Otto Rasch

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Otto Rasch during the task force process

Emil Otto Rasch (born December 7, 1891 in Friedrichsruh ; † November 1, 1948 in Nuremberg ) was a German lawyer, SS leader and war criminal. He made as a Nazi after the takeover of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler in Gestapo and SS career, most recently with the rank of SS brigade leader and major general of the police. As the commander of Einsatzgruppe C , he was responsible for the murder of 80,000 people. This included the Babyn Yar massacre . After the end of the Second World War , he was tried as a war criminal .

Life

Education

After the First World War , which he experienced as a member of the Imperial Navy , most recently in the rank of lieutenant, Rasch studied law, political economy and philosophy. He received his doctorate in political economy and law. He received his first doctorate (Dr. rer. Pol.) At the University of Leipzig for the work on housing market and housing policy in England during the war and post-war period . He received his second doctorate (Dr. jur.) For a thesis entitled The Constitutional Status of the Prussian State Parliament President .

After the revolution in 1918, Rasch joined the von Loewenfeld naval brigade and became a member of the anti-Semitic Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund.

Career

He practiced as a lawyer in Leipzig for ten years . During this time he worked as a legal advisor for several companies.

In September 1931 he became a member of the NSDAP. In 1933 he joined the SS.

After the NSDAP came to power, Rasch was successively appointed mayor in Radeberg and mayor in Wittenberg . In the NSDAP, Rasch worked as a circle speaker, district group leader of the hunters and as chairman of the National Socialist legal guardian association .

His time as mayor in Wittenberg was not extended because questionable costs arose in the construction of his service villa . This is likely to be the reason why Rasch did not continue his local political career and took up a career in the ranks of the security service .

In 1938 he became head of the Gestapo in Frankfurt am Main , and in November 1939 security director in Linz for Upper Austria .

After the smashing of the remainder of Czechoslovakia he became SD chief in Prague in March 1939 , then inspector (chief) of the SD and the security police (Sipo) in Königsberg .

From there, the Reich Security Main Office assigned him to be the leader of Einsatzgruppe C during the attack on the Soviet Union .

War crimes in World War II

On August 31, 1939, Rasch led the attack on the forester's house in Pitschen, which took place parallel to the attack on the Gleiwitz transmitter .

In January / February 1940 von Rasch, in agreement with Heydrich , set up the "transit camp " Soldau . According to a later statement by Rasch "specifically for the purpose of inconspicuously effecting the necessary liquidations". Around 600 Polish and Soviet prisoners of war were murdered there.

From June to October 1941 he was chief of Einsatzgruppe C , which followed Army Group South . By October 20, 1941, his task force reported around 80,000 " specially treated people ", meaning those who were murdered.

He was responsible for the Babyn Yar massacre , where parts of his task force murdered 33,771 Kiev Jews on September 29 and 30, 1941 .

After his "probation" in mass murder, Rasch returned to Germany, switched to business and from 1942 to 1945 became director of the Continental Oil .

After 1945

After the end of the war, Rasch was arrested. During the task force trial he fell ill with Parkinson's disease and left the process on February 5, 1948 due to illness. Rasch died on November 1, 1948.

literature

  • Earl Hilary: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-45608-1 .
  • Heinz Höhne: The order under the skull. Goldmann, Munich 1967, ISBN 3-572-01342-9 .
  • Helmut Krausnick, Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm: The troop of the Weltanschauung war. DVA, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-421-01987-8 .
  • Ronny Kabus: Jews of Lutherstadt Wittenberg in the Third Reich. BoD, Norderstedt 2015, ISBN 978-3-7347-7450-8 .
  • Alfred Spieß, Heiner Lichtenstein : The Tannenberg company. Limes, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-8090-2157-1 .
  • Jürgen Runzheimer : The border incidents on the evening before the attack on Poland. In: Wolfgang Benz, Hermann Graml (Hrsg.): Summer 1939. The great powers and the European war. Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-421-01917-7 , pp. 107-147.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Earl Hilary: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-45608-1 , p. 120.
  2. ^ Andreas Kossert, East Prussia. History and Myth, Munich 2005.
  3. ↑ Dieter Schenk : The Lviv Professors Murder and the Holocaust in East Galicia. JHW Dietz, Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-8012-5033-1 , p. 85.
  4. ↑ Dieter Schenk: The Lviv Professors Murder and the Holocaust in East Galicia. JHW Dietz, Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-8012-5033-1 , p. 85.
personal data
SURNAME Quickly, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Quickly, Emil Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS brigade leader and commander of Einsatzgruppe C
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedrichsruh
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1948
Place of death Nuremberg