Gustav Simon (Gauleiter)

Gustav Simon

Gustav Simon (* 2. August 1900 in Malstatt-Burbach (today Saarbrücken ); † 18th December 1945 in Paderborn ) was as Gauleiter in the Gau Moselland same time from 1940 to 1944 Head of Civil Administration (CdZ) in Luxembourg , which in Second World War I had been occupied by the National Socialist German Reich .

Parental home, education and job

Gustav Simon's father was a railway clerk; his parents were small farmers from the Hunsrück . His brother was the politician Paul Simon . Gustav Simon went to primary school in Saarbrücken and then trained as a school teacher in Merzig . Although he graduated with a diploma, he did not get a job. Then he decided to do his A- levels while helping out with the railroad and customs . After high school he studied at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt economy to become a teacher. After graduating as a commercial school teacher, he taught as a trainee lawyer and later as a trade teacher in Völklingen from 1927 to 1929 . In the spring of 1929 he left school and began working full-time for the NSDAP .

NSDAP

As early as 1923, Simon was a member of a "völkisch university group" in Frankfurt. On August 14, 1925, he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 17.017). Thus he was one of the " old fighters " who were later awarded the " golden party badge ".

In 1926 he founded the local branch of the Nazi party in Hermeskeil. His nickname "Hermeskeil toadstool".

Shortly thereafter, he founded the "Frankfurt University Group" of the National Socialist German Student Union . In 1927 he was elected National Socialist President of the AStA by the majority of students . Beyond that, he was already active for the NSDAP during his studies; in the Hunsrück he founded several local groups for the party.

From 1928 he rose quickly in the hierarchy of the party: in 1928 he became "district leader" of the NSDAP for the Trier - Birkenfeld district , in 1929 for the Koblenz- Trier district, and a member of the Rhenish Provincial Parliament , which he chaired from April 1933. From 1929 to 1933 he was a city councilor in Koblenz, where he chaired the NSDAP parliamentary group. In 1930 he became a member of the Reichstag for the constituency of Koblenz-Trier, which he held until 1945. In 1932 he became a member of the Prussian state parliament . In July 1933 he became a Prussian State Councilor. He was also the Prussian Provincial Councilor of the Rhine Province.

On June 1, 1931, Adolf Hitler appointed him Gauleiter of the newly created Gau Koblenz-Trier. In contrast to almost all Gauleiter, Simon was not a member of the SA or the SS ; however, since January 1939 he was Obergruppenführer of the NSKK . He was also a member of the Academy for German Law from 1933 to 1944 .

After the beginning of the Second World War , he was initially commissioner of the Reich Defense Commissioner from September 1939 and from November 1942 until the end of the war he was Reich Defense Commissioner for the Gau Moselland and held this post until the end of the war.

Head of civil administration in Luxembourg

After the German attack on May 10, 1940, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg came under the administration of the German military commander of Belgium and northern France in Brussels , General of the Infantry Alexander von Falkenhausen . Under this command, Gustav Simon took over civil administration in Luxembourg on July 25, 1940. The occupation status ended on August 2, 1940, when Simon was appointed Chief of Civil Administration (CdZ) by Führer decree . His representative in this function was the district president of Trier , Heinrich Christian Siekmeier . Their task was to give the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, now “ CdZ-Area Luxembourg ”, German administrative structures and to make it part of the German Empire .

As head of the civil administration, Simon was also subordinate to Department IV A, which was responsible for the registration and expropriation of Jewish property. The value of the confiscated accounts, real estate and home furnishings is estimated to be at least 30 million Reichsmarks. Luxembourgers had held back on " Aryanizations "; Many properties, retail stores and a few industrial companies went to "Altreichsdeutsche", with preference given to interested parties from the Koblenz district. The deportation of Jews from Luxembourg took place on his initiative early from October 16, 1941 to June 17, 1943.

End of war and death

After the withdrawal of the German occupiers from Luxembourg, he led the Volkssturm in the Gau Moselland from autumn 1944 . In April 1945, when the Allies approached, he withdrew across the Rhine. At the end of the war, Simon went into hiding under his mother's maiden name in Upsprunge , Westphalia , where he worked as a gardener. On December 10, 1945, he was arrested by British soldiers under the command of Hanns Alexander and taken to a prison run by the British Army in Paderborn .

Simon was to be charged in Luxembourg, but his death on December 18, 1945 prevented the planned trial. As a result, various rumors emerged about the exact place of death and the circumstances of death:

According to the official version, he hanged himself in prison to avoid extradition to Luxembourg. Simon's body was transferred to the prison in the Luxembourg district of Grund and finally buried. The death certificate issued by the Paderborn registry office shows Paderborn as the place of death, but the registration number 66/1946 listed there was only entered in February 1946, i.e. about two months after the date of death.

According to another version, however, Simon only died in Luxembourg: after the British occupation administration had agreed to his extradition, two Luxembourgers brought him by car from Paderborn to Luxembourg (city) to answer in court. Shortly before the finish line, an incident provoked by Simon is said to have occurred near Waldhof (Waldhaff), in which he was killed. In order to cover up the process, the British Captain Hanns Alexander provided the media, including the DANA ( German General News Agency ) and the Tageblatt , with information provided about the alleged suicide in Paderborn. Investigations based on Luxembourgish and English archive material, however, reject this version.

literature

• Dostert, Paul: Luxembourg between self-assertion and national self- surrender . German occupation policy and the ethnic German movement 1940–1945. Dissertation Freiburg, Luxembourg 1985.
• Schneider, Volker: Gauleiter Gustav Simon, the "Moselgau" and the former SS special camp / Hinzert concentration camp . In: Hans-Georg Meyer / Hans Berkessel (ed.): The time of National Socialism in Rhineland-Palatinate . You are dead to the outside world. Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2000, Vol. 2, pp. 276–307, ISBN 3-87439-454-9 .
• Spang, Paul: Gustav Simon's end. In: Hémecht. Journal of Luxembourg History. Revue d'histoire luxembourgeoise 44 (1992) 3, pp. 303-317.
• Kienast, E. (ed.): The Greater German Reichstag. IVth electoral term, beginning April 10, 1938, extended to January 30, 1947 . Berlin 1943.
• Arndt, Ino: Luxembourg . In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Dimension of the genocide. The number of Jewish victims of National Socialism. Sources and representations of contemporary history, published by the Institute for Contemporary History, Volume 33, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1991, pp. 95-104, ISBN 3-486-54631-7 .

Web links

• Gustav Simon in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Entry on Gustav Simon in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database
• Gustav Simon (1900-1945), Gauleiter of the NSDAP in Gau Koblenz-Trier (since January 24, 1941 Gau Moselland) on the Rheinische Geschichte portal
• August 2nd, 1900. Gustav Simon was born in Saarbrücken. in: State Main Archive Koblenz
• Newspaper article about Gustav Simon in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ G. Hausemer (2006): Luxemburger Lexikon. The Grand Duchy of AZ. Luxembourg, Editions Binsfeld, p. 397. ISBN 978-2-87954-156-3 .
2. ↑ Paul Dostert: Luxembourg between self-assertion and self-sacrifice national ISP 1985: 70th
3. ↑ Hans Peter Klauck: Gustav Simon, the satrap from Saarbrücken, Gauleiter of the Moselland ( PDF )
4. ^ Offenders in the Third Reich - Biographical approaches to men from the region. Memorial / SS Hinzert Concentration Camp, accessed on December 14, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Katja Happe u. a. (Ed.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945. Volume 12: Western and Northern Europe, June 1942-1945. Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-486-71843-0 , p. 59.
6. ↑ A. Schaack (2009): Le suicide du Gauleiter face aux legends historiques: La mort du Gauleiter Gustav Simon. In: Die Warte, 2009, No. 10 (March 19), pp. 2–3.
   P. Spang 1992 (cf. literature).
   PJ Muller (1968): Facts from the history of the Luxembourg country. Luxembourg, Vlg. "De Frendeskres" u. Impr. Bourg-Bourger, p. 410.
   See also: Gustav Simon committed suicide: The ex-Gauleiter, captured after an adventurous hunt, hanged himself in the Paderborn prison and was brought to Luxembourg as a corpse yesterday morning. In: Luxemburger Wort , No. 355, December 21, 1945, pp. 1–2. http://massard.info/pdf/LW1945_12_21.pdf ( Memento from January 16, 2010 on WebCite ) Gauleiter Simon committed suicide in Paderborn: He was divorced in the pathetic way that was intended for him: by the rope - inspection of the corpse in the basic prison - Mayor Hengst also imprisoned in Luxembourg. Escher Tageblatt, No. 291, December 21, 1945, pp. 1–2. http://massard.info/pdf/tageblatt1945_12_21.pdf ( Memento from January 16, 2010 on WebCite )