Fritz Schwalm

Fritz Schwalm during the Nuremberg Trials

Fritz Schwalm , actually Friedrich Heinrich Schwalm (born May 11, 1910 in Marburg ; † unknown) was a German SS leader and convicted war criminal .

Life

Schwalm, whose father was a master shoemaker, graduated from high school with the Abitur . From 1929 he began studying at the University of Marburg , which he had to break off there after two semesters. The background was an insulting statement by Schwalm to the Prussian minister of education Carl Heinrich Becker . Schwalm then continued his teaching degree in German , history, geography and racial studies at the universities of Tübingen and Munich . Schwalm was particularly interested in racial studies. In the early 1930s, he conducted an anthropological comparative study in a Bavarian village. Using this study, Schwalm wanted to determine the racial characteristics of members of different denominations. His mentor in questions of race was Bruno Kurt Schultz, an employee of the Anthropological Institute in Munich . However, Schwalm was no longer able to process the results of this study in a planned dissertation and had to break off his studies because he was working full-time for the SS from 1934 .

Political activity

At the age of 14, Schwalm belonged to political youth organizations, such as the German youth hikers. From 1929 he belonged to the NS student union , the NSDAP ( membership number 169.108) and the SA . From the SA he switched to the SS in 1932 (membership number 41,561).

Race officer of the SS

From 1934 he was a full-time SS leader at the Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA). As a “specialist guide in race and settlement”, he initially worked as a senior training officer at the SS Upper Section Rhine and the SS Upper Section Fulda-Werra. In this role he taught race issues and also published an article in the educational journal “Heimat und Arbeit” with the title: “Race and heritage care in the village community”. Soon he held the title of racial officer .

Second World War

After the beginning of the Second World War , Schwalm took part in the French campaign as a lieutenant in the army . After that he was made indispensable and in September 1940 he was transferred to the Litzmannstadt ( Łódź ) migrant center as its head. His tasks there included, among other things, the organization of the activities of proficiency testers and their training. In addition, he carried out racial investigations for Germanizations in the so-called General Government and was also involved in resettlement campaigns. In October 1941, Schwalm changed to the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Ostland Friedrich Jeckeln as race and settlement leader . Due to the war, he soon took over the role of adjutant and SS special leader in the "Kampfgruppe Jeckeln" in the staff of the Waffen SS at HSSPF Jeckeln . The "Kampfgruppe Jeckeln" was involved in massacres of Jews in Latvia . Due to a fall from his horse in April 1942, Schwalm was considered unfit for war. Schwalm, however, was promoted to Hauptsturmführer of the Waffen-SS and was later awarded the medal Winter Battle in the East 1941/42 . From October 1942 to the spring of 1943 Schwalm was employed as a RuS leader with the HSSPF Caucasus and in 1943 received the rank of SS Obersturmbannführer. In March 1943 he was transferred back to the RuSHA, where he worked as a staff leader until the end of the war. In this function he succeeded his former mentor Schultz. On April 20, 1945 Schwalm was promoted to SS-Standartenführer.

After the end of the war

After the end of the war, Schwalm was interned and charged with 13 other accused during the Nuremberg Trials in the Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS on July 1, 1947. On March 10, 1948, Schwalm was sentenced to ten years in prison. Schwalm was found guilty on all three counts - crimes against humanity , war crimes, and membership in criminal organizations . In particular, his involvement in the Germanization of Polish families, resettlement campaigns, deportation of Polish children to the German Reich and the use of Polish civilians for forced labor were accused. Schwalm was released early on February 1, 1951 from the Landsberg war crimes prison . Then he went into business for himself with a laundry. Schwalm continued to keep in contact with former RuSHA leaders, as evidenced by a correspondence from Schwalm in the spring of 1976.

Isabel Heinemann sees the functions of the Schwalm more comprehensively until the 1970s:

A key figure within the RuSHA network after 1945 was ... Schwalm, who ... (sc. The letter partner Vopersal) provided extensive information on the whereabouts and addresses of former RuSHA members. He also knew who - how B. Gustav Exner, the former lawyer of the SS-Welfare and Administration Main Office, which belonged to the RuSHA after 1942 - was still trying to keep his activities secret, and who consequently could only be approached with caution for information.

literature

• Hans-Christian Harten, Uwe Neirich, Matthias Schwerendt: Racial hygiene as an educational ideology of the Third Reich. Bio-bibliographical manual , Akademie Verlag, Edition Bildung und Wissenschaft Volume 10, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-05-004094-3, ISBN 3-05-004094-7 .
• Isabel Heinemann: “Race, Settlement, German Blood”: The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe . Wallstein, Göttingen 2003 ISBN 3-89244-623-7
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .

Web links

• Institute for Contemporary History : Fritz Schwalm's interrogation minutes as part of the Nuremberg Trials (PDF; 4.7 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ after March 9, 1976. On the day he wrote a letter to the "SS comrade" Werner Vopersal, mentioned good contacts to and occasional meetings with "old colleagues". Federal Archives-Military Archives N756 / 55
2. ^ ^{A b c d e} Hans-Christian Harten, Uwe Neirich, Matthias Schwerendt: Rassenhygiene as an educational ideology of the Third Reich. Bio-bibliographical manual , Berlin 2006, pp. 272f
3. ↑ ^{a b} Fritz Schwalm on www.dws-xip.pl
4. ↑ ^{a b} Isabel Heinemann: "Race, settlement, German blood": The race and settlement main office of the SS and the racial reorganization of Europe. Göttingen 2003, p. 635f
5. ^ ^{A b} Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 571.
6. ↑ United Nations War Crimes Commission (Ed.): Law reports of trials of war criminals, selected and prepared by the United Nations War Crimes Commission. 3 volume, William S. Hein Publishing, Buffalo (New York) 1997, ISBN 1-57588-403-8 (reprint of the original edition from 1947 to 1949), p. 34
7. ^ Gerhard Hirschfeld, Tobias Jersak: Careers under National Socialism: Functional elites between participation and distance. Campus, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-593-37156-1 , p. 95. See first note above
8. ↑ Isabel Heinemann: "Race, settlement, German blood." The Race and Settlement Main Office of the SS. Wallstein, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-89244-623-7 , p. 587, note 89. Only as an e-book . The quote contains two errors: the SS man Vopersal's first name is Wolfgang; the office was called "und -Versorgungsamt" (or -Hauptamt, there were regional offices and therefore probably also a main office in Berlin; however, the component main- can also be prefixed, so "SS-Haupt-Welfare-" etc.)