Lothar Fendler

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Lothar Fendler during the task force process

Lothar Fendler (* 13. August 1913 in Breslau ) was a sturmbannführer , the Sonderkommando 4b of Einsatzgruppe C on the murder of Jews in the occupied Ukraine was involved. Fendler was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the Einsatzgruppen trial in 1948 , but was released in 1951.

Life

Fendler studied dentistry from 1932 to 1934 . In 1933 he joined the SS . From 1934 to 1936 he served in the Wehrmacht . In 1936 Fendler became a member of the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD). Like Felix Rühl - his later co-defendant in the Einsatzgruppen trial - he belonged to the next generation of security service leaders and, after being selected and recommended by his superiors, took part in courses at the security police and SS security service in Berlin-Charlottenburg .

In May 1941, when the task forces were set up in the Pretzsch / Elbe border police school , Fendler was assigned to Sonderkommando 4b of Task Force C , where he was responsible for Department III (intelligence). The staff of Sonderkommando 4b consisted of only seven officers. Fendler took part in the attack on the Soviet Union with Sonderkommando 4b from June 1941 . On October 2, 1941, he was relieved and returned to Berlin .

From 1947 to 1948 Fendler was one of 24 defendants in the Einsatzgruppen trial ; his defense attorney was Dr. Hans Fritz with the assistance of Dr. Gabriele Lehmann. The judge was Michael A. Musmanno . On April 9, 1948, Fendler was found guilty of all three charges - (1) crimes against humanity , (2) war crimes, and (3) membership in a criminal organization. In the grounds of the judgment, the question of whether Fendler was the deputy of his commanding officer Günther Herrmann was not finally answered. In any case, Fendler was the second highest officer in command after Herrmann. Fendler was also unable to prove that he was in command of the command during specific shootings. Fendler was sentenced to ten years in prison on April 10, 1948. To serve his sentence, he was taken to the Landsberg War Crimes Prison .

In the course of the intensified discussion of West German rearmament after the outbreak of the Korean War from the summer of 1950, High Commissioner John McCloy on January 31, 1951, on the recommendation of the Advisory Board on Clemency for War Criminals, changed four of the 15 death sentences against prisoners in Landsberg to life imprisonment and six sentenced to between ten and twenty-five years in prison, while five death sentences were to be carried out. The sentence against Fendler was reduced to eight years. He was released in December 1951 after his remaining term was waived.

literature

  • Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10 , Vol. 4: United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. (Case 9: “Einsatzgruppen Case”) . US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950. In: National Archives Microfilm Publications, NM Series 1874-1946, Microfilm Publication M936. National Archives and Record Service, Washington 1973. (Excerpts from the grounds for the judgment on Lothar Fendler: pp. 570 - 573. )
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (Updated 2nd edition)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 4, US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950, pp. 570-573.
  2. ↑ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 4, United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950, p. 11.
  3. ↑ Norbert Frei: Politics of the Past . Beck, Munich 1996, pp. 195-233.
  4. ↑ Eberhard Jäckel (Ed.): Enzyklopädie des Holocaust , Vol. 3. S - Z, Argon, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-87024-303-1 , p. 1747.
personal data
SURNAME Fendler, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS officer in Einsatzgruppe C
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH after 1951