Oskar Knofe

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Oskar Paul Knofe (born May 14, 1888 in Pirna ; † 1978 ) was a German police president , SS leader and police officer, most recently an SS brigade leader and major general of the police in World War II .

Life

Oskar Knofe was the son of the businessman Heinrich Wilhelm Knofe and his wife Anna Hedwig, née Goetze. After attending grammar schools in Dresden and Freiberg, he began an officer career in the Saxon Army in 1909 . As part of his aviation training, he was assigned to the Prussian Training and Research Institute for Military Traffic in 1911 and finally transferred to the 3rd Company in the Aviation Battalion No. 1 in Großenhain in 1912 . During the First World War he took part in the air force on Dunkirk , Nancy , Bar-le-Duc and in the autumn battle in Champagne and in 1916 in the Battle of Verdun . Knofe was also used on the Eastern Front during the fighting on the Narew and in the breakthrough battle in Galicia. After more than 150 enemy flights, King Friedrich August III drew him . on March 21, 1917 with the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry . Knofe ended the war as a captain and after his discharge from the army he worked in several volunteer corps .

At the beginning of 1924 Knofe joined the auxiliary police in Saxony and in the same year was accepted into the Saxon state police, where he quickly made a career. Soon after the National Socialists seized power , he became a member of the NSDAP in February 1933 (membership number 1.738.044). In March 1933 he was appointed police chief of Leipzig and held this position until 1937. From 1937 he was a colonel in the police force in Berlin. In the spring of 1939 he was accepted into the General SS with the rank of Standartenführer (SS No. 314.957) and at the same time he was employed in a leading police position in Magdeburg .

After the attack on Poland , Knofe was entrusted with the management of the police in the military district of Poznan in mid-September 1939 . After the end of the military administration and the establishment of civil administration in this area, he was inspector or commander of the Ordnungspolizei (BdO) in Poznan from November 1939 and thus headed the Ordnungspolizei in the entire German-occupied Wartheland . His direct superior was the Higher SS and Police Leader Wilhelm Koppe . Among other things, Knofe was subordinate to the Police Battalion 61, which was significantly involved in war crimes in the Wartheland. In addition to participating in the executions of Polish civilians (including many Jews), this police unit also carried out “ resettlements ” (see Poznan under German occupation ), for example “from September 1939 to June 1940 over 77,000 Jews and Poles from Poznan and the surrounding area” . In his agenda, Knofe repeatedly commended police officers who were subordinate to him and who had caught “Polish-Jewish smugglers” or shot “fugitives”. Knofe was promoted to SS-Brigadführer and Major General of the Police in 1941, his highest ranks in the SS and police. By September 1942 at the latest, Knofe was BdO Posen and thus “until the end of the first phase of the mass murders in the Warthegau”.

After that he was employed as BdO Salzburg until 1943 and then as commander of the Ordnungspolizei (KdO) in Kiev . In the middle of 1944 he was retired and reactivated again in the Wartheland as head of civil administration in Dietfurt-Land ( Żnin ) from August 1944 to January 1945.

After the war ended, Knofe was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by the (Polish) district court in Poznan in February 1949. He was released from prison in 1955.

literature

  • Michael Alberti: The persecution and extermination of the Jews in the Reichsgau Wartheland 1939–1945. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-447-05167-1 .
  • Stefan Klemp : "Not determined". Police Battalions and the Post War Justice. 2nd Edition. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0663-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736–1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 380.
  2. ^ A b c Michael Alberti: The persecution and extermination of the Jews in Reichsgau Wartheland 1939–1945. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-447-05167-1 , p. 75f.
  3. ↑ The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945. Volume 1: German Empire 1933–1937. edit von Wolf Gruner, Munich 2008, p. 420. ISBN 978-3-486-58480-6 , p. 204, note 6
  4. ↑ Stefan Klemp: "Not determined". Police Battalions and the Post War Justice. Essen 2011, p. 32
  5. ^ Michael Alberti: The persecution and annihilation of the Jews in Reichsgau Wartheland 1939–1945 , Wiesbaden 2006, p. 315
  6. ^ Michael Alberti: The persecution and annihilation of the Jews in the Reichsgau Wartheland 1939-1945 , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-447-05167-1 , p. 75f.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Curilla : The murder of Jews in Poland and the German order police 1939-1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77043-1 , p. 861.
  8. ↑ The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945. Volume 1: German Empire 1933–1937. edit von Wolf Gruner, Munich 2008, p. 420. ISBN 978-3-486-58480-6 , p. 204, note 6
personal data
SURNAME Knofe, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Knofe, Oskar Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Police President, SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Police
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Pirna
DATE OF DEATH 1978