Peter Klassen (diplomat)

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Peter Klassen (* 29. July 1903 in Saarbrücken , † 25. April 1989 in Bonn ) was a German diplomat in the era of National Socialism and the Federal Republic. During the Second World War , he worked as a Jewish advisor in the German embassy in Paris , in this function to promote the disenfranchisement, plundering and deportation of Jews. Klassen was never held accountable for this.

Life

After attending the Reformrealgymnasium in Saarbrücken, classes at the Universities of Munich and Kiel studied history and archeology . Klassen received his doctorate in 1929 under Friedrich Wolters and concluded his dissertation with a statement by Friedrich II of Prussia , according to which the subjects should not be guided by fear, but by love and devotion . From 1932 to 1934 he was a research assistant at Heidelberg University and then a freelance academic writer. On August 1, 1933, he joined the NSDAP .

He joined the Foreign Service on August 1, 1939 and was transferred to the embassy in Paris in December 1940. In August 1940, Legation Councilor Ullrich sent him, along with Kurt Jagow and Heinz Günther Sasse, to a commission that was supposed to examine the files of the French Foreign Ministry in Tours . The material suitable for processing was transferred to Berlin. The confiscation was carried out by the so-called Sonderkommando Künsberg . In the information department and the cultural and political department, Klassen worked as a Jewish advisor and managed the anti-Jewish cultural work under the label “Political Lektorat”. He worked on French anti-Semitism through the editors of the weekly Au Pilori and through Louis Darquier , who was President of the Union Française pour la Défense de la Race (UFDR) and in 1942 became President of the Commissariat Général aux Questions Juives .

Klassen was a participant in the meeting of the “Judenreferenten” of the AA in Krummhübel on April 3 and 4, 1944, at which Franz Alfred Six openly spoke in an opening statement about the “physical elimination of Eastern Jewry”, which has great influence on all opponents of Germany. Other speakers included, among others, Peter Klassen, who reported on the promotion of anti-Semitism in France:

“He“ first gives a longer historical overview of the development of the Jewish problem and anti-Semitism in France and refers to the difference in the treatment of Jews in the north and south zones. In the northern zone, steps were taken to aryanize Jewish companies, and Jewish literature was confiscated. Jewish writers and actors are not prohibited from working under French Jewish legislation, but they are not allowed to own a newspaper or a theater, nor to run. The Jew had disappeared from the state authorities. In 1940 a Jewish institute was founded in France. An anti-Jewish exhibition had a great success. With the exception of a few anti-Semitic clergy, the Catholic Church had largely campaigned for Judaism in line with the democratic ideology. Some anti-Semitic films have been daunting. The film should therefore be used more heavily. The information activity must start from the French tradition and be presented as a French matter. The supporters of Déats and French fascism could find useful starting points. The situation in French North Africa is well suited for evaluation. "

Nothing is known about a denazification of Klass after the end of the war. In 1949 he got a position at the West German Library in Marburg in the department for the literature of Romance countries. In February 1952 he returned to the Foreign Service and from 1954 to 1956 headed the Political and Historical Archives of the Foreign Office , where scientists came up with their questions about the Nazi era. He later worked on the missions in London and Madrid. Klassen left civil servant status in 1962.

Works

literature

  • Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Ed. Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 2: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger (author): G – K. Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X .
  • Carmen Callil: Bad faith. A forgotten history of family and fatherland . Jonathan Cape & Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, ISBN 978-0-09-949828-5 .
  • Astrid M. Eckert: Fight for the files. The Western Allies and the return of German archive material after the Second World War. Series: Transatlantic Historical Studies, 20. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2004 ISBN 978-3-515-08554-0 Readable online in google.books.

Remarks

  1. ↑ At many embassies, the activities for the extermination of the Jews ran under the label "Culture".
  2. ↑ This was a dirty word during National Socialism.
  3. ↑ Classes passim, 28 mentions. Klassen was sent to London by the AA in 1952 to work on an edition of files. But Klassen just wanted to know everything about whether there were files from Paris (his former place of work). The British said he was completely incompetent, he couldn't even speak enough English. Then Kl. Was then head of the PA in the Bonn Office

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Klassen :, The foundations of enlightened absolutism Jena 1929, p. 127.
  2. ↑ Martin Kröger, Roland Thimme: The Political Archive of the Foreign Office in the Second World War. Protection, escape, loss, repatriation . (PDF; 1 MB) In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 47 (1999), pp. 243–264.
  3. ↑ a b Conference of the "Judenreferenten" in Krummhübel . Conference minutes on the website of the NS archive - documents on National Socialism; accessed on January 13, 2018.
  4. ↑ Walter Benjamin on the book: “One of the few repulsive phenomena in the extensive, mostly colorless literature on Baudelaire is the book of P. Klassen. It is characteristic of this book, written in the depressing terminology of the George circle , which Baudelaire represents under the steel helmet, as it were, that it places the ultramontane restoration in the center of his life , namely the moment »when, in the sense of the restored divine grace, the holy of holies, in the Staring naked arms through the streets of Paris. This may have been a decisive, because essential, experience of his entire existence. «” Benjamin scoffs: “Baudelaire was 6 years old at the time.” In: Aura and Reflection. Writings on art theory and aesthetics . Frankfurt 2007, p. 305.
  5. ↑ About the Darquier family. Multiple editions in the UK and USA, both TB and hardcover; there are correspondingly many different ISBNs; also called Amazon Kindle . The book can only be read and searched online at amazon.com under ISBN 0-307-27925-1 , classes: passim (19 mentions). French version: Darquier de Pellepoix ou la France trahie Buchet / Chastel (Libella), Paris 2007 ISBN 2-283-02255-X . Reviews: Antony Beevor: Antony Beevor reviews Bad Faith by Carmen Callil . In: The Daily Telegraph , April 11, 2006
  6. ^ Henry Porter: The enemies of free speech are everywhere . In: The Observer October 15, 2006
  7. ^ Peter Conrad: Vile Days in Vichy . In: The Observer , March 26, 2006
  8. ↑ Martin Evans: Carmen Callil talks to Martin Evans about her recent excursion into the lies and hypocrisy of Vichy France . In: History Today , May 2006
personal data
SURNAME Classes, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarbrücken
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1989
Place of death Bonn