Siegfried Ruff (Lieutenant General)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Siegfried Ruff (born February 20, 1895 in Cunersdorf , Brandenburg , † February 3, 1946 in Riga , Latvian SSR , Soviet Union ) was a German lieutenant general in the Wehrmacht who was executed after the Second World War after a war crimes trial in Riga.

Life

Siegfried Ruff, son of the estate manager Paul Ruff and his wife Martha Moser, joined the 2nd Posensche Field Artillery Regiment No. 56 of the Prussian Army in Lissa on March 22, 1913 as an ensign . On October 18, 1913, he was promoted to senior ensign. From August 1914, Ruff took part in the First World War with his regiment , was promoted to lieutenant in early September 1914 and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross in the course of the war .

After the end of the war , Ruff was transferred to the provisional Reichswehr and transferred to the light Reichswehr Artillery Regiment 5 of Reichswehr Brigade 5 in Glogau . From October 1, 1920 he served in the 3rd (Prussian) Artillery Regiment in Frankfurt (Oder) as a department and regimental adjutant and as a battery chief . On October 15, 1935 he became department commander in the now Artillery Regiment 3 and on November 10, 1938 he was appointed commander of the newly established Grenz-Artillerie -teilung 101 in Jüterbog .

From June 1, 1939, Ruff served as an adjutant in the General Staff of the XXV. Army corps with which he participated in World War II from September 1939 . On February 6, 1940, he became the first commander of the 291 Artillery Regiment of the 291st Infantry Division , which was then set up on the Arys military training area in East Prussia . He led his regiment in May and June 1940 in the western campaign in France and from June 1941 in the German-Soviet War in Russia. Promoted to colonel in early January 1941 , he was transferred to the Führerreserve on January 4, 1942 , and on February 21, 1942 appointed commander of the 305 Artillery Regiment of the 305th Infantry Division . At that time the regiment was still an occupation force in Brittany and was preparing for its deployment on the Eastern Front . It was used from May 1942 in the Battle of Kharkov and from August 1942 in the Battle of Stalingrad . At the end of September 1942, Ruff was entrusted with the management of the 401st replacement division in Königsberg , of which he was appointed commander on December 1, 1942. At the same time he was promoted to major general. Appointed city ​​commander of Riga on April 1, 1944 , in this function he had the residents of Riga dug wide trenches around the city to stop the Soviet tanks. At the beginning of 1945 he became commander of the newly established 609th Infantry Division, to which the troops of the fortress of Breslau were subordinate. On March 1, 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant general .

At the end of the war, Lieutenant General Ruff was captured by the Red Army in Breslau and transferred to NKVD camp No. 27 in Krasnogorsk . On January 26, 1946, he was charged by the Baltic Military Tribunal in the Riga war crimes trial for war crimes as the commander of Riga. The charges were: "Attracting the population to the construction of defenses, in October 1944 destruction of industrial facilities in Riga". On February 3, 1946, he was sentenced to death by hanging in a war crimes trial together with Friedrich Jeckeln , Albrecht Baron Digeon von Montenton , Friedrich Werther , Bronislaw Pawel , Hans Küpper and Wolfgang von Ditfurth , and on the afternoon of the same day on the grounds of the former Riga ghetto executed .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Breslau Exodus 1946: Contributions to the documentary chronicle of a city and its people . Natura et Patria Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3-921060-07-0 , pp. 174 ( google.de [accessed December 29, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Reichswehr Ministry (Ed.): Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1924, p. 177.
  3. ^ Günter Wegner, Dermot Bradley: The occupation of the active regiments, battalions and departments of the foundation or list up to August 26, 1939 . Biblio-Verl., 1993, ISBN 978-3-7648-1779-4 , pp. 494 ( google.de [accessed December 29, 2019]).
  4. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 100 ( google.de [accessed December 29, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Anita Kugler : Scherwitz: The Jewish SS officer. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2017 ISBN 9783462033144 , p. 372, limited preview
  6. ↑ a b Samuel W. Mitcham: German Order of Battle: 291st-999th Infantry divisions, named infantry divisions, and special divisions in World War II . Stackpole Books, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 , pp. 182 ( google.de [accessed December 29, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Andreas Weigelt, Mike Schmeitzner: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947): a historical-biographical study. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017, p. 575 f. , accessed December 28, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Manfred Zeidler : Stalin Justice contra Nazi war crimes. (PDF) Hannah Ahrendt Institute for Totalitarian Research TU Dresden, 1996, p. 16 ff. , Accessed on December 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Ruff, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht and war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Cunersdorf
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1946
Place of death Riga , Soviet Union