Julius Gehrum

Julius Gehrum (born February 14, 1889 in Tiefenbronn ; † November 10, 1947 in Strasbourg ) was a German police officer who was last a member of the Gestapo as a detective commissioner and was executed in 1947 .

Life

Julius Gehrum grew up in Tiefenbronn as the son of a family active in agriculture. His father was also a gold worker, so after elementary school he learned the profession of goldsmith and then worked in the jewelry industry in Pforzheim . After the military service from 1909 to 1911, which he had served with the 1st Baden Leib Grenadier Regiment No. 109 in Karlsruhe, he was drafted as a grenadier in the First World War . He fought at the front in France and survived the World War without major injuries, most recently as a deputy officer . He was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross , the Bravery Medal and the Baden Medal of Merit for his commitment .

From 1926 he began to work for the gendarmerie in Krozingen as a constable . In St. Märgen he was promoted to Obergendarmerie Sergeant. On May 1, 1933, he became a member of the NSDAP ( number 2,835,521). He was then sent to the Gestapo on June 1, 1934, where he was appointed head of the Gestapo in Kehl just 17 days later . In 1937 he joined the SS under membership number 307.930 . he was directly appointed SS-Hauptsturmführer . In November 1938 he became a criminal inspector. In these two functions, he played a leading role in the implementation of the Reichspogromnacht in Kehl, during which the Kehl synagogue was devastated. Gehrum also had the homes of Jews stormed and devastated. The men were taken to the town hall, where they were tortured and ill-treated until they were driven to the train station, where they were directly transported to the Dachau concentration camp .

On June 25, 1940 he was transferred to Strasbourg, where he was appointed head of Gestapo Section III. He was responsible for the persecution of resistance fighters . The Gestapo section was feared and was involved in the murder of numerous members of the Réseau Alliance . When the Allies were close to Strasbourg in 1944, he implemented a final order to execute all remaining imprisoned members of the Réseau Alliance. The scheduled murder was later referred to as the " Black Forest Blood Week ". Together with Karl Buck , he was responsible for the murder of more than 70 people. Gehrum himself personally participated in several executions.

After the Second World War , Gehrum tried to break away, but was arrested by French troops on November 5, 1945. After he first had to testify in other proceedings, he was born on March 13, 1947 for assault and aid for murder along with numerous other defendants before the military court found in Strasbourg. On May 17, 1947, he, Paul Stasik and Reinhard Brunner were sentenced to death as the main perpetrators. The death penalty was carried out in Strasbourg on November 10, 1947.

On July 16, 1948, his case was taken up again by the Freiburg Spruchkammer . In the grounds of the verdict, he was described as a “great terrorist” and classified as the main culprit. In 1952, his widow applied for clemency to the Baden State Commissariat for Political Cleansing. His classification as the main culprit was not revoked, but the widow received a monthly amount of 120 DM.

literature

• Eva-Maria Eberle: Gehrum: Known as a great terrorist . In: Wolfgang Proske (Ed.): Perpetrators, helpers, free riders. Nazi victims from the south of what is now Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-945893-08-1 , pp. 73-84 .

Web links

• Julius Gehrum in the Stadtwiki Pforzheim
• Julius Gehrum on LEO-BW