Fritz Schellhorn

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Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn (born September 24, 1888 in Rottweil ; † May 4, 1982 in Rottenburg am Neckar ) was a German diplomat who was consul in Romania from 1934 to 1944 . Schellhorn supported Jews persecuted in World War II ; he is credited with saving many thousands of people from deportation.

Life

Schellhorn grew up in a Catholic family in Rottweil. His father was a lawyer and notary. After graduating from high school, he studied medicine in Tübingen, Berlin, Munich and Lausanne. In 1906 he became a member of the Catholic student union AV Guestfalia Tübingen . After completing his doctorate in Tübingen, he became an assistant doctor at the pathological institute of the University of Tübingen. Traumatized by the war as a doctor from 1914 to 1918, he was no longer able to work as a doctor, although the position of assistant doctor had been kept free for him. He studied political science and obtained his doctorate in 1920 as a Dr.scient.pol. in Tübingen.

In 1920 Schellhorn joined the Foreign Service. Abroad he was deployed in Brussels, Reykjavík, Vienna and from 1931 to 1933 as counselor in Paris. From 1934 to 1944 he was consul in Romania ( Chernivtsi , 1940/41 Jassy ).

In August 1933 (backdated to May 1) he joined the NSDAP. After conservative friends were murdered in the “ Röhmputsch ” in July 1934, he turned away from National Socialism, but remained a member. As early as January 1936, he was confidentially reported that his "striving" was "to overthrow today's Hitler-Germany."

Schellhorn was in Soviet captivity from 1944 to 1955. Without a factual basis, he was sentenced to a single sentence of 25 years in prison for espionage.

Use to save Jews

Schellhorn campaigned for an end to the pogrom in Jassy in June 1941 .

In July 1941 in Chernivtsi he was able to bring about an end to the murders of Einsatzkommando 10b of Einsatzgruppe D by convincing the commandant Alois Persterer that the command could cause diplomatic entanglements in friendly Romania with its sovereign actions. This result is also attributed to an alleged time limit for the approval of the Romanian government for the operations of the task force.

German passport issued to a Jewish woman in Romania by consul Fritz Schellhorn in 1938.

On October 15, 1941, Schellhorn reached 20,000 with a lecture to the military governor of Bukowina, Corneliu Calotescu , that the deportation of the Jews from Czernowitz hurt economic and military interests - including German - that the Romanian Prime Minister, Marshal Ion Antonescu , who had known Schellhorn personally since 1939 Protected Jews from the ordered and already initiated deportation. This success is also attributed to the mayor of Czernowitz (1941–1942), Traian Popovici , but only on the basis of his own unsubstantiated testimony later. In 1969 Yad Vashem gave Popovici the title of “Righteous Among the Nations”. There were further attempts to influence Antonescu, of which, however, a chain of causation for Antonescu's change of heart on October 15, 1941 is not apparent.

Of those deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina after 1941, around two thirds did not survive these deportations.

Schellhorn wrote an official report to the Foreign Office in 1961: “Record of the events during my activity as head of the German consulate in Chernivtsi, Jassy, ​​again in Chernivtsi and the consular department of the embassy in Bucharest” (86 pages MS, plus six affidavits Insurance). This “recording” has been in the political archive of the Foreign Office (Schellhorn estate) since 1961, is publicly accessible, but only published in excerpts.

Sources and literature

  • Ottmar Trasca, Dennis Deletant: Al III-lea Reich şi Holocaustul din Romania, 1940–1944 Documents din arhivele germane. Editura institutului National pentru Studierea Holocaustului din România "Elie Wiesel", Bucureşti 2007, ISBN 978-973-88354-0-5 .
  • Traian Popovici: My confession. In: Hugo Gold : History of the Jews in Bukovina. Vol. 2, Publishing house olamenu, Tel Aviv 1962, pp. 62-70. (Translation of part of the Romanian version from the following title).
  • Matatias Carp: Cartea Neagra. Vol. 3 No. 100, Ed. Diogene, Bucureşti 1946, p. 164 ff. Dr. Traian POPOVICI, Spovedania fostului primar al Municipiului Cernâuţi.
  • Manfred Reifer: People and Ideas. Edition Olympia Martin Feuchtwanger, Tel Aviv 1953.
  • Mariana Hausleitner : The Romanization of Bukowina R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-56585-0 .
  • Mariana Hausleitner: Rescue operations for persecuted Jews with special consideration of the Bukovina. In: W. Benz, B. Mihok (eds.): Holocaust on the periphery. Jewish policy and murder of Jews in Romania and Transnistria 1940–1944. Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-940938-34-3 , pp. 113-128.
  • Andrej Angrick : Task Force D and the collaboration. In: Wolfgang Kaiser: perpetrators in the war of extermination. The attack on the Soviet Union and the genocide of the Jews. Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-549-07161-2 , p. 71 ff.
  • Vladimir Solonari: Purifying the Nation - Population Exchange and Ethnic Cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania. Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC 2010, ISBN 978-0-8018-9408-4 .
  • Hartwig Cremers: Consul General Dr. Dr. Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn. In: Half-yearly publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics. 23rd year, issue 1–2, autumn 2011, ISSN  0939-3420 .
  • Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871-1945 . Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 4, Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-71843-3 . Hartwig Cremers: Czernowitz 1941/1942 - the work of the German consul Fritz Schellhorn for the Jews. In: Südost-Forschungen Vol. 73, 2014 (published May 2016), Munich, pp. 444–473
  • Hartwig Cremers: Czernowitz 1941/1942 - the work of the German consul Fritz Schellhorn for the Jews. In: Südost-Forschungen Vol. 73, 2014 (published May 2016), Berlin / Boston, pp. 444–473, ISSN 0081-9077.
  • Hartwig Cremers: German Consul Fritz Schellhorn's Interventions on Behalf of Jews in Czernowitz Yad Vashem Studies, 46: 2 2018 pp. 115–149.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartwig Cremers: Consul General Dr. Dr. Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn. In: Half-yearly publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics. 23rd year, issue 1–2, autumn 2011, p. 131.
  2. ↑ Hartwig Cremers: Consul General Dr. Dr. Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn. In: Half-yearly publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics. 23rd year, issue 1–2, autumn 2011, p. 131, note 8.
  3. ↑ Ottmar Trasca, Dennis Deletant: Al III-lea Reich şi Holocaustul din Romania, 1940–1944 Documents din arhivele germane. Bucureşti 2007, p. 162 ff.
  4. ↑ Hartwig Cremers: Consul General Dr. Dr. Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn. In: Half-yearly publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics. 23rd year, issue 1–2, autumn 2011, p. 133.
  5. ↑ Andrej Angrick: The task force D and the collaboration. In: Wolfgang Kaiser: perpetrators in the war of extermination. P. 71 ff. (73). However, no evidence is given for this.
  6. ↑ Vladimir Solonari: The treatment of the Jews of Bukovina by the soviet and Romanian administrations 1940-1944. (PDF; 446 kB) p. 170 ff.
  7. ↑ Vladimir Solonari: Purifying the Nation - Population Exchange and Ethnic Cleansing in Nazi-Allied Romania. Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC 2010, pp. 215 ff.
  8. ↑ Hartwig Cremers: Consul General Dr. Dr. Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn. In: Half-yearly publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics. 23rd year, issue 1–2, autumn 2011, p. 134 ff. (Online)
  9. ↑ Hartwig Cremers: Consul General Dr. Dr. Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn. (Also a contribution to the history of the Jews in Czernowitz 1940–1943), Consul general Dr. Dr. Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn (At the same time an essay on the history of the Jews in Czernowitz 1940–1943) p. 7 ff.
  10. ↑ Manfred Reifer: People and Ideas. Tel Aviv 1953, p. 244.
  11. ^ Traian Popovici: My confession. In: Hugo Gold: History of the Jews in Bukovina. Tel Aviv 1962, Vol. 2, p. 66.
personal data
SURNAME Schellhorn, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schellhorn, Fritz Gebhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Rottweil
DATE OF DEATH May 4th 1982
Place of death Rottenburg am Neckar