Johannes Rentsch (lawyer)

Johannes Rentsch (born February 24, 1908 in Zwickau , † 1945 or later) was a German lawyer , head of the Secret State Police and war criminal .

Life

Johannes Rentsch was the son of a post office clerk from Zwickau from a middle-class background. After graduating from high school, he studied law , but only passed his second state examination with the grade “satisfactory”, so that the career of a judge was closed to him.

During the Weimar Republic , Rentsch joined the NSDAP in 1931 during his legal clerkship (membership number 712.504). In the following year 1932 he became a member of the SA .

After the National Socialists seized power , Johannes Rentsch came to the Saxony State Police Office in December 1934, after a brief employment at the employment office . In the same year he also joined the SS (membership number 272.510).

Rentsch made it to the head of department at the Dresden Stapo control center . After the responsible SD office in an assessment in 1938 highlighted his "[...] impeccable and always disciplined demeanor" and emphasized that Rentsch was particularly valued by his "SS comrades" because he "[...] did not In March 1939, at the age of 31, Johannes Rentsch took over the management of the Stapo control center in Reichenberg, which was newly established in what was then the Sudetenland . Around three months later he was transferred to Saarbrücken in the same position .

During the Second World War , Johannes Rentsch was transferred from Saarbrücken to Hanover in December 1943 , where he succeeded Rudolf Batz as head of the Hanover Gestapo . As the last head of this facility in Schlägerstrasse in the southern part of Hanover, Rentsch was responsible for five deportations of Jews from Hanover to the Theresienstadt concentration camp until the end of the war .

One of the " final phase crimes " was the order of the Hanover Gestapo leader to murder "[...] 154 forced laborers , mostly prisoners of war " at the Seelhorster cemetery . The former SS- Obersturmbannführer Rentsch evaded his conviction by suicide in 1945 or later .

literature

Janet von Stillfried : Terror against "enemies" - Gestapo Hanover , in this: The Sachsenross under the swastika. Travel guide through Hanover and the surrounding area 1933-1945 , Göttingen, Lower Saxony: MatrixMedia, 2015, ISBN 978-3-932313-85-1 , pp. 206-209

Archival material

Archival material by and about Johannes Rentsch can be found, for example

as a portrait photograph from 1936 in the German Federal Archives , signature BA Berlin, BDC RS

Web links

Hans-Jürgen Hermel (responsible), Edgar Ojemann, Dietmar Geyer, Dr. R. Töneböhn (ed.): Gestapo perpetrators on the side of network memory + future from the development association Memorial Ahlem eV

Remarks

↑ Deviating from this, it says: “[...] Submerged after the war. The District Court Dresden declared dead in 1969 "; compare Hans-Jürgen Hermel (responsible), Edgar Ojemann, Dietmar Geyer, Dr. R. Töneböhn (Red.): Gestapo perpetrators on the website of the Remembrance + Future Network of the Ahlem Memorial Association , last accessed on October 19, 2016

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hans-Dieter Schmid : Gestapo Hanover , in: Hans-Joachim Heuer, Hans-Dieter Klosa, Burkhard Lange, Hans-Dieter Schmidt (ed.): From the police of the authorities to the service manager for public Safety. Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the Hanover Police Headquarters 1903 - 2003 , Hilden: Verlag Deutsche Polizeiliteratur, 2003, ISBN 978-3-00-011937-8 and ISBN 3-00-011937-X , pp. 89–119, especially pp. 93f .
↑ ^a ^b Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Judgments against top NS functionaries , in Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein (ed.): History of the City of Hanover , Vol. 2, From the beginning of the 19th century to the present , Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Hannover 1994, ISBN 3-87706-364-0 , p. 658; Preview over google books
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d N.N. : Rentsch Johannes / Gestapo leader in Reichenberg, Saarbrücken and Hanover. Involved in the deportations of Jews on the website of the Yad Vashem memorial site , last accessed on October 19, 2016

personal data
SURNAME	Rentsch, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lawyer and head of the Gestapo in Dresden, Reichenberg, Saarbrücken and Hanover
DATE OF BIRTH	February 24, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zwickau
DATE OF DEATH	after 1945

[4] Deviating from this, it says: “[...] Submerged after the war. The District Court Dresden declared dead in 1969 "; compare Hans-Jürgen Hermel (responsible), Edgar Ojemann, Dietmar Geyer, Dr. R. Töneböhn (Red.): Gestapo perpetrators on the website of the Remembrance + Future Network of the Ahlem Memorial Association , last accessed on October 19, 2016

[Gestapo_Hannover-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hans-Dieter Schmid : Gestapo Hanover , in: Hans-Joachim Heuer, Hans-Dieter Klosa, Burkhard Lange, Hans-Dieter Schmidt (ed.): From the police of the authorities to the service manager for public Safety. Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the Hanover Police Headquarters 1903 - 2003 , Hilden: Verlag Deutsche Polizeiliteratur, 2003, ISBN 978-3-00-011937-8 and ISBN 3-00-011937-X , pp. 89–119, especially pp. 93f .

[Urteile-2] Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Judgments against top NS functionaries , in Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein (ed.): History of the City of Hanover , Vol. 2, From the beginning of the 19th century to the present , Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Hannover 1994, ISBN 3-87706-364-0 , p. 658; Preview over google books

[Yad_Vashem-3] N.N. : Rentsch Johannes / Gestapo leader in Reichenberg, Saarbrücken and Hanover. Involved in the deportations of Jews on the website of the Yad Vashem memorial site , last accessed on October 19, 2016