Kurt Feldt

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Kurt Feldt (born November 22, 1887 in Schmentau , † March 11, 1970 in Berlin ) was a German cavalry general in World War II .

Life

Kurt Feldt resigned after his High School on September 22, 1908 as a cadet in the Lancers "Schmidt" (1 Pommersches) no. 4 of the Prussian army in Thorn and became by the end of March 1910 to lieutenant . With the outbreak of the First World War , Feldt became the leader of the intelligence department of the 1st Cavalry Division . After he became first lieutenant on February 25, 1915 , he was briefly transferred back to his regular regiment from April 8 to July 8, 1915. He then acted again as the leader of the intelligence department of the 1st Cavalry Division, and from May 26, 1916, he was employed as a regimental adjutant. On May 4, 1917, Feldt was appointed adjutant of the 41st Cavalry Brigade . In this position, he was promoted to Rittmeister on June 18, 1917 . As such, Feldt was then from October 1, 1917 to August 1, 1918 leader of the III. Battalion of the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 27. For his work he received both classes of the Iron Cross .

After the end of the war, Feldt initially served in the border guard in Silesia and was accepted into the Reichswehr . After further stations in various cavalry regiments, Feldt was the commander of the operational cavalry unit of the 1st Cavalry Brigade in Insterburg at the beginning of the Second World War . With this large formation he took part in the attack on Poland and after expanding to a division, he was transferred to the western front . He took part in the western campaign against France . At first the division fought in Holland. In the so-called 'battle on the dike ' between May 12 and 14, 1940, he did not succeed in defeating the 250 defenders of the heavy fortifications behind the dike. On May 14th the Netherlands surrendered ; Belgium capitulated on May 28, 1940; the Wehrmacht moved on towards France.

There, under Feldt's division, on June 20, 1940, the town of Saumur on the Loire with the famous Cadre Noir riding school took over . After the Armistice of Compiègne on June 22, 1940, the division was relocated to the east.

The attack on the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941 and on August 23, 1941 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross . At the end of November 1941, his division was converted to the 24th Panzer Division . Major General Feldt commanded the division until April 15, 1942. For a short time he was then in the Führerreserve until July 8, 1942 and then became Commander Southwest (Chief of Military Administrative District B (Southwest of Occupied France) in Angers).

When the Allies landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 , the army corps, which at that time was under the command of General Feldt, assumed the task of defense.

Feldt later commanded Military District VI and became a British prisoner of war , from which he was released after three and a half years. Since then he has lived in Berlin.

As a great horse lover, Feldt later became involved in the central association for breeding and testing of German warmblood horses and became a member of its board.

His grave is on the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf . At his funeral, French officers laid wreaths on his coffin.

Involvement in war crimes

Captured Tirailleurs sénégalais in France 1940

On June 16, 1940, soldiers of the Cavalry Division shot an unknown number of Tirailleurs sénégalais - prisoners of war, a colonial unit made up of soldiers from Senegal near Chartres .

As commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, Feldt justified the shooting of the "blacks" by saying that these soldiers mutilated German prisoners. In general, such accusations were true in some cases, but as with a large number of accusations, in this case too - which was before him for examination - it soon turned out that the allegedly mutilated soldier had died in battle. The Wehrmacht general had already ordered retaliatory actions. In order to justify the shooting, the prefect of the département - the later resistance fighter Jean Moulin - was tortured. The aim was to get him to sign a declaration that the "blacks" had murdered French civilians. Moulin refused and was eventually let go after trying to kill himself.

Over sixty years after the end of the war, it was belatedly received by the German public that the Wehrmacht had already committed crimes in France in 1940 that were similar to those committed in the summer of 1941 in the war against the Soviet Union .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ranking list of the German Imperial Army. Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Berlin, p. 130.
  2. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd edition, Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 304.
  3. ^ Raffael Scheck: Hitler's African Victims: The Wehrmacht Massacre of Black French Soldiers. From the English by Georg Felix Harsch, Berlin / Hamburg, Association A, 2009
  4. ↑ https://www.zeit.de/2006/03/Keine_Kameraden/seite-5
  5. ^ Raffael Scheck: Hitler's African Victims: The Wehrmacht Massacre of Black French Soldiers . From the English by Georg Felix Harsch, Berlin / Hamburg, Association A, 2009
  6. ↑ https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/massaker-an-schwarzen-franzoesischen-soldaten.1310.de.html?dram:article_id=193890
personal data
SURNAME Feldt, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cavalry general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Schmentau
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1970
Place of death Berlin