Gustav Lombard

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Lombard on March 10, 1943 on the occasion of the award of the Knight's Cross

Gustav Lombard (born April 10, 1895 in Klein-Spiegelberg , district of Prenzlau , † September 18, 1992 in Mühldorf am Inn ) was the SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Waffen SS, in command of several SS divisions. During his time as regimental commander in the RFSS command staff , he coined the term "de-Judaization" for the murder of the Jewish population in the German-occupied areas of Eastern Europe . As a war criminal he was in the Soviet UnionSentenced to 25 years imprisonment, but released in 1955 as part of the amnesty achieved by Konrad Adenauer for German prisoners (see Heimkehrer ). In Germany, the investigations were prosecutor Munich I in 1970 on the grounds that it could "is not applicable to public prosecution with prospects of success" is set.

education

After his father died in 1906, Lombard visited relatives in the United States. In 1913 he passed the high school exams and began studying at the University of Michigan. After the end of the First World War , he returned to Germany in autumn 1919, where he worked for American Express and the Chrysler Motor Company in Berlin.

SS career

Lombard joined the NSDAP on February 10, 1933 (membership number 2.649.630) and in May 1933 the SS (SS number 185.023). He joined the Reiter-SS . On September 15, 1935, he was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer and on September 11, 1938 to SS-Hauptsturmführer . From December 1, 1937 to March 1, 1938 he was a member of the 7th SS equestrian standard in Berlin . On March 1, 1940, he joined the Waffen SS . Also on March 1, 1940, he became SS-Hauptsturmführer of the reserve in the Waffen-SS. On June 21, 1941, he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer of the reserve. The next promotion followed on March 16, 1942, SS-Obersturmbannführer of the reserve, with seniority from March 1, 1942. The next promotions followed on January 30, 1943, SS-Standartenführer of the reserve and on March 13, 1944, SS-Oberführer . On April 20, 1945 he was promoted to SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of the Waffen SS .

See also

Role in genocide

Poland 1940

As leader of the 3rd cavalry squadron of the 1st SS-Totenkopf-Reiter-Standard, he gave the order on April 7, 1940 in Krolowiec : "Shoot non-Germans immediately in the combat zone with regard to the fighting methods of the irregular Polish troops." In the evening, the squadron received an order over the radio to “surround all of the villages in the combat zone for the advancing police force and to take the entire male population prisoner when occupying and searching other villages in the area. The following police force will transport them away. If there is resistance, all men between the ages of 17 and 60 are shot and the entire village is cremated. Every attempt to escape requires immediate shooting. ”In the final report, Hermann Fegelein , Commander of the Standard, names 250 people shot for the action.

Belarus 1941

In July 1941, Himmler ordered the "systematic combing of the Pripjet Marshes " east of Brest. As Sturmbannführer, Lombard commanded the cavalry division of the 1st SS Cavalry Regiment. His instructions for the search of the area read: “There is no male Jew living, no remnant family in the villages”. In this context, Lombard also coined the term "de-Jewification", which now refers to the physical extermination of the Jewish people in the region. A final report concluded that “driving women and children into the marshes did not have the success it was supposed to have, because the marshes were not so deep that they could sink in.” Nevertheless, “it could be said that the action was successful is to be designated. ”In the course of the operation the SS soldiers under Lombard's command murdered at least 11,000 Jewish men, women and children as well as over 400 dispersed Red Army soldiers.

"Partisan War"

As early as 1941 it became clear that the destruction actions of the Waffen SS against the Wehrmacht were to be camouflaged as “ fighting partisans ”. A few scattered Red Army soldiers offered the pretext for "purges", which, however, were primarily aimed at killing the Jewish population.

Lombard was a participant in the Wehrmacht's first anti-partisan course from September 24 to 26, 1941 in Mogilew . The course headed Infantry General Max von Schenckendorff commander of the Rear Army area of Army Group Center . This course went down in history as a prime example of the cooperation between the Wehrmacht and SS in the rear of the army. In the exhibition catalog of the first Wehrmacht exhibition “War of Extermination. Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941–1944 ”he was referred to as the“ School of Terror ”. 61 officers of the OKH, the army group, the security divisions, the field command, the economic inspectorate , the police and the SS took part in the course. These were to serve as multipliers to make known the methods against partisans in the rear Central Army Area. The course participants also took part in two activities in villages. Once, the Central Police Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Max Montua searched a village and dug a “partisan's nest” again. Partisans were not found, but some Jews were shot. The lectures dealt with all topics of fighting partisans with reports from officers of the security associations. Lombard gave one of these short lectures as the commander of the 1st SS Cavalry Regiment. Two SS officers, SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Police Arthur Nebe , Commander of Einsatzgruppe B , and SS Brigad Leader and Lieutenant General of the Police Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Central Russia, gave keynote speeches. Nebe spoke about the cooperation between the Wehrmacht and the SS as well as the "Jewish question with special consideration of the partisan movement". Bach spoke about "Detecting commissioners and fighting partisans during combing operations". The fact that two high-ranking SS officers gave important lectures at a Wehrmacht training course was unusual and was not based on any objective necessity.

In 1942, however, Lombard stated in a meeting between the SS and the Wehrmacht: “One can perhaps negotiate the measures for the most expedient way the Jew should disappear from the areas entrusted to us, but it is certain that he must be removed, because the Jew is the partisan! "

post war period

From the end of the war until 1947, Lombard lived unrecognized as Major Müller in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp in Akamara, in what is now Georgia. His former orderly, SS-Sturmbannführer Wolf, was transferred there in 1947, recognized and denounced him. Lombard was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in 1947 for the rape and murder of a Russian woman and the shooting of partisans by members of his 1st Cavalry Regiment. On October 10, 1955, he was released from prisoner-of-war camp 5110/48 Woikowo as part of the amnesty achieved by Adenauer for German prisoners . With the help of his comrades, he was given an apartment in Munich and was soon hired by Allianz insurance as an insurance salesman . Lombard was also listed as a suspect in the investigation by the Munich I Public Prosecutor's Office, which has been ongoing since 1962, into the destruction of the Jewish communities in the Pripyat region. The termination of the proceedings on December 22, 1970 was made possible due to an amendment to Section 50.2 of the Criminal Code , according to which a particularly cruel execution or low motivation had to be proven, which amounted to a "cold" amnesty for Nazi murderers.

Lombard was active in the mutual aid community of the soldiers of the former Waffen-SS and appeared publicly at comradeship meetings. He died at the age of 97 on September 18, 1992 in Mühldorf am Inn.

Awards

Commands

literature

  • Our honor is loyalty . War diary of the Reichsführer SS command staff, activity reports of the 1st and 2nd SS Inf.-Brigade, the 1st SS-Cav.-Brigade and special commandos of the SS.Europe, Vienna 1965.
  • Martin Cüppers : pioneer of the Shoah. The Waffen-SS, the Reichsführer SS command staff and the extermination of the Jews 1939–1945. (also with the title: ... Shoa ... ). WBG , Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-16022-3 ; New edition ibid., 2011, also published by Primus-Verlag Darmstadt, ISBN 3896787586 .
  • dsb .: Gustav Lombard. A committed murderer of Jews from the Waffen SS . In: Klaus-Michael Mallmann , Gerhard Paul (eds.): Careers of violence. National Socialist perpetrator biographies . ibid., 2004, ISBN 3-534-16654-X , pp. 145-155.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cüppers, Wegbereiter , p. 324.
  2. ↑ 3rd Squadron Diary. dated April 7, 1940, BA-MA, RS 4/310.
  3. ^ Order of the 1st SS Totenkopf Reiter Standard to 3rd Squadron from April 7, 1940, 9.50 p.m., BA-MA, RS 4/683.
  4. ↑ Cüppers, Wegbereiter , pp. 57f.
  5. ↑ Department Order No. 28, Commander Riding Department of August 1, 1941, BA-MA, RS 4/441.
  6. ↑ Department Order No. 36 and 37 of 9 and August 11, 1941, BA-MA, RS 4/441.
  7. ^ Report on the deployment of the Pripjet marshes, August 12, 1941, p. 3f., In: VVN (Ed.), Info-Dienst, 3 (1976), No. 12, unpag.
  8. ↑ Cüppers, Wegbereiter , pp. 142–151.
  9. ^ Jörn Hasenclever: Wehrmacht and occupation policy in the Soviet Union. The commanders of the rear army areas 1941–1943. Schöningh, Paderborn 2010.
  10. ↑ Speech manuscript Kdr. SS-KR 1 (undated / held September 25, 1941, BA-MA, RH 22/225), see also Cüppers, Wegbereiter , pp. 221f.
  11. ↑ Cüppers, Wegbereiter , p. 324.
  12. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 513.
personal data
SURNAME Lombard, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS brigade leader, war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Klein-Spiegelberg, Prenzlau district
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1992
Place of death Mühldorf am Inn