Rūdolfs Bangerskis

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Rudolfs Bangerskis.jpg
Gravestone for R. Bangerskis in the Brothers Cemetery (Riga)

Rūdolfs Bangerskis ( dt : Rudolf Bangerskis , russ . Рудольф Карлович Бангерский * 21st July 1878 in Taurupe , Latvia ; † 25. February 1958 in Oldenburg ) was a Russian colonel , Latvian-General and Minister of War and as SS-group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen-SS Inspector General of the Latvian Legion .

Life

After graduating from several military schools, including in St. Petersburg , Bangerskis was in military service from 1901 to 1945. Bangerskis served in the Czarist Russian army , took part in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) part was during the First World War commander of the 1st Dünamünder Latvian battalion of Latvian Riflemen . In the service of the White Army , Bangerskis took part in various campaigns from August 1918 to November 1921, including in the Far East .

After Bangerskis returned to Latvia on November 10, 1921, he was appointed to the Latvian Army in 1924 as commander of the 1st Courland Division. As a member of the Latvian government, he served as Minister of War from December 1924 to December 1925 and repeatedly from December 1926 to December 1928 . He then returned to leading positions in the ranks of the Latvian army. On March 16, 1937, he retired from the army due to his age in order to work in the economy.

Bangerskis survived the period of Soviet occupation of Latvia from 1940 to 1941 without repression. Under German occupation, Bangerskis was appointed SS-Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the Waffen-SS on March 9, 1943, and appointed General Inspector of the Latvian Legion on April 10, 1943. This function was incumbent on him until May 20, 1945. Under his responsibility, around 50,000 Latvian Jews are said to have been exterminated . At the beginning of 1945 Bangerskis became involved in the Latvian national movement. On February 20, 1945 he was elected President of the "Latvian National Committee" in Potsdam .

On June 20, 1945, he was interned by the British armed forces to investigate his SS past on the site of the former Fallingbostel concentration camp. On December 17, 1946, Bangerskis was released from internment. Bangerskis was then accepted as a displaced person in the Ohmstede DP camp , the so-called “Letten camp”. The Ohmstede camp was only dissolved in 1958 and rebuilt as a housing estate under the name “Rennplatz-Siedlung” on the outskirts of Oldenburg and mainly rented to the camp inmates. There he died of the consequences of a car accident on the night of February 24th to 25th, 1958, while getting out of a bus.

On March 16, 1995, his body was transferred to the Brothers Cemetery (Riga) . A different claim to be found on the Internet that Bangerskis had been reburied at the Freedom Monument (Riga) does not correspond to the facts.

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Andreas Schulz , Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 1: Abraham – Gutenberger. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2003. ISBN 3-7648-2373-9 . Pp. 52-55.
  • Karl Heinz Gräfe: From the thunder cross to the swastika. The Baltic States between dictatorship and occupation . Edition Organon, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-931034-11-5 , short biography p. 430 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Documents about R. Bangerskis on www.historia.lv ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.historia.lv
  2. ^ Letter from Bangerskis to SS-Obergruppenführer Berger dated November 22, 1944 ( Memento of the original dated July 2, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.historia.lv
  3. a b Bangerski's biography on hrono.ru (russ.)
  4. Kangeris, Karlis: SS republika: Kurzemes pārvalde 1945. gadā ( SS Republic: Kurländische Administration in 1945 )
  5. Lembeck, Andreas: Leben im Transit , PDF file of the library and information system of the University of Oldenburg: 2000?
  6. Belschner, Wilfried: Integrale Gesundheitsförderung , PDF file from: Studies on Health Promotion in the Library and Information System of the University of Oldenburg: 2003, ISBN 3-8142-0836-6
  7. see: "George Bush embarasses America again"