Max Strobel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Max Strobel (partly also written Ströbel, * July 15, 1912 or 1913 in Oelsnitz ; † ibid) was a German police officer in World War II . As head of the security police , he was responsible for the deaths of at least 45 people. In the last months of the war he ordered the death of another 25 people in the Dutch province of Friesland .

resume

Max Strobel initially worked as a businessman before joining the police in Düsseldorf . At the age of 20 he joined the Schutzstaffel (SS). He was appointed head of the beginning of 1942 the Security Police in Maastricht appointed. There he worked closely with his confidante Richard Nitsch (interrogation specialist) and Hans Conrad (clerk for Jewish affairs). In the course of the war, resistance to the German regime in the Dutch province of Limburg also increased. Strobel took action against it. Nitsch got permission from him to torture his prisoners . This went so far that the Nazi German rules in this area were exceeded. There were also regular executions of members of the resistance and anyone else . The Dutch judiciary made Strobel and his staff responsible for at least 45 deaths after the war. For example, on May 3, 1943, seven strikers who took part in the strikes in April and May 1943 were shot.

He had a relationship with the collaborator Aldegonda Zeguers-Boere from Maastricht. In May 1944, the Limburg resistance tried to get an arrested colleague free through her. One of the leading resistance activists in Maastricht, Jo Lokerman and a few others made an appointment with her. She asked for a ransom of twelve thousand guilders. They were then arrested while leaving the house. As a result, a total of 50 people were arrested.

The Allies advanced rapidly towards Limburg in the second half of 1944. Strobel and Nitsch therefore moved to Friesland, the part of the Netherlands that had not yet been liberated. There they continued their reign of terror. The judiciary holds them responsible for the deaths of at least 25 people. In May 1945, the Sipo boss and his employees in parachute uniforms surrendered to the Canadians in Haarlem . He himself gave a false name (Max Starke or Max Walther) and was taken to a prisoner of war camp in northern Germany. Since no one recognized his true identity, Strobel was soon released.

In the liberated south of the Netherlands , a clear picture of Strobel's war activities had emerged and the hunt for him was on. In February 1947, a Frisian claimed to have met Strobel in Hamm , Westphalia . The latter had told him that a transport of SS people in hiding to Argentina was being organized. An attempt by the British , in whose occupation zone Hamm was to arrest Strobel, failed because they could not find him. In January 1950 the Dutch press reported that Strobel had been arrested in Düsseldorf. However, this was based on a misunderstanding, it was about another person with the same surname.

The journalist Bart Ebisch, grandson of one of the victims of the undetectable German, made inquiries. In 2016, they showed that the Dutch attempts to discover Strobel were hardly ever more than correspondence between Dutch and German authorities. For example, it was not investigated whether Strobel had registered under one of his known aliases, nor were his wife or former colleagues questioned to find out more about his whereabouts.

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ^ De papieren yacht op SD chief Strobel. Retrieved May 11, 2020 (Flemish).
  2. ↑ De 25 moorden van Max Strobel , Leeuwarder Courant , October 8, 2016
  3. ↑ Oorlogsmisdadiger verantwoordelijk voor dood 45 Limburgers. October 7, 2016, accessed May 11, 2020 (Dutch).
  4. ↑ P. Bronzwaer: MAASTRICHTENAREN EN DE TWEEDE WERELDORLOG. 1996, accessed May 11, 2020 (Dutch).
  5. ↑ Oorlogsmonument de Hamert Archief Well Limburg. Retrieved May 11, 2020 (Dutch).
  6. ↑ OBSERVANT - “Wil je de kelder zien?” Retrieved May 11, 2020 (nl-NL).
  7. ↑ Gé Reinders: Het zakdoekje: een zoektocht naar het verzetsverleden van mijn moeder. Van Nijgh & Ditmar, Amsterdam 2010, pp. 189–191.
  8. ↑ Judith Schuyt (eindredactie): Nederlanders in Neuengamme. Uitgeverij Kimabo, Zaltbommel 2005, p. 89.
  9. ↑ Bart Ebisch: Drawn: SD-beul Max Strobel. In: Reporters Online. November 7, 2016, accessed May 11, 2020 (Dutch).
personal data
SURNAME Strobel, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German policeman in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1912 or 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Oelsnitz
DATE OF DEATH 20th century or 21st century