Otto Bradfisch

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Otto Bradfisch as a witness in the Kiel Circuit Court
(February 27, 1964)

Otto Bradfisch (born May 10, 1903 in Zweibrücken ; † June 22, 1994 in Seeshaupt ) was an economist and lawyer , SS-Obersturmbannführer , leader of Einsatzkommando 8 of Einsatzgruppe B of the Security Police and SD , commander of the Security Police and SD in Litzmannstadt ( Łódź ) and Potsdam .

School and education

Otto Bradfisch was born in 1903 in Zweibrücken, a town in the Bavarian Palatinate , as the second of four children of grocer Karl Bradfisch.

In Kaiserslautern he attended elementary school for four years and then the humanistic grammar school. In 1922 he passed the school leaving examination.

Bradfisch studied economics at the universities of Freiburg , Leipzig , Heidelberg and Innsbruck . He finished his studies in 1926 with a doctorate as Dr. rer. pole. at the University of Innsbruck. He then studied law in Erlangen and Munich in order to improve his professional opportunities in economically difficult times. He passed the first state law examination on February 17, 1932, the second on September 20, 1935.

Professional and political career

Initially employed as an assessor in the government of Upper Bavaria , he was soon transferred to the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior as a government assessor .

Bradfisch had already joined the NSDAP ( membership number 405.869) on January 1, 1931 . At the time of his studies in Munich he was the deputy local group leader in Munich-Freimann. On September 26, 1938, he joined the SS (SS No. 310.180) as Obersturmführer. In the previous two years he was a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK).

At the suggestion of an acquaintance, Bradfisch applied for service in the Gestapo , to which he was accepted on March 15, 1937 and was entrusted with the deputy management of the state police station in Neustadt ad Weinstrasse .

For on November 4, 1938 Government appointed, he remained there until the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941st

Leader of the Einsatzkommando 8 of Einsatzgruppe B

Task Force B was one of a total of four task forces that were used for “special tasks” in Operation Barbarossa , the war against the Soviet Union . It was under the direction of Arthur Nebe and was divided into the Einsatzkommandos 8 and 9, the Sonderkommandos 7a and 7b and the "Pre- Command Moscow " and was assigned to the Army Group Center . The task of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD was, in accordance with the " Commissar Order" of June 6, 1941 and a written order from Reinhard Heydrich of July 2, 1941, in the conquered eastern areas in addition to securing the rear army area and performing general police duties for the establishment of a civil administration, the " special treatment of potential opponents", d. H. the elimination

"All functionaries of the Comintern (like all communist professional politicians par excellence), the higher, middle and radical lower functionaries of the party, the central committee, the district and regional committees, people's commissars , Jews in party and state positions, other radical elements ( Saboteurs, propagandists, snipers, assassins, agitators, etc.). "

In Heydrich's orders, this group of people was expanded to include all “politically intolerable elements” among the prisoners of war and ultimately all “racially inferior” such as Jews, Gypsies and “Asian elements”.

Initially intended for the position of a staff officer in the staff of EG B, Bradfisch took part in a general discussion at the border police school in Pretzsch under the direction of Heydrich and Heinrich Müller , Head of Office IV (Gestapo) of the RSHA. Then the originally planned leader of EK 8, the acting head of the Liegnitz police station, asked Ernst Ehlers , the leader of EG B Nebe, to release him from this task. Nebe complied with Ehlers' request and replaced him with Bradfisch as leader of EK 8. Knowing the tasks ahead, he had no objection to this.

The EK 8, under Bradfisch's direction, consisted of six sub-troops with different levels of staff who were subordinate to an SS leader, with a total of around 60-80 men. In accordance with his previous position as a councilor and head of the state police station in Neustadt ad Weinstrasse, Bradfisch was awarded the equivalent rank of SS-Sturmbannführer as leader of EK 8 .

With the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, EK 8 moved into Minsk in the wake of Army Group Center via Białystok and Baranowicze at the end of July 1941 . It reached Mogilev on September 9, 1941 , where a permanent stop was made in view of the stalling of the German offensive after the successful Kesselschlacht near Smolensk and the upcoming winter.

The Munich District Court I gave the following description of the way in which EK 8 fulfilled its ordered tasks and how they were more or less the same in all operational commands in the judgment of July 21, 1961:

“In execution of the order to annihilate the Jewish population in the east as well as other groups of the population who were also regarded as racially inferior and the functionaries of the Russian Communist Party, after crossing the demarcation line established in 1939 between the German Reich and the Soviet Union, EK 8 carried out shooting operations, mainly Jews were killed. [...] The recording of the Jews in the respective places affected - called 'overhaul' in the linguistic usage at the time - happened in such a way that the villages or streets were surrounded by some of the members of the task force and then the victims by other members of the commando Houses and apartments were randomly rounded up. [...]

The execution sites were cordoned off by members of the Einsatzkommando or police officers subordinate to it, so that there was no way for the people waiting for their death in the immediate vicinity of the shooting pits to escape their fate. Rather, they had the opportunity - this circumstance represents a particular aggravation of their suffering - to hear the crack of rifle volleys or machine pistol shots and in some cases even to watch the shootings to which neighbors, friends and relatives fell victim.

In the face of this gruesome fate, the victims often burst into crying and wailing, praying loudly, and trying to plead their innocence. In some cases, however, they went to their deaths calmly and composed. "

As leader of EK 8, Bradfisch was responsible for all measures and executions. In some cases, he directed the executions himself and, in individual cases, even shot himself. Examples are:

  • Białystok: two shootings of at least 1,100 Jews and alleged communist functionaries
  • Baranowicze: two shootings of at least 381 Jews
  • Minsk: seven shootings of at least 2,000 people
  • Mogilev: eight shootings of at least 4,100 Jewish men, women and children as well as Soviet prisoners of war
  • Bobruisk : Major action in which at least 5,000 Jewish men, women and children were shot

Bradfisch had to report on the activities of his task force to the superordinate task force B, which, together with those of the other task forces, sent them to the RSHA. There, Office IV A compressed the individual reports into the event reports .

Commander of the Security Police and the SD

Bradfisch was head of EK 8 until March 1942. On April 26, 1942, he was transferred to Łódź , called "Litzmannstadt" by the National Socialists , and appointed head of the state police station there. In this function he was also responsible for the deportations of Jews to the Kulmhof extermination camp . He was appointed commander of the security police and the SD in the summer of 1942. In the autumn of the same year he was appointed as mayor of Litzmannstadt. In this capacity he was also promoted to the Oberregierungsrat or SS-Obersturmbannführer on January 25, 1943 .

End of war

After the city was evacuated in December 1944 due to the war, Bradfisch worked as commander of the security police and SD in Potsdam during the last months of the war . When the Red Army approached, he was able to withdraw to the west and obtain a Wehrmacht payroll in the name of a sergeant, Karl Evers.

Initially in American captivity , he was transferred to English custody and released in August 1945.

post war period

Bradfisch was able to hide his true identity under the name Karl Evers until 1953. He was initially employed in agriculture and later in mining. As an insurance employee in Kaiserslautern , most recently at Hamburg-Mannheimer Versicherung as district director, he took on his real name again.

On April 21, 1958 Brad fish was taken into custody and a judgment of the District Court of Munich I of 21 July 1961 Ref .: 22 Ks 1/61 for an in complicity committed the crime of aid for Community murder in 15,000 cases to ten years in prison convicted. In 1963 he was convicted again in Hanover , the two prison sentences were combined to a duration of 13 years. On October 16, 1965, he was able to leave the prison for a long time. In 1969 he was released early with the help of the theologian Hermann Schlingensiepen .

His marriage on November 23, 1932 had three children, of whom the youngest girl born in Litzmannstadt perished in 1945 while fleeing from the Soviet troops.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ingeborg Fleischhauer: The Third Reich and the Germans in the Soviet Union . Walter de Gruyter, 1983, ISBN 978-3-486-70334-4 , p. 102 ( google.com ).
  2. ↑ Task force trial before the Munich jury court against Dr. Otto Bradfisch et al. a. Retrieved on May 15, 2018 (LG Munich I from July 21, 1961, 22 Ks 1/61).
  3. ↑ Task force trial before the Munich jury court against Dr. Otto Bradfisch et al. a. , Publication of the non-profit association for regional cultural and contemporary history Gelsenkirchen. Online version , accessed April 8, 2012
  4. ^ Nazi criminal: Zuchthaus zu Haus , Der Spiegel , October 24, 1966. Online version , accessed on April 8, 2012
  5. ^ Book review by Jürgen Schmädeke : Gestapo careers after the end of the Nazi dictatorship , February 2010. About: The Gestapo after 1945 , editors Andrej Angrick & Klaus-Michael Mallmann. With texts by 15 authors. Accessed online on April 8, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Bradfisch, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Obersturmbannführer, leader of the Einsatzkommando 8 for mass murders in Belarus
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Zweibrücken
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1994
Place of death Seeshaupt