Heinrich Vitzdamm

Heinrich Vitzdamm (born February 29, 1892 in Stralsund , † February 23, 1975 in Wennigsen (Deister) ) was a German SS-Oberführer , head of the state police stations in Magdeburg and Königsberg and police chief in Halle (Saale) and Gleiwitz .

Life

Vitzdamm, who came from an old Protestant family of civil servants, had passed the school leaving examination in 1910 and then studied German , folklore and political science in Halle and Leipzig . In 1914 he was awarded a Dr. rer. pole. doctorate and then took part in the First World War as a soldier , where he was released from the German Army in 1915 for health reasons . During his studies in 1910 he became a member of the Suevia Leipzig fraternity .

Initially active in the private sector, Vitzdamm entered the Prussian civil service in October 1922. He then worked in various departments in the administrative districts of Gumbinnen , Potsdam , Arnsberg , Stralsund and Stettin . Vitzdamm had been part of the German People's Party (DVP) since 1927 and joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 (membership number 2,652,889).

In 1933, Vitzdamm's career path led to the province of Saxony for the first time - from August 21 to November 2, he took over the management of the Merseburg police station, which is part of the Weißenfels police headquarters . He then acted as deputy police chief in Stettin until December 31, 1934. In February 1935 Vitzdamm decided to switch to the Secret State Police. With effect from February 15, 1935, the Secret State Police made him head of the Magdeburg state police station . At the same time, on February 21, 1935, he submitted an application for membership in the SS (membership number 107.410) - the date of entry was dated back to January 1.

Vitzdamm did not stay long in Magdeburg. As early as March 9, 1936, the Secret State Police Office transferred him to Koenigsberg as head of the state police station. In November 1939 (with effect from October 18), Vitzdamm came to the Province of Saxony for the third time, initially as a deputy, and from August 14, 1940, finally, to take over the office of Halle Police President. With effect from June 28, 1943, he exercised the same function in Gliwice, until he fled from the advancing Red Army on January 24, 1945. At the same time, he was the leader of the SD leadership section in Katowice . Since Vitzdamm was "firmly established in ideological terms and [...] personally and in terms of posture an impeccable SS leader", he became a member of the SS despite his denominational ties - he only resigned from the Protestant Church in April 1940 - and his previous membership in the DVP Promoted several times: Vitzdamm was finally promoted to SS-Oberführer on June 21, 1944 through the stations of Oberscharführer, Obersturmbannführer and Standartenführer, among others.

After 1945 Vitzdamm lived in the Hanover region. Although his name appears in the investigation files of numerous German public prosecutors in connection with crimes against humanity from 1946 onwards, they always heard him as a witness, never as a suspect. He himself denied ever having been involved in such crimes in any way.

literature

• Alexander Sperk : The state police (head) office in Magdeburg, its leaders and the smashing of the KPD . In: Police & History. Independent interdisciplinary journal for police history , 1/2009, Verlag für Polizeiwissenschaft, ISSN  1865-7354 , pp. 8–9.
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 6: T-Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8253-5063-0 , pp. 141-142.