Hans-Albin Freiherr von Reitzenstein

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Hans-Albin Freiherr von Reitzenstein (born March 4, 1911 in Berlin , † November 30, 1943 on the road Zhytomyr - Kiev , Soviet Union ) was a German officer in the Waffen SS .

Life

Reitzenstein joined the SS in 1931 (membership number 4,533), was a member of the NSDAP (membership number 249,943) and was accepted into the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in 1933 . On October 1, 1933, he was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer, on July 4, 1934 to SS-Obersturmführer and on July 4, 1936 to SS-Hauptsturmführer. According to a résumé he wrote himself, the promotion on July 4, 1934 was related to a participation in the Röhm affair of June 30, 1934.

At the beginning of the Second World War , Reitzenstein led the 1st Company of the SS Infantry Regiment Germany during the attack on Poland . After being wounded, he was assigned to the SS Junker School in Bad Tölz for recreational purposes. In December 1940 Reitzenstein was appointed commander of the 5th Reconnaissance Battalion. On September 1, 1941, he was promoted to SS-Sturmbannführer.

In 1942 Reitzenstein was assigned to the SS disposal division, in which he took over command of the 2nd SS reconnaissance battalion, where he remained until March 1943. He was then appointed as the successor to Herbert-Ernst Vahl as commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Regiment and on April 20, 1943 promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer. With this he took part in the tank battle of Kursk, the Citadel company . For his achievements in this battle, von Reitzenstein was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on November 13, 1943 .

On November 30, 1943 committed Reitsenstein in connection with the rape and death of a Russian aid volunteers in the SS suicide . He is buried today on the war cemetery in Zhitomir (also: Zhytomyr) in the Ukraine.

Promotions

Archival material

  • Federal Archives Berlin: SSO files Reitzenstein

literature

  • Willy Fey / Henri Henschler: Armor Battles of the Waffen-SS, 1943–45 , 2003.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of seniority of the NSDAP Schutzstaffel. As of December 1, 1936, p. 72 f., No. 1616. (JPG; 1.09 MB) In: http://www.dws-xip.pl/reich/biografie/1936/1936.html . Retrieved November 5, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 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. 622.
  3. ↑ Christopher Ailsby: SS. Roll of Infamy. Motorbooks Internat., Osceola, WI 1997, p. 142.
  4. ↑ Shitomir war cemetery .
personal data
SURNAME Reitzenstein, Hans-Albin Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently SS-Obersturmbannführer in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1943
Place of death on the Zhytomyr-Kiev road, Soviet Union