Fritz Degelow

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Fritz Degelow (born February 25, 1892 - † February 4, 1958 ) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer and used as a commander of the guard battalion at the Dachau concentration camp .

biography

Degelow, a certified public accountant, joined the SS in October 1933 ( membership number 178,978). From 1940 to 1941 he was in a leading position with the SS-Totenkopfstandarte 15. He then headed the SS replacement battalion “Westland” until 1943 and then worked for a tank corps of the Waffen-SS until June 1944 . From June 23, 1944, Degelow was battalion commander of the guard company at the Dachau concentration camp and also headed the guards of the Kaufering subcamps. On April 26, 1945, he led an evacuation march of almost 7,000 prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp, which he had stopped near Wolfratshausen on April 28, 1945 . On this march, many prisoners died as a result of being shot by SS men because they were unable to march. However, quite a few also died from exhaustion.

On November 15, 1945 in Degelow was Dachau main process , in response to the Dachau trials took place when war American US by a military court indicted and on 13 December 1945, thirty-five other co-defendants to death by the strand convicted. In the judgment, the leadership of the evacuation march from the Dachau concentration camp on April 26, 1945 was taken into account as individual excesses at Degelow. In his defense, Degelow stated that he was not responsible for the evacuation march, but had acted on the orders of the camp commandant Eduard Weiter . The sentence was later reduced to a ten-year prison term. Degelow was imprisoned in the Landsberg War Crimes Prison and released on December 7, 1951.

Nothing is known about the time after his detention. Fritz Degelow died on February 4, 1958 in Essen.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Holger Lessing: The first Dachau trial (1945/46). , Baden-Baden 1993, p. 318
personal data
SURNAME Degelow, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of the guard company in Dachau concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1892
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 1958