Fritz Rank

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Fritz Rang (born April 9, 1899 in Grottau / Böhmen ; † unknown) was SS standard leader and criminal director in the National Socialist German Reich , head of Office Group C of Office IV ( Gestapo ) in the Reich Main Security Office .

Origin and studies

At the First World War Rank participated as a soldier in order to subsequently 1919/20 the Freikorps Epp join. From 1922/23 he was a member of the paramilitary organization Stahlhelm . He studied agriculture and natural sciences and was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD . After relevant practical experience, in October 1932 he became a state farmer's leader in Oldenburg / Lower Saxony and managing director of the Office for Agricultural Policy in the NSDAP -Gau Weser-Ems. In April 1933 he became a member of the NSDAP with the number 1,366,023. He was entered into the SS with membership no. 122,074 added.

At the security service of the SS

His political ambitions led him to head the press department in the main office of the SS security service in January 1934 . When Dr. Franz Six replaced Dr. Rank in the Office of the Secret State Police (Gestapo), where he was also responsible for press work.

In a letter dated December 16, 1936 to the President of the Reichsschrifttumskammer , Dr. Rank with:

"I have instructed all the state police headquarters in the Reich to seize and confiscate copies of Thomas Mann's works that appear ."

From October 1939 to January 1940 he headed the Zichenau state police station in Poland .

In the Reich Security Main Office

According to the business distribution plan of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) from March 1941, Rank as SS-Sturmbannführer and Government Councilor was head of Office Group IV C (index system). Due to the reorganization of the RSHA in March 1944, he - meanwhile SS-Standartenführer and criminal director - was led as head of Section IV B 3 (southern areas). He was also a member of a special commission of the RSHA formed on the night of July 20, 1944, which was headed by Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller and was tasked with investigating the resistance group surrounding the Hitler assassin Stauffenberg .

Fritz Rang's whereabouts after the end of the war is unknown.

literature

  • Michael Wildt: Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office , Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. Werner Schroeder: "... a treasure trove of literature information". The Leipzig “Office for Document Processing at the Main Security Office (SD)” and the “SD Liaison Office at the German Library” . In: Monika Gibas (Ed.): "Aryanization" in Leipzig. Approaching a long repressed chapter of the city's history from 1933 to 1945. , Leipzig 2007, p. 117.
  2. ^ Quotation from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 479.