Herbert Fischer (police officer)

Herbert Gustav Wilhelm Fischer (born December 30, 1904 in Riesenburg; † December 31, 1945 according to a judicial death certificate) he was a German police officer and SS leader .

Life and activity

In his youth, Fischer belonged to a volunteer corps . During the occupation of the Rhineland , he is said to have fought against the French. After graduating from high school, he studied law at the University of Greifswald from 1923 to 1928 . From 1928 to 1929 he completed his training to become a detective commissioner at the Königsberg police headquarters . In 1930 he passed the doctoral examination. After passing the detective exam at the police institute in Berlin-Charlottenburg , he was transferred to the Berlin police headquarters as a detective .

Immediately after the establishment of the Secret State Police Office (Gestapa), a few weeks after the National Socialist " seizure of power ", Fischer was taken over into the service of this authority in the spring of 1933. There he worked in Department III, the Defense Department, until 1944. In this he headed Division III 2 A (France, Foreign Legionnaires, Belgium) and later Division III A or (after the incorporation of the Gestapo as Office IV into the Reich Main Security Office in 1938) Division IV E 3 (Abwehr West). As a police officer, he was promoted to Kriminalrat in 1938 and criminal director in 1941. In addition, like all members of the police, he was admitted to the SS (SS no. 267.238).

According to Heinrich Orb , Fischer is said to have been brought into the Gestapa by Günther Patschowsky as a good expert on the Deuxième Bureau and to have belonged to the NSDAP since 1932. However, this information is not confirmed in the files. Another argument against this is that Patschowsky did not join the Gestapa until 1934, where Fischer had been active since 1933.

Heinrich Koehler describes Fischer as a "small, slim, puny man with short reddish hair, bright, penetrating eyes, clean-shaven, with strikingly white teeth and narrow lips."

On May 19, 1934, Fischer married Ida Ilse Reiche in Stralsund (born March 3, 1903 in the Harz).

In 1937 and 1938, Fischer took part in the Spanish Civil War with the Condor Legion , whose Secret Field Police he was in charge, with the rank of field police director . On September 11, 1938, Fischer was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer. In 1941, Fischer received the rank of SS storm leader.

In the older literature, Fischer was falsely identified as the leader of Einsatzgruppe III , which carried out mass shootings of Jews and other people undesirable to the Nazi regime in German-occupied Poland in autumn 1939, during and immediately after the attack on Poland . The more recent research could bring to light evidence that this group was actually led by the SS-Obersturmbannführer Hans Fischer (born August 21, 1906 in Rottenburg).

In 1944 Fischer became head of the Gestapo in Radom . His fate in the last weeks of the war is unclear; In 1962 he was judicially pronounced dead and the date of death set for December 31, 1945.

Promotions

November 9, 1935: SS-Sturmmann
April 20, 1935: SS-Unterscharführer
July 1, 1936: SS squad leader
November 9, 1937: SS Oberscharführer
December 14, 1936: SS-Hauptscharführer
January 30, 1938: SS Untersturmführer
September 11, 1938: SS-Obersturmführer
September 11, 1939: SS-Hauptsturmführer

literature

Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .

Individual evidence

↑ Ruth Bettina Birn : The Security Police in Estonia 1941-1944 , 2006, p. 45.
^ Hansjürgen Koehler: Inside the Gestapo. Hitler's Shadow over the World , 1940, p. 41. In the original: "A small, slim, slight man with reddish, close-cropped hair, light, penetrating eyes, smooth-shaven, with remarkably white teeth, narrow lips."
↑ Klaus Gessner: Secret field police. On the function and organization of the secret police executive body of the fascist Wehrmacht , 1986, p. 21.
↑ Michael Wildt: Generation des Unbedingten, 2002, p. 425. As evidence, Wildt refers to the fact that contemporary documents such as the activity report of Einsatzgruppe III of September 29, 1939 identify a Obersturmbannführer Fischer as the leader of the Einsatzgruppe, but Herbert Fischer only did so at that time Hauptsturmführer was.

personal data
SURNAME	Fischer, Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Fischer, Herbert Gustav Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German SS leader and policeman
DATE OF BIRTH	December 30, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH	Giant castle
DATE OF DEATH	December 31, 1945

[1] Ruth Bettina Birn : The Security Police in Estonia 1941-1944 , 2006, p. 45.

[2] Hansjürgen Koehler: Inside the Gestapo. Hitler's Shadow over the World , 1940, p. 41. In the original: "A small, slim, slight man with reddish, close-cropped hair, light, penetrating eyes, smooth-shaven, with remarkably white teeth, narrow lips."

[3] Klaus Gessner: Secret field police. On the function and organization of the secret police executive body of the fascist Wehrmacht , 1986, p. 21.

[4] Michael Wildt: Generation des Unbedingten, 2002, p. 425. As evidence, Wildt refers to the fact that contemporary documents such as the activity report of Einsatzgruppe III of September 29, 1939 identify a Obersturmbannführer Fischer as the leader of the Einsatzgruppe, but Herbert Fischer only did so at that time Hauptsturmführer was.