Hermann Behrends

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Hermann Behrends

Hermann Johann Heinrich Behrends (born May 11, 1907 in Rüstringen ; † December 4, 1948 in Belgrade ) was a German lawyer, SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police as well as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) in Serbia , Montenegro and the Sandschak .

Life

Youth and education

Behrends the innkeeper Johann Behrends and his wife Annie was born and studied for his school law in Marburg , where he passed his first state examination in February 1931, on July 17, 1932. Dr. iur. PhD .

Career in the SS and SD

On February 1, 1932, he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 981.960) and the SS (SS number 35.815).

From April 20, 1933 to January 13, 1934, he was in charge of SS-Sturm 3 IV / 24 in Wilhelmshaven (3rd storm / IV. Sturmbann / 24th SS standard "Ostfriesland" ( Oldenburg )). In 1933 he passed his second state examination in law. From March 17 to December 31, 1933 he was councilor in Rüstringen and did his legal training on site. On April 20, 1933 he was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer. Behrends officially joined the SS (SD) security service on December 1, 1933 .

When Reinhard Heydrich asked him to go to Berlin for the SD , there was initially resistance from the SS-Oberabschnitt Northwest, since a transfer "was not possible at the moment due to a lack of suitable leaders" and Behrends had to remain "as an active leader of the SS". When Heinrich Himmler intervened personally, Behrends joined the SD main office on January 13, 1934 as the first head and headed the central department “ Worldview Evaluation” (II 1). In this work area were the departments for "world views", that is, those of the Freemasons (II 111), Judaism (II 112), for "denominational-political currents" (II 113), for "political opponents" - the "left movement "(II 121), the" middle movement "(II 122) and the" right movement "(II 123) with the respective divisions. On February 1, 1934, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer , and on April 20 to SS-Hauptsturmführer .

On April 14, 1934 he married Hertha Hörger (born February 12, 1909 in Rüstringen). From this marriage three sons and a daughter were born: Hinrich-Meent (born March 1, 1935), Heiko-Tjark (born July 10, 1936), Hermann-Gerd (born October 1, 1937) and Hilke Anne (born 13. September 1942).

In the course of the " Röhm Putsch " he played a decisive role in the preparations: According to Franz von Papen , Behrends compiled lists of both the SA people to be murdered and opponents of the Nazi-led government . Furthermore, Behrends was commissioned to carry out the cover-up work for the murders within the specially formed Special Department II 1 S (this special department was not listed in the schedule of responsibilities for reasons of confidentiality). Shortly before this action, he was appointed SS-Sturmbannführer on June 15, 1934 and a few days after the action on July 4th, Obersturmbannführer . A year later, on April 20, 1935, he was promoted to SS-Standartenführer .

From September 28 to November 21, 1936, he took part in several courses on anti-aircraft defense ( Flak ) at the coastal artillery school in Wilhelmshaven . On October 24, 1936 he was appointed government assessor in the Prussian Secret State Police Office (Gestapa) .

In 1937, Heydrich staged a large-scale forgery campaign that resulted in documents from the time the Reichswehr cooperated with the USSR discrediting the Soviet Marshal Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky , so that he was suspected of treason and executed. Behrends had participated in this action, as he later revealed.

On January 27, 1937 he became head of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VOMI); he held this position until April 15, 1943. From the summer of 1937 he also headed the Bund Deutscher Osten . The VOMI coordinated the activities of the various ethnic German movements in countries and areas bordering Germany such as Poland , Slovakia , Luxembourg and Alsace , organized murder and terrorist actions, compiled “people's lists ” and supervised immigration and immigration centers. On February 8, 1940, the SS organ Das Schwarze Korps published the laudatory article "SS men, we are proud of that":

“The (VOMI) task force Lodsch works with no less than four SS leaders. 28 SS leaders and subordinates are available to him for his 47 camps. One single example: The Waldhorst camp, which houses and looks after 6,000 - 8,000 people every day, was literally pounded out of the ground by an SS leader and an SS sub-leader. "

In addition to this activity, he held other positions. In March 1939, for example, Hitler made him a member of the National Socialist Reichstag . In the Reich Sports Management he held the office of Reichsfachamtsleiter for fencing (1937-1940) and swimming (1940-1945), and he acted as executive vice-president of the Volksbund for Germanness abroad. On April 20, 1937, he was promoted to SS-Oberführer and at the same time to SS-Untersturmführer of the Reserve of the Waffen-SS.

Second World War

From June 1 to June 15, 1940, Behrends took part as a reserve officer of the Waffen-SS in the war against France in the I. Department of the SS Artillery Regiment of the SS disposal division. On January 1, 1941, he was promoted to SS brigade leader. He was also temporarily a member of the Friends of the Reichsführer SS .

On April 1, 1943, he was appointed SS-Obersturmführer in the reserve of the Waffen-SS . From April 15 to May 5, 1943, he was commanded by the Waffen-SS at the automotive engineering school in Vienna . Then he was with the 2nd SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Das Reich" until June 18, 1943 , where he completed a leadership course at the Wunstorf armored troop school from May 10 to June 5 .

He was then assigned to the 10th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Charlemagne" (later renamed "Frundsberg") until October 1, 1943 . From September 15 to 30, 1943, he was staff leader at the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Volkstum .

From October 1st to October 13th, he served in the 5th SS Mountain Corps . He then became a department leader in the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Handschar" (Croatian No. 1) in Croatia , where he stayed until November 9 , when he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer of the Reserve (Waffen-SS) has been. He returned to the V. SS Mountain Corps from November 9 to January 12, 1944, and then returned to the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS by March 15 or April 15, which is now called " Handschar ”carried. The promotion to SS-Sturmbannführer of the reserve (Waffen-SS) took place on January 12, 1944.

On March 15, 1944, he was promoted to major general of the police and appointed HSSPF for Serbia, Montenegro and the Sanjak with headquarters in Belgrade . Meyszner had been dismissed from this post because of his adamant position on the system of reprisals, especially the shooting of hostages. Behrends received instructions from Heinrich Himmler to come to an understanding with Hermann Neubacher, the special representative of the Foreign Office for the south-east . Neubacher strove for a cooperation of all anti-communist forces of Yugoslavia with the German occupiers and had the hostage shootings reduced considerably. On August 1, 1944, Behrends was appointed SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police. This function, in which he was involved in numerous actions against the Yugoslav resistance, he held until October 1944, when he returned to the SS-Führerreserve. From January 30 to May 1945 he was Higher SS and Police Leader "East Country and Russia-North".

Captivity, Trial and Death

On July 5, 1945 he surrendered to the British authorities in Flensburg and was interned at Island Farm Special Camp 11 ( Bridgend , South Wales ) with the number 560.294.

On April 16, 1946, he was extradited to Yugoslavia . He was hanged in Belgrade on December 4, 1948 . Because his family published a different date of death, this incorrect date was often given.

Promotions

Fonts

  • The useful management , Marburg 1932. (Dissertation)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , pp. 51–52.
  2. ↑ Berno Bahro: The time of National Socialism In: Deutscher Fechter-Bund (Ed.): En Garde! Allez! Touché! 100 years of fencing in Germany - a success story , Meyer & Meyer, Aachen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89899-690-7 , pp. 44–53, pp. 7, 9.
  3. ↑ Klaus Schmider : Der Yugoslavische Kriegsschauplatz In: Karl-Heinz Frieser, Klaus Schmider, Klaus Schönherr , Gerhard Schreiber , Krisztián Ungváry , Bernd Wegner: The German Reich and the Second World War, Volume 8, The Eastern Front 1943/44 - The War in the East and on the secondary fronts, on behalf of the MGFA ed. by Karl-Heinz Frieser , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2 , pp. 1042-1044, pp. 1079f.
  4. ^ Prisoner index card , accessed on January 1, 2019.
  5. ↑ In the book there is the wrong spelling "Behrens", which resulted from Allied documents.
personal data
SURNAME Behrends, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Behrends, Hermann Johann Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS group leader, lieutenant general of the police and politician (NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Rüstringen , today Wilhelmshaven
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 1948
Place of death Belgrade