Martin Fellenz

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Martin Fellenz after his conviction

Martin Fellenz (born October 20, 1909 in Duisburg , † March 13, 2007 ) was a German SS leader, perpetrator of the Holocaust , choir director, composer and local politician ( FDP ).

Life

Origin, occupation and turning to National Socialism

Martin Fellenz was the son of a lathe operator. After finishing school, he began an apprenticeship as a banker, which he did not complete. He then became a pianist with the Duisburg Jägerkapelle. From 1931 he worked at the operetta stage in Duisburg-Hamborn as the first conductor and conductor of operettas. In the early 1930s he married his first wife, who was an actress. The marriage later ended in divorce.

In the era of National Socialism , he joined early the Nazis on. Even before they “came to power ” Fellenz became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 1,289,093) and SS (SS number 49,689) in 1932. He also worked as a clerk at SS-Standarte 75 . Within the SS, he rose to become SS-Sturmbannführer . In his spare time he was a tournament rider and composed an SS loyalty march.

Second World War - Participation in the Holocaust in Poland

After the attack on Poland at the beginning of World War II , Fellenz was staff leader of the SS and Self-Protection Leader in Krakow from December 1939 during the German occupation of Poland . From March 1940 he was adjutant and from June 1941 to October 1942 staff leader of the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in Krakow. In this function he was co-organizer of the deportation of Jews from the city's Jewish ghettos to the extermination camps in the Krakow district of the General Government . In a first wave that began on June 1, 1942 in Krakow and ended on September 10, 1942 and cost more than 100,000 lives, Jews classified as “unable to work” (under 16 and over 35) were to be selected and sent to extermination camps to be deported. Due to the size of the people destined to be murdered, members of the Waffen SS were deployed in addition to police officers from various agencies . The SSPF Krakow Julian Scherner was therefore responsible for coordinating these measures . Scherner's staff leader Fellenz and adjutant Bartsch were entrusted with the practical cooperation and coordination of the German authorities on site. They led briefings immediately before the deportations, in which, in addition to the district chiefs and city commanders, representatives of the security and order police , the employment office and sometimes the armed forces took part. After the interests of the German authorities had been compared, the regional and temporary murders were agreed, planned and implemented.

In November 1942 Fellenz reported to the Waffen-SS and did military service. From 1944 he was adjutant of the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Ost Wilhelm Koppe .

post war period

At the end of the war Fellenz went to Schleswig . His second wife, whom he married in 1944, lived there. He took over the management of his father-in-law's bakery. In 1945 he was arrested because of his SS membership and taken to an internment camp for two years. In 1947 he was denazified as a fellow traveler after a court proceedings . After his release, he resumed his work as managing director. In addition, since 1947 he was the conductor of the Schleswig Choral Society in 1839 and of the union choir "Frohsinn". Fellenz became a member of the FDP in the spring of 1954 . After the Schleswig-Holstein local elections in January 1955, the Free Democrat became a councilor in Schleswig and remained in this position after his re-election in 1959. He was active in committees of the Schleswig council assembly, such as the committee for school and cultural affairs and the youth care committee. In addition, he was a choir leader and conductor of three choirs. In Schleswig he was a respected citizen.

On June 20, 1960 Fellenz, immediately after his return from Hayes and Harlington in England, Schleswig's twin town, where he had stayed with a delegation of councilors on a friendship visit, because of the strong suspicion of being involved in the murder of almost 40,000 Jews in custody taken. In the course of the investigation against a former SS-Unterscharführer who had accompanied Fellenz in 1942 and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 56 Jews, Fellenz was also targeted by the investigating authorities.

Legal proceedings

The trial of Fellenz began on November 14, 1962 before the jury court at the Flensburg Regional Court for his involvement in the murder of almost 40,000 Jews. He was accused of leading and organizing five “Jewish evacuations”, during which tens of thousands of Jews were deported to the extermination camps in the summer of 1942 and hundreds of victims were shot on the spot. Fellenz was accused of organizing murders in Miechów, Michalowice, Tarnów , Rzeszów (under German occupation: “Reichshof”) and Przemyśl . In the course of the hearing, the public prosecutor's office received 145 witnesses and others. a. interrogated from the USA , Canada , Belgium , France and Great Britain . Among other things, events of the persecution of Jews in Przemyśl were discussed, where Jews had to strip naked in front of dug pits and fell into the pits after they were shot. Fellenz himself described himself as a “little cog” in the machinery of the murder machinery and declared that he was merely an observer and reporter. He did not commit the shootings by hand that witnesses accused him of and said it must have been a mix-up.

“ I am not conscious of any guilt. I have nothing to do with the evacuation of Jews. I saw them though. But I was only there as an observer. Not as a controller. Especially not as a 'command giver'. "

- Testimony from Martin Fellenz during the 1962 trial

The public prosecutor applied for a life sentence and the revocation of the civil rights for life. On January 11, 1963 Fellenz was sentenced to four years imprisonment for aiding and abetting murder "in two cases" (two "actions", not individual acts), which the jury found proven. He was acquitted on the other charges. He was not deprived of his civil rights. By taking into account the two-year pre-trial detention and the prospect of a suspended sentence, the warrant was overturned and Fellenz was able to leave the court as a free man.

The judgment was overturned by the Federal Court of Justice and the case was referred to the Kiel Regional Court . Due to new suspicions, the investigation against Fellenz had already been resumed and Fellenz had been taken into custody. At the beginning of September 1965 the trial against him was reopened before the jury court at the district court in Kiel. Fellenz was sentenced on January 27, 1966 to seven years in prison for aiding and abetting murder in "four cases" ("Actions"). The court found the defendant to be completely guilty, since he knew the purpose and aim of the evacuation of Jews and he had worked diligently in it. The court found no evidence to support Fellenz's appeal to a state of emergency . The individual killings he was accused of on the basis of testimony from witnesses were not taken into account in the judgment due to insufficient evidence. Since he had been in custody almost continuously since the summer of 1960, the arrest warrant against him was revoked, also because the remaining sentence was likely to be suspended.

Late life

From 1981 to 1989 Fellenz was a piano teacher at the district music school in Flensburg. He continued to work as a piano accompanist and became the head of the men's choir "Eintracht Fleckeby". His residence was in Lürschau .

In 1996 the German Choir Association awarded him the golden badge of honor with a bow on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the choir director.

Compositions

As a choirmaster Fellenz wrote various works for choirs, such as Abendruh , a choral work with a baritone solo, memories of Schleswig , folk song arrangements, and marches, including a march on the occasion of Schleswig's town twinning with Mantes-la-Jolie . A Christmas lullaby was awarded first prize in a Quaker competition. During the Nazi era he published an SS loyalty march in 1935 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Martin Fellenz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Year of death according to: Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 , (source collection) Volume 9: Poland: Generalgouvernement August 1941–1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-486-71530-9 , p. 348.
  2. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 147 f.
  3. ↑ a b c H. W .: Accused: Martin Fellenz. The portrait of a "good German" . In: Die Zeit , issue 38 of September 17, 1965; Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 , (source collection) Volume 9: Poland: Generalgouvernement August 1941–1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-486-71530-9 , p. 348.
  5. ↑ Klaus-Michael Mallmann : "Man, I'm celebrating the thousandth shot in the neck today - the security police and the Shoah in Western Galicia". In: Gerhard Paul (ed.): The perpetrators of the Shoah. Fanatic National Socialists or just normal Germans? . Wallstein, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-503-6 , p. 116 f.
  6. ^ A b c Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-ROM lexicon. Kopf, Kiel 2004, DNB 976582554 , p. 1542.
  7. ↑ a b c d H. W .: Martin Fellenz was a respected citizen. A councilor in Schleswig was charged with 40,000 murders . In: Die Zeit , issue 47 of November 23, 1962; Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  8. ↑ Reinhard Henkys (author); Dietrich Goldschmidt (Hrsg.): The national social violent crime. History and judgment. Kreuz-Verlag, Stuttgart u. a. 1964, p. 101.
  9. ^ H. W .: Shot down - like rabbits. In Flensburg the trial of the former SS-Sturmbannführer Martin Fellenz came to an end . In: Die Zeit , issue 2 of January 11, 1963; Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  10. ↑ Quoted from: H. W .: Martin Fellenz was a respected citizen. A councilor in Schleswig was charged with 40,000 murders . In: Die Zeit , issue 47 of November 23, 1962; Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  11. ↑ Hans Peter Bull: What does probation mean? Incomprehensible mildness in the Fellenz trial . In: Die Zeit , issue 3 from January 18, 1963; Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  12. ^ H. W .: The second judgment. Seven years prison for Fellenz In: Die Zeit , issue 6 of February 4, 1966; Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  13. ^ Judgment LG Kiel  2 Ks 6/63 of January 27, 1966, in: BArch , B 162/1358, Bl. 150 ff.
  14. ^ Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-ROM lexicon. Kopf, Kiel 2004, DNB 976582554 , pp. 1542–1543.
personal data
SURNAME Fellenz, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS leader and perpetrator of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Duisburg
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 2007