Hans Bernard (diplomat)

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Hans Bernard (born September 28, 1892 in Rendsburg ; died December 13, 1960 ) was a German diplomat during the Nazi era .

Life

Hans Bernard attended high school in Danzig and Bromberg and became a soldier in 1911 after graduating from high school. During the First World War he was interned in Switzerland for a time and was employed at the embassy in Bern . In 1919 he retired as captain dR. He dropped out of his first year studying economics at the University of Berlin . In October 1919 he became managing director of the German People's Councils in Hohensalza and Bromberg Land , an area that has been part of the newly founded Polish Republic since the Versailles Treatybelonged, and in July 1920 received a service contract from the Foreign Office as head of the Bydgoszcz passport office . With his wife Lotte, geb. Kohnert he had five children. Bernard stayed in Bydgoszcz until 1934, where he eventually served as a vice-consul. On September 1, 1930, Bernard joined the NSDAP and became "National Group Leader Poland" of the NSDAP / AO . After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, he was transferred to the Consulate General in Antwerp in December 1934 , and in 1935 he took the "diplomatic-consular examination" for the higher diplomatic service, with which he could now also be promoted to Vice Consul. Between 1936 and 1938 he was the German consul in Salzburg and was "Regional Group Leader of the NSDAP / AO Austria" and recognized as such by the Austrian Foreign Minister Guido Schmidt on February 23, 1938. In the organization of the NSDAP / AO under Bohle he moved to the Gauamtsleiter z. b. V. on.

After working as a consul in Ljubljana in Yugoslavia from June 28, 1938, he was accredited as German envoy in Bratislava to the government of the First Slovak Republic on June 30, 1939 and was now involved in the preparation of the German invasion of Poland . On August 24, 1939, Bernard obtained the diplomatic agreement of the Slovak government, which enabled the German armed forces to operate from Slovak territory. On October 17, 1939 and on May 8, 1940, Bernard reported on the initially hesitant treatment of the Jewish legislation by the Slovak regime. Immediately after the Salzburg negotiations , as a result of which Slovakia had to reorganize its government in accordance with German demands He was replaced by Manfred von Killinger in Bratislava on August 14th, 1940 , and the tightening of anti-Semitic laws in Slovakia was now carried out by Killinger and the adviser to Jews, Dieter Wisliceny .

From the end of 1940 to the end of 1941 Bernard was consul general with the Axis power Italy in Milan and then until the end of 1944 consul general in Genoa . In 1943, he saw the establishment of the Italian Social Republic in Italy under the diplomatic control of the Plenipotentiary and Ambassador Rudolf Rahn and the police control of the Supreme SS and Police Leader Karl Wolff . In November 1943, 300 Genoese Jews were deported . Bernard and his consul Alfred Schmidt stood up for individual Jews and saved them from persecution or deportation, while SS-Sturmbannführer Friedrich "Siegfried" Engel earned himself the nickname l boia di Genova / butcher of Genoa during reprisals . From the beginning of 1945 until the end of the war in May 1945, Bernard was still an envoy representative of the Foreign Office to the German representative Werner Best in occupied Denmark in Copenhagen .

Nothing is known about the internment , his denazification or further activities.

literature

  • Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 1: Johannes Hürter : A – F. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2000, ISBN 3-506-71840-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Files on German foreign policy: 1918 - 1945 / from the archive of the German Foreign Office - Baden-Baden: Impr. Nationale. Ser. D, 1937-1945: Vol. 1. 1951, p. 327f
  2. ↑ Files on German foreign policy: 1918 - 1945 / from the archive of the German Foreign Office - Baden-Baden: Impr. Nationale. Ser. D, 1937-1945: Vol. 7. 1951, pp. 211f
  3. ↑ Document reference ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from the Slovak historian Eduard Nižňanský , see also: Slovak Wikipedia sk: Eduard Nižňanský  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.niznanskyedo.host.sk
  4. ^ Alberto Rosselli: Salvation of Jews in: Il Giornale , January 25, 2008
  5. ↑ His name does not appear on the list of German diplomats interrogated at the Nuremberg trials .
personal data
SURNAME Bernard, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Rendsburg
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1960