Georg Kemmet

Georg Kemmet (born August 17, 1893 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ; † April 9, 1969 there ) was a German SS functionary.

Life and activity

Early life

Kemmet was one of ten children of master cooper Georg Kemmet and his wife Maria. He attended primary school until he was 14 years old. He then completed a three-year apprenticeship as a mechanic at Steinmüller in Mannheim. In the following years he was assigned to the companies Gebrüder S in Ludwigshaben and Beck and Henkel in Kassel with elevator installations, which he carried out at home and abroad. From 1913 he belonged to the II. Sailor Division in Wilhelmshaven, where he was stationed on the flagship of the I. Squadron East Friesland.

From 1914 to 1918 Kemmet took part in the First World War. In the first months of the war he remained at his post on the flagship of the 1st Squadron East Friesland. In April 1915, Kemmet registered as a sea aviator and was then transferred to the Second Sea Aviation Department. This was followed by training in Norderney , whereupon in June 1915 he was assigned to the sea flight station in Zeebrugge as a naval pilot (flight mechanic chief mate). For his achievements as a pilot during the war he received the Iron Cross of both classes and the Bavarian Military Merit Order.

During the Weimar Republic , Kemmet worked as a machine fitter at the IG Farben factories in Ludwigshafen, most recently as a shift foreman (machine foreman) at the Oppau plant (compressed air turbine and steam center).

Involvement in terrorist attacks in the early 1930s

On August 15, 1930, Kemmet was accepted as a member of the NSDAP (membership number 401.148). He also joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) (SS No. 3,654), the party's police force. On January 30, 1931, Kemmet was appointed Sturmführer and Adjutant of the Second SS Standard by Heinrich Himmler . From November 1931 Kemmet took care of the adjutant of the 10th SS Standard, whose leader at that time was Theodor Eicke , who later became the commander of the Dachau Concentration Camp and the SS Death's Head Associations. At this time Kemmet began to advertise for the NSDAP among his colleagues at IG Farben. In 1932 the Ludwigshafen plant was described in the press as the "National Socialist Headquarters". From January to October 1932 Kemmet then acted as a regular adjutant of the 10th Standard.

In 1931/1932 Kemmet was involved in a series of terrorist explosive attacks by members of the SS on political opponents in the Palatinate. The leading man in the organization and implementation of these attacks was his superior Eicke. Kemmet, who was Eickes' adjutant at the time, supported him in the bomb attacks by using his position at the BASF works to procure the materials needed to make the bombs. These were mixed together appropriately by the BASF chemist Richard Klemm, who is also a member of the NSDAP. Kemmet had the iron pipes for the bombs manufactured in Building 99 of the Oppau plant by locksmiths and welders who he knew as National Socialists. Allegedly he claimed to them that he needed the pipes as weights for a planned shooting range.

In 1933, Eicke wrote about these events in a letter to Hermann Göring :

"Since I could not possibly handle this [the making of the bombs] alone, I called my adjutant Kemmet, SS-Sturmführer Gaab and SS-Truppführer Dr. Klemm approached for support. In tireless night work, the bombs were made with double-curtained windows in my apartment. "

While Eicke was arrested for these explosives, Kemmet got away with some interrogations by the examining magistrate without imprisonment, mainly because Eicke, who refused to name his accomplices, was covering him. However, Eicke, who then spent several months in custody, felt betrayed by Kemmet because of his limited efforts to help him regain his freedom and because of his rapprochement with his intimate enemy, the Gauleiter of the NSDAP in the Palatinate Bürckel , so that at that time a deep personal rift was created.

Kemmet lost his position at the BASF works in February 1932: According to his own statements, he was dismissed because of his involvement in the bomb attacks and "dismantled" to the outside world.

A case against Kemmet opened in October 1932 was dropped in January 1933. In his regular SS role, he falsely claimed to have been sentenced to two years' imprisonment and given an amnesty, as Niels Weise was able to determine by comparing it with a relevant letter from the chief public prosecutor at the Zweibrücken regional court to the public prosecutor's office.

Life in the Nazi state

After the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Kemmet was appointed special representative of the government of the Palatinate at the Ludwigshafen Police Department in March 1933. In the same month he set up his office in this capacity in the editorial rooms of the banned social democratic newspaper Pfälzische Post , whose building had previously been confiscated by the SS.

On September 9, 1933, Kemmet was seriously injured in an argument at the annual Dürkheimer Wurstmarkt when someone hit him over the head with a wine bottle.

In January 1934 Kemmet was assigned to the security service of the SS (SD) by the staff of the 10th SS Standard.

In November 1934, Kemmet was appointed head of the Ludwigshafen Border Guard. From November 1934 to March 1936 he was in charge of SS Section XXIX. Formally, he was transferred back to the General SS from the SD on December 16, 1935 on the basis of a request from the chief of the Main Security Office of December 20, 1935 to the personnel chancellery of the Reichsführer SS. Since April 1, Kemmet was employed as an official in the Saar-Palatinate Gau of the NSDAP. In addition, he was an associate member of the district court.

With effect from February 15, 1936, Kemmet was appointed SS leader in the SS Section XXIX staff. With effect from March 1, 1937, he was removed from his position as SS leader in the staff of Section XXIX and appointed SS leader in the staff of Section XXXIV.

During the Second World War , Kemmet was a member of the Kriegsmarine. In 1942 disciplinary proceedings were pending against him in the SS court for violating the War Economy Ordinance.

family

Kemmet was married to Hedwig Hohberg (born January 11, 1893 in Rostock) since July 19, 1918. The marriage resulted in two sons (1919 and 1933) and a daughter (* 1921).

Promotions

• November 15, 1931: SS-Sturmbannführer
• April 20, 1935: SS-Obersturmbannführer

estate

Personnel records on Kemmet have been preserved in the Federal Archives: the holdings of the former BDC include a personal file for honorary judges of the NSDAP's Supreme Party Court in Kemmet (OPG judge microfilm No. 49, non-foiled), a file on race and Settlement Main Office of the SS to him (microfilm RS C 5363, pictures 161–174) and an SS personnel file (SSO 162-A, pictures 705–763).

literature

• Niels Weise: Eicke: An SS career between a mental hospital, concentration camp system and Waffen-SS , 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Weise: Eicke , p. 102.
2. ^ Weise: Eicke , p. 101.
3. ^ Weise: Eicke , p. 100.
4. ^ Weise: Eicke , p. 124.
5. ^ Weise: Eicke , p. 169.