht became Gau Housing Commissioner as regional representative of the Reich Housing Commissioner Robert Ley , Gau Commissioner of the " Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Folklore " (RKF), from April 6, 1942, commissioner of the "General Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment", Fritz Sauckel , and from November 16, 1942, Reich Defense Commissioner for Upper Silesia.

The three concentration camps in Auschwitz belonged to the von Bracht Gau . Bracht was Himmler's host in his villa in Gieschewald when he visited the concentration camps on July 16 and 17, 1942. On July 17, 1942, Bracht and Himmler participated in the killing of a transport of Jews that had just arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau . They were present at the selection of those able to work, the gassing and the evacuation of the gas chamber . Bracht and Himmler were also in Auschwitz-Monowitz concentration camp . When the Red Army was advancing , Bracht issued guidelines for the evacuation of prisoners and prisoners of war in his capacity as Reich Defense Commissioner on December 21, 1944. The death marches on which the SS drove prisoners from the concentration camps westward were organized on the basis of these guidelines .

Already on September 25, 1944 , Bracht had been appointed leader of the Volkssturm in his Gau, and during the Red Army's offensive on January 24, 1945, Bracht moved to an alternate base in Neisse . He had previously refused evacuation measures for the German civilian population. A few days later, Bracht went to the spa town of Bad Kudowa in Lower Silesia . Officially, he was supposed to cure a tuberculosis disease there with the permission of Hitler or Bormann . On May 9, 1945, shortly before the invasion of the Red Army in Bad Kudowa, committed Bracht with his wife Paula using cyanide capsules suicide .

meaning

Between 1935 and 1940, deputy Gauleiter Josef Wagner , Bracht probably in 1936 increased in importance: Starting this year, Wagner held frequently in Berlin because he Reich Commissioner for pricing the envoy for the four-year plan , Hermann Goering was appointed. In contrast to other Gauleiters, Bracht was hardly able to develop an independent profile: This was probably due to his origins and his professional training, but also to his lack of charisma and poor assertiveness. Bracht only gained greater importance when the Upper Silesian industrial area became increasingly important to the war effort from 1942 onwards, because this area, in contrast to the Ruhr area and other industrial areas, was outside the reach of the British and American bomber associations.

literature

• Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , p. 59.
• Joachim Lilla (editor): The deputy Gauleiter and the representative of the Gauleiter of the NSDAP in the “Third Reich” (= materials from the Federal Archives. Issue 13). Wirtschaftsverlag NW, Bremerhaven 2003, ISBN 3-86509-020-6 .
• Michael Rademacher: Handbook of the NSDAP Gaue 1928–1945. The officials of the NSDAP and their organizations at Gau and district level in Germany and Austria as well as in the Reichsgau Gdansk-West Prussia, Sudetenland and Wartheland. Lingenbrink, Vechta 2000, ISBN 3-8311-0216-3 .
• Wolfgang Stelbrink: The district leaders of the NSDAP in Westphalia and Lippe. Attempt of a collective biography with a biographical appendix (= publications of the state archives of North Rhine-Westphalia, Series C. Volume 48). North Rhine-Westphalian State Archives, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-932892-14-3 .
• Mirosław Węcki: Fritz Bracht (1899–1945). Nazistowski zarządca Górnego Śląska w latach II wojny światowej. Katowice 2014, ISBN 978-83-63031-24-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar of the events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989, ISBN 3-498-00884-6 , p. 250 f.
2. ↑ Picture at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
3. ^ Andrzej Strzelecki: The death march of the inmates from KL Auschwitz. In: Ulrich Herbert u. a. (Ed.): The National Socialist Concentration Camps - Development and Structure. Volume I. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-89244-289-4 , pp. 1093-1112.

Web links

Commons : Fritz Bracht  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Fritz Bracht in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Fritz Bracht in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Fritz Bracht in the database of members of the Reichstag