Max-Josef Pemsel

Max-Josef Pemsel (born January 15, 1897 in Regensburg , † June 30, 1985 in Ulm ) was a German officer , most recently lieutenant general in the Bundeswehr .

Life

During his school days, Pemsel was a member of the Regensburg Cathedral Choir .

On April 4, 1916, during the First World War, he joined the replacement battalion of the 11th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment and was then used in the 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment on the Western Front . On April 30, 1918, he was promoted to lieutenant . After the end of the war, Pemsel was accepted into the Reichswehr .

There he was u. a. Used in the 1st company of the 20th (Bavarian) Infantry Regiment and promoted to first lieutenant on April 1, 1925 . He also received general staff training and was employed from October 1, 1935 as the first general staff officer of the 1st Mountain Division .

During the Second World War , Pemsel was deployed on several fronts. As Chief of Staff of the XVIII. Mountain Corps in Serbia he signed an order on October 19, 1941, according to which 1,600 Serbian civilians, if possible Jews and "Gypsies", should be shot in retaliation for ten dead and 24 wounded soldiers of the Wehrmacht . Pemsel rose to the rank of lieutenant general (November 9, 1944).

At the time of the Allied landing in Normandy , Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, he was Chief of Staff of the 7th Army . In this capacity he was the first general to coordinate the defense. His correct assessment of the situation could not be used, however, since the tank reserves in the Paris area could only be released on Hitler's orders . In this situation Pemsel kept in close contact with Commander-in-Chief West , Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt .

On December 9, 1944 he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his service as commander of the 6th Mountain Division in the retreat of the Finland Army. He surrendered on April 29, 1945 as Chief of Staff of the Liguria Army in Italy and was in the following years first in American and later in British captivity .

After his discharge on April 28, 1948 and a civilian activity, he joined the German Armed Forces on April 26, 1956 as a major general . There he was Commander in Defense Area VI (Munich) and from April 1, 1957, Commanding General of the II Corps in Ulm. On January 30, 1958, he was promoted to lieutenant general and on September 30, 1961, Pemsel was retired.

When he was interrogated on January 18, 1963 in Constance, he claimed: "Neither I nor any other officers I knew knew that the leadership of the Third Reich had carried out mass extermination measures on a large scale."

Awards

Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
Bavarian Order of Military Merit IV class with swords
Austrian war commemorative medal
Hungarian World War II Commemorative Medal
Olympic medal of honor II class
Wehrmacht service award IV. To I. class
Medal in memory of March 13, 1938
Clasp for the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on December 9, 1944
Large Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany with a star
Bavarian Order of Merit on May 14, 1965
Officer of the Legion of Merit

literature

Cornelius Ryan : The longest day
The Bua from the Steyrtal . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1956, pp. 15 ( online - August 22, 1956 ).
Pemsel's idle . In: Der Spiegel . No. 7 , 1958 ( online ).

Individual evidence

↑ Roman Smolorz : The Regensburger Domspatzen under National Socialism - Singing between the Catholic Church and the Nazi State , Pustet , Regensburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7917-2930-5
↑ Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv IV , war log roll 1198; digitized copy at ancestry.com, accessed June 7, 2018
^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 453, with reference to Nbg.Dok. NOKW-560.
^ Quote from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 453, with reference to the source 503 ARZ 54/66 BAL.
↑ ^a ^b Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag , Berlin 1930, p. 161
↑ 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. 586.

personal data
SURNAME	Pemsel, Max-Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German officer, most recently lieutenant general in the Bundeswehr
DATE OF BIRTH	January 15, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH	regensburg
DATE OF DEATH	June 30, 1985
Place of death	Ulm

[1] Roman Smolorz : The Regensburger Domspatzen under National Socialism - Singing between the Catholic Church and the Nazi State , Pustet , Regensburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7917-2930-5

[2] Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv IV , war log roll 1198; digitized copy at ancestry.com, accessed June 7, 2018

[3] Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 453, with reference to Nbg.Dok. NOKW-560.

[4] Quote from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 453, with reference to the source 503 ARZ 54/66 BAL.

[Rangliste-5] Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehrministerium , Mittler & Sohn Verlag , Berlin 1930, p. 161

[6] 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. 586.