Fritz Katzmann

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From left to right: Friedrich Warzok, Fritz Katzmann and Heinrich Himmler in the Lemberg-Janowska forced labor camp

Fritz Katzmann , actually Friedrich Katzmann , (born May 6, 1906 in Langendreer , † September 19, 1957 in Darmstadt ) was a German SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS and the police.

Life

Katzmann, son of a miner, attended elementary school and then trained as a carpenter . The SA was one Katzman from early December 1927 to early July 1930. At the beginning of September 1928, Katzmann joined the NSDAP (membership number 98.528) and in September 1930 the SS (SS number 3.065). On December 5, 1930, he became SS-Scharführer , on January 23, 1931, SS-Truppführer , on August 20, 1931, SS-Sturmführer , on December 1, 1932, SS-Hauptsturmführer , on April 20, 1933, SS- Sturmbannführer promoted.

Katzmann was unemployed from 1928 to 1933. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, he was councilor in Duisburg from the beginning of April 1933 to the beginning of April 1934 . Katzmann ran on the nomination for the NSDAP at number 643 in the election to the German Reichstag on November 12, 1933, but did not enter the National Socialist Reichstag .

From 1934 he served full-time in the SS. The promotion to SS-Obersturmbannführer took place on January 30, 1934. From April 4, 1934 to March 21, 1938 he commanded the 75th SS standard "Widukind" at its Berlin location . On August 17, 1934, Katzmann was appointed SS-Standartenführer . From mid-August 1936 to mid-August 1942 he was a member of the city council in Berlin. At the same time he was an assessor at the People's Court . On March 21, 1938, he became commander of SS Section VI in Breslau . On November 9, 1938, he was promoted to SS-Oberführer .

Second World War

After the beginning of the Second World War , he was SS and police leader from November 1939 to July 1941 in the Radom district of German-occupied Poland . The appointment as SS-Brigadführer took place on June 21, 1941. After that he was SS and Police Leader of Galicia until April 20, 1943, based in Lemberg (Lwow). He was promoted to major general of the police on September 26, 1941, and was appointed SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police on January 30, 1943.

During his command in Galicia , he was significantly involved in the Holocaust , which was organized in the Wannsee Conference . With the support of his staff and the associated security police , most of the Jews in Eastern Galicia were murdered by the summer of 1943. In a report entitled “Solving the Jewish Question in the Galicia District” of June 30, 1943 to the Higher SS and Police Leader Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger of the General Government , he described in detail his measures and the resulting Jewish resistance:

The so-called "Katzmann Report"

“In the meantime, further resettlement was pursued vigorously, so that with effect from June 23, 1943, all Jewish residential districts could be dissolved. The District of Galicia is now, except for the Jews who are under the control of the SS and Police Leader in camps, free of Jews . The Jews who are still picked up are given special treatment by the respective police and gendarmerie posts . By June 27, 1943, a total of 434,329 Jews had been evacuated. "   

Furthermore, Katzmann and his staff set up a network of camps with forced laborers in eastern Galicia, including Janowska in Lemberg, in Drogobytsch - Boryslaw and on through road IV . From April 20, 1943 to May 8, 1945, Katzmann commanded the SS upper section Vistula / Danzig-West Prussia in military district  XX, based in Danzig, and was there as the successor to the Higher SS and Police Leader Richard Hildebrandt . On July 1, 1944, he was promoted to lieutenant general of the Waffen SS. The evacuation of the Stutthof concentration camp was under his command .

After the end of the war

Katzmann saw the end of the war on the island of Fehmarn . He procured a false ID and continued to live under the name of "Bruno Albrecht" under the name of "Bruno Albrecht" in Württemberg. Katzmann was supported by the SS alumni organization HIAG . A planned escape to Argentina failed because Katzmann fell seriously ill. In 1953, in Ludwigsburg , Katzmann revealed his true identity to a nurse, who, however, kept this knowledge to herself and only disclosed it after his death. In 1955 Katzmann worked in sales at a wood processing company in Wächtersbach . In March 1956 he was registered as "Bruno Albrecht" in Griesheim , where his family now lived. Katzmann died in 1957 in the Alice Hospital in Darmstadt ; his identity was only revealed through a tip from a nurse.

literature

  • Ruth Bettina Birn : The Higher SS and Police Leaders. Himmler's representative in the Reich and in the occupied territories. Düsseldorf 1986. ISBN 3-7700-0710-7
  • Andrzej Bodek; Thomas Sandkuehler: The “Katzmann Report” - balance sheet of the murder of Jews in the district of Galicia. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1995, ISBN 978-3-89468-198-2
  • Thomas Sandkühler: Final solution in Galicia. The murder of Jews in Eastern Poland and the rescue initiatives of Berthold Beitz 1941–1944 . Dietz successor, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-8012-5022-9 .
  • Dieter Pohl : National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944. Oldenbourg, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-486-56233-9 .
  • Joseph Wulf : The Third Reich and its executors. Wiesbaden 1989. ISBN 3-598-04603-0 .
  • Institute for National Remembrance: Solving the Jewish Question in the District of Galicia. (German, English, Polish - the Katzmann Report).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Thomas Sandkühler: Final solution in Galicia. The murder of Jews in Eastern Poland and the rescue initiatives of Berthold Beitz 1941–1944 . Bonn 1996, p. 426 ff.
  2. ↑ Dieter Pohl: National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944 . Munich 1997, p. 416.
  3. ↑ Complete report in: Internationaler Militärgerichtshof Nürnberg (Ed.): The trial of the main war criminals before the International Military Tribunal . Reprint Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7735-2527-3 , Volume 37, pp. 391-431 (Doc. 018-L) - quotation p. 401.
  4. ↑ also quoted by Josef Wulf: The Third Reich and its executors. , Wiesbaden 1989., p. 232.
personal data
SURNAME Katzmann, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Albrecht, Bruno; Katzmann Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS group leader, lieutenant general of the Waffen SS (police) and war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Langendreer near Bochum
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1957
Place of death Darmstadt