Oswald Gundelach

Oswald Gundelach (born February 19, 1904 in Poppenlauer , † December 26, 1988 in Würzburg ) was a German police officer .

Life

In the Lower Franconian district of Bad Kissingen grew stepped Gundelach 1922 in the Bavarian state police - police one.

Transferred to the Secret State Police in Würzburg , he accompanied all deportations organized by the Nuremberg Gestapo between 1941 and 1943. He was appointed transport leader for the “DA 49” transport. The Main Franconian Jews were collected between April 22nd and 24th, 1942 in the evacuation point "Platz'scher Garten" (named after the "concert and entertainment establishment" in Benediktstrasse 1) and marched on April 25th to the Aumühle train station.

The dutiful officer recorded everything exactly. Equipped with extensive baggage and food, food stamps for 10 days and złoty worth 250 RM for travel expenses, the transport leader took over the train with 852 Jews, which was "properly handed over" to him at 1:00 p.m. The train went to Würzburg main station, which it left at 3:20 p.m. heading east. Via Bamberg - carrying a further 103 Jews - the train touched the following larger train stations: Lichtenfels (Upper Franconia) , Kronach , Saalfeld , on April 26, 1942 Sagan , Glogau , Neulauba (border town), Lissa , Schieratz , Zdunska-Wola , Łask , Pabia- Nitza , Kalisch , on April 27, 1942 Tomaszoo , Konskie , Towanowice , Nicklan , Skarzyska , Radom , Pionki , Nastawina , Deblin , on April 28, 1942 arrival at 2.30 a.m. in Lublin , there departure at 5:30 a.m. via Krupicez , Rejowiece to Krasnystaw , arrival there at 8:45 a.m. and handover of the transport to Obersturmführer Buhl, Stapostelle Lublin. The transport was handed over in full; There were no incidents. No police intervention was necessary. On May 2, 1942 at 4:50 a.m., Chief Detective Assistant Oswald Gundelach returned to Würzburg and immediately reported his arrival to the office by telephone.

On September 12, 1944 at around 12:30 p.m. a US bomber approached the Spessart village of Ruppertshütten in low flight . Two engines failed after a flak hit over Bohlen near Leipzig . On the Geisköppel (Bavarian Schanz) at the edge of the forest, pilot Ramon Newman sets up the machine on the slope, the landing gear drills into the ground. Two Gestapo men (Heinrich Baumann, Hauptsturmführer Oswald Gundelach), four criminal police officers, four regularly uniformed police officers and the driver moved to Ruppertshütten. Four airmen, two of them wounded, were found and taken to the Schanz property with the little house ("an old camp") on the street. Heinrich Baumann took one of the prisoners, went with him into the forest and shot him from behind. Another led the second away "and shot him." The two injured were shot by Oswald Gundelach and again by Heinrich Baumann. "Killed while fleeing," the report said. " The corpses were treated like a head of cattle, " reported an eyewitness. The coveted flight jackets were taken from the dead by the Nazis in the village, then they were dragged across the cemetery and thrown into the pit dug on the north wall.

The two Gestapo officials were from the 18 October 1947 US - Military Court ( flyer murders ) sentenced to death . However, this sentence was soon commuted to life imprisonment . Released early in 1953, he wrote to the Bavarian State Statistical Office : I was transferred from the police station to the secret state police in Würzburg against my will. I did work for the secret state police that was part of the official duties of the police before 1933 and after 1945 .

In 1954 he was returned to the police force, Oswald Gundelach retired on June 17, 1963 and was honored by the Bavarian state government with the following words: “On behalf of the Free State of Bavaria, I speak to retired police chief Oswald Gundelach at the end of a 40-year service Thanks and recognition from the Bavarian state government. "

The Würzburg public prosecutor's office brought proceedings against Oswald Gundelach for participating in the deportation of Jews in the area of ​​the Würzburg State Police Field Office from 1941 to 1943 (Js 34/70); it was discontinued on September 18, 1970.

literature

• Herbert Schultheis: Jews in Mainfranken 1933-1945 . Verlag Max Rötter, Bad Neustadt adSaale 1980, ISBN 3-9800482-0-9 .
• Herbert Schultheis, Isaac E. Wahler, pictures and files of the Gestapo Würzburg on the deportations of Jews 1941–1943, Bad Neustädter Contributions to the History and Local History of Franconia, Volume 5, Bad Neustadt / Saale 1988.
• Paths to Annihilation. The deportation of the Jews from Main Franconia 1941–1943. Accompanying volume for the exhibition of the State Archives Würzburg and the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin in cooperation with the District of Lower Franconia, ISBN 3-921635-77-2 . The first three deportations of Main Franconian Jews 1941/42 (by Herbert Schott), The photo album on the deportation of Main Franconian Jews (by Herbert Schott)

• From the deportation of Main Franconian Jews to the involvement of simple policemen in genocide. An example ... Chief Detective Oswald Gundelach - youtube

Individual evidence

1. ^ Tobias Müller: Franconian homeland and poetry. Nikolaus Fey. In: Kurt Illing (Ed.): In the footsteps of the poets in Würzburg. Self-published (print: Max Schimmel Verlag), Würzburg 1992, pp. 91-101; here: p. 97 f.
2. ↑ State Archives Würzburg, Gestapo files No. 18–876, pages 117–118
3. ↑ Facsimile in Schultheis / Wahler pp. 180/81
4. ^ Main echo. - Lohrer Echo from September 11, 2014.
5. ↑ Nazi crimes in court (Az: US 223) ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Documentation “The Gestapo”, SWR and ARTE 2005.