Gerhard Bremer

Gerhard Bremer (born July 25, 1917 in Düsterntal , district of Delligsen , district of Gandersheim ; † October 29, 1989 in Alicante , Spain ) was a German officer in the Waffen-SS , bearer of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and, after the Second World War, a building contractor in Spain. He was apparently involved in war crimes in connection with the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944 .

Life

Pre-war period

Bremer attended the Alfeld high school from 1927 to 1933 and the NPEA Plön from Easter 1933 to Easter 1936 , where he passed his Abitur in 1936 . On October 1, 1936, he became a volunteer member of the III. Battalions of the SS-Standarte Germania in Wolterdingen (SS-Member No. 310 405). In 1937 he attended the SS Junker School in Bad Tölz and in the autumn of 1938 came to the 10th Company of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in Berlin-Lichterfelde as SS-Untersturmführer . With his company he took part in the occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938 and from then on in all campaigns up to the end of the Second World War.

Second World War

During the attack on Poland from September 1, 1939, he received as an orderly officer or adjutant in the staff of III. Battalion in front of Warsaw the Iron Cross 2nd class and in Flanders in 1940 the Iron Cross 1st class.

Bremer also took part in the attack on Yugoslavia and Greece (1941) and was then transferred to the Leibstandarte's reconnaissance department. With the attack on the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941) it was deployed in southern Russia. During the capture of the city of Mariupol on the shores of the Azov Sea , which was strongly defended by the Soviet Army , he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross as SS-Obersturmführer and leader of the 1st (motorbike) company on October 30, 1941.

Bremer led the motorcycle company until April 1943, was then promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer and from June 1943 took over the leadership of the III. Battalion of the 26th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment of the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth" . On April 1944, he was appointed commander of SS Panzer Reconnaissance Department 12 in Belgium and thus successor to Erich Olboeter. In the course of the Allied invasion (June 1944) in the Caen area , he took over the flank protection on the left side of the division. There he offered fanatical resistance to the opposing troops. Bremer was reportedly involved in war crimes in this regard , including the execution of Canadian prisoners of war near Putot-en-Bessin. Then he broke out of the Falaise pocket with the remnants of his department and followed the general retreat of the Wehrmacht behind the Seine to the Meuse. There he set up a reception position in the Namur area, which enabled him to hold a wide section of the retreat of the 5th Panzer Army against the American troops of General George S. Patton . For this, Bremer received the 668th Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross.

After the department in Westphalia was refreshed, Bremer took part in the Ardennes Offensive in the winter of 1944/1945 and - after its failure - was deployed in Hungary from February 1945. At the end of the war he was with the remnants of his unit in the St. Pölten area and surrendered to the Soviet armed forces.

post war period

Transferred to French captivity , he was released in July 1948 and emigrated to Denia , Spain with his wife Almut in 1954 . As a building contractor and property manager, he set up a bungalow estate there, which his son Gerd and his wife continued to run after his death. Mainly Germans settle in this settlement (as holiday or permanent residence). At that time, the city itself was the contact point for many high-ranking SS officers and war criminals. Otto Skorzeny , Johannes Bernhardt (NSDAP-AO), Anton Galler, Otto Ernst Remer and the long-sought SS doctor Aribert Heim lived here at times .

Gerhard Bremer died on October 29, 1989 at the age of 72 in Alicante, Spain. He was buried in Denia.

literature

Howard Margolian: Conduct Unbecoming - The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2000, ISBN 9780802042132 . Also available as an ebook.

Individual evidence

↑ Deutschlandfunk: A place in the sun for the SS . s. P. 13 of the manuscript (PDF link)
↑ See the following The 12th SS Panzer Division “Hitlerjugend”: SS-Sturmbannführer Gerd Bremer ( Memento from July 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
^ English-language page about the SS division "Hitler Youth" , it says: "Both sides had suffered serious losses, and again many Canadian prisoners were executed after their surrender. The SS-Aufklärungs -teilung 12 (reconnaissance battalion) under SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Bremer participated in the attacks on June 8th and they were responsible for the after the battle killing of over a dozen Canadian troops. Bremer himself is reported to have been directly involved. The 2nd Battalion of the Monke's 26th Regiment murdered a further 20 some odd men, most from the Winnipeg Rifles in Putot. Before their capture the men who defended Putot had inflicted numerous casualties on the 2nd Battalion but the bodies of the murdered Canadians were found well away from the village. "
↑ "Bremers Park Bungalows", Carrer de Tritó 12, Partida de Las Rotas, 03720 Denia, Bremer is said to have performed there in SS uniform as late as the 1980s, s. Holger Weber, Mallorca newspaper, January 17th, 2008: Spain: A paradise for Hitler's henchmen ; his son Gerd Bremer now (as of February 2009) also runs an “aparthotel” in El Tossalet near Denia, cf. http://www.qype.fr/place/preview/es-193469-aparthotel-gerd-bremer-denia
↑ According to the latest findings, Heim probably died as early as 1992 in Cairo / (Egypt), cf. http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/06/aribert-heim- discovered
↑ J. Justo Moncho, Denia.com, August 3, 2019: Important Nazi criminals rest with impunity with the neighbors of the Dianensen in the cemetery

personal data
SURNAME	Bremer, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German SS member, knight's cross holder and building contractor
DATE OF BIRTH	July 25, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH	Düsterntal, Gandersheim district
DATE OF DEATH	October 29, 1989
Place of death	Alicante , Spain

[1] Deutschlandfunk: A place in the sun for the SS . s. P. 13 of the manuscript (PDF link)

[2] See the following The 12th SS Panzer Division “Hitlerjugend”: SS-Sturmbannführer Gerd Bremer ( Memento from July 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

[3] English-language page about the SS division "Hitler Youth" , it says: "Both sides had suffered serious losses, and again many Canadian prisoners were executed after their surrender. The SS-Aufklärungs -teilung 12 (reconnaissance battalion) under SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Bremer participated in the attacks on June 8th and they were responsible for the after the battle killing of over a dozen Canadian troops. Bremer himself is reported to have been directly involved. The 2nd Battalion of the Monke's 26th Regiment murdered a further 20 some odd men, most from the Winnipeg Rifles in Putot. Before their capture the men who defended Putot had inflicted numerous casualties on the 2nd Battalion but the bodies of the murdered Canadians were found well away from the village. "

[4] "Bremers Park Bungalows", Carrer de Tritó 12, Partida de Las Rotas, 03720 Denia, Bremer is said to have performed there in SS uniform as late as the 1980s, s. Holger Weber, Mallorca newspaper, January 17th, 2008: Spain: A paradise for Hitler's henchmen ; his son Gerd Bremer now (as of February 2009) also runs an “aparthotel” in El Tossalet near Denia, cf. http://www.qype.fr/place/preview/es-193469-aparthotel-gerd-bremer-denia

[5] According to the latest findings, Heim probably died as early as 1992 in Cairo / (Egypt), cf. http://www.zeit.de/online/2009/06/aribert-heim- discovered

[6] J. Justo Moncho, Denia.com, August 3, 2019: Important Nazi criminals rest with impunity with the neighbors of the Dianensen in the cemetery