Theodor Eicke

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Theodor Eicke, here in the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS (1942)

Theodor Eicke (born October 17, 1892 in Hampont , Lorraine , † February 26, 1943 near Michailowka near Losowaja , south of Charkow ) was a German SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS . He was the "leader of the SS-Totenkopfverband and the SS guard associations" and also one of Ernst Röhm's murderers .

As the second commandant of the Dachau concentration camp (June 1933 – June 1934) and subsequently as the concentration camp inspector , he was also instrumental in setting up the German concentration camp system (until November 15, 1939 at the latest).

During the Second World War , Eicke was the commander of the SS “Totenkopf” division , which was originally formed from the guards of the concentration camps.

Origin and occupation

Youth and military career

Theodor Eicke was born as the youngest of eleven children of a station master in Alsace-Lorraine , which was then part of the German Empire . Eicke's father is described as a German patriot, and his mother is said to have often visited her relatives in Paris ; The Eickes siblings are said to have fought on the French side in the First World War . Eicke attended elementary and secondary school from 1899, but left school without a qualification.

On October 23, 1909, Eicke joined the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the Bavarian Army in Landau as a two-year-old volunteer . In the military he embarked on an administrative career: From October 1, 1913, he was a purser aspirant in the 3rd Chevaulegers regiment "Duke Karl Theodor" in Dieuze ; At the beginning of the First World War he switched to the 22nd Infantry Regiment "Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern" as a minor paymaster . In March 1916, Eicke was transferred to the 4th field battery of the 2nd Foot Artillery Regiment , and from 1917 he served in the 6th replacement machine-gun company of the II Army Corps . Awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class, he resigned from military service on April 1, 1919 at his own request.

Theodor Eicke married on December 26, 1914; the marriage resulted in two children. His son Hermann Eicke died in December 1941.

In the Weimar Republic

In civil life, Eicke began studying mechanical engineering at the technical center in Ilmenau , Thuringia , which he broke off in August 1919. Eicke did not meet the requirements for admission to the technical center, and his in-laws may have withdrawn his financial support. In the following years Eicke tried to find a job in the police service of various cities: from December 1919 to June 1920 an unpaid internship with the police in Ilmenau, after a three-month training at the police school in Cottbus, a short-term job as an officer candidate with the police in Weimar , temporarily in autumn 1921 as a detective assistant in Sorau and then until February 1923 as a police assistant in Ludwigshafen am Rhein , which was then occupied by Allied troops .

In later résumés from the time of National Socialism , Eicke attributed his multiple dismissals from the police service to his “active fight against the November republic” or saw himself “pushed out by red terror”. In view of the situation with the police in the early years of the Weimar Republic , this is not very plausible; "Eicke's personal behavior must always have been one of the main reasons," said political scientist Johannes Tuchel . In addition, in contrast to many other important National Socialists, Eicke was neither a member of a right-wing radical or ethnic organization nor of one of the numerous voluntary corps at this time .

On March 1, 1923, Eicke found a job as a commercial clerk at BASF in Ludwigshafen. In 1925 he became the deputy head of the security service in the chemical company, which in 1926 became part of IG Farben as a "security commissioner" . According to his own information, Eicke was responsible as security commissioner for the defense against industrial espionage.

Early political activity

Establishment of the SS in the Palatinate

Eickes SS ranks appointment
SS man July 29, 1930
SS-Oberscharführer November 27, 1930
SS-Sturmbannführer February 15, 1931
SS standard leader November 15, 1931
SS-Oberführer October 21, 1932
SS Brigade Leader January 30, 1934
SS group leader July 11, 1934
SS group leader and
lieutenant general of the Waffen SS		 November 14, 1939
SS-Obergruppenführer and
General of the Waffen SS		 April 20, 1942

On December 1, 1928, Eicke became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 114.901) in Frankenthal ; probably on the same day he joined the SA . On July 29, 1930, Eicke switched from the SA to the SS (SS no.2,921).

From November 27, 1930, Eicke led SS-Sturm 147 in Ludwigshafen, of which he had already belonged. In the spring of 1931 Eicke received the order from Sepp Dietrich to rebuild the SS in the Vorderpfalz . Eicke led this job "quickly and successfully" and took the lead of the storm bans II / 10 of the 10th SS regiment in Neustadt adH Subsequently Eicke acted as organizer of the SS in the West Palatinate in appearance, so that a third storm Vampire Standarte was founded in Kaiserslautern . The appointment as SS-Standartenführer in November 1931 was made by Himmler personally. In April 1932 the 10th SS Standard, whose leadership Eicke had taken over on December 21, 1931, numbered around 900 men; this was 3.6 percent of the total SS.

The establishment of the SS in the then Bavarian Palatinate was accompanied by conflicts with Gauleiter Josef Bürckel . Bürckel, who is portrayed as Eicke in "Self-confidence and unscrupulousness", has been in charge of the Gau Pfalz since 1926. Bürckel quickly succeeded in getting not only the NSDAP, but also the SA and SS in his Gau under control. The latter changed with Eicke's rise in the SS: Eicke emphasized the independence of the SS and opposed the Gauleiter's orders and orders.

Pirmasens bomb affair and escape to Italy

At the end of August 1931, Eicke received an order, presumably from Gauleiter Bürckel, to manufacture explosive devices from SS Standartenführer Fritz Berni . Eicke made the explosives together with other SS members; the material for the bombs came from a part of the Ludwigshafen IG Farbenwerk, where a particularly large number of NSDAP members were employed. In mid-October 1931, Berni brought around half of the explosive devices to Pirmasens . The existence of the explosive device became known to Berni's internal party opponents in Pirmasens; on November 7, Berni was temporarily excluded from the party and the SS. The manufacture of the bombs contradicted Hitler 's strategy at the time of legally conquering power, as he had declared in the Ulm Reichswehr trial in September 1930. As a result of Berni's exclusion from the SS, Eicke took over the leadership of the 10th SS standard.

Investigations by the Ludwigshafen police led to Eicke's arrest on March 6, 1932. When his apartment was searched, some of the explosive devices and the list of members of his SS standard were found. Because of his arrest, Eicke was dismissed by IG Farben. On July 15, 1932, Eicke was sentenced to two years in prison by the Pirmasens District Court for a crime against the Explosives Act. Defended by Philipp Jung , Eicke covered the party leadership during the trial and declared that the NSDAP had no knowledge of the bombing. One day after the verdict was announced, Eicke was granted six weeks' imprisonment: He had faked his incapacity for detention because of alleged nervous disorders. He first returned to Ludwigshafen, where new conflicts arose with Gauleiter Bürckel.

The trial and verdict in the "Pirmasens bomb affair" are considered a scandal, symptomatic of the failure of large parts of the judiciary in the final phase of the Weimar Republic. In the verdict, according to the historian Niels Weise, the court sought “as it were wringing arguments” that spoke for the accused; relevant investigation results were not taken into account. There are considerable doubts as to whether the explosives - as claimed by Eicke and presented in the judgment - were only built for defensive purposes, according to Weise.

Theodor Eicke at the Bolzano Victory Monument, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the fascist “March on Rome”, October 28, 1932

At the beginning of September 1932, Eicke received orders from Himmler to flee to Italy via Munich . In Munich, Himmler met the fugitive. The fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini had set up camp for fugitive Nazis from Germany and Austria. Eicke took over the management of such a camp in Malcesine on Lake Garda . Eicke's appearance in Italy led to further conflicts. On November 4, 1932, the Austrian national leadership of the NSDAP demanded the initiation of proceedings against Eicke for party damage: Eicke and 30 uniformed SS men took part in a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the march on Rome at the Bolzano Victory Monument on October 28 . The Austrian National Socialists not only saw their own stance on the South Tyrol problem as a result, but also criticized the fact that it was a monument to an Italian victory over Germany and Austria. The Gau Rheinpfalz also called for proceedings against Eicke.

Eicke also found out about what was going on in the Palatinate NSDAP from Italy. In two letters dated January 30, 1933, he threatened to fall back on bombs that were still hidden, which were “not all intended for the red shop, but also for the pigs in their own ranks”. He had covered “a lot of cowards” “who completely lack the courage to take responsibility. These scoundrels are always to be found in the forefront when it comes to filling higher vacancies ”.

Return to Germany

After Hitler was appointed Chancellor , Eicke returned from Italy to Thuringia on February 16. The Palatinate Gauleitung took Eicke's threats seriously: at the end of the month, the deputy Gauleiter Ernst Ludwig Leyser appeared at the police station and demanded police protection for Gauleiter Bürckel and other leading party members. When Eicke returned to Ludwigshafen on March 10, 1933, the situation in the city was tense: The radical wing of the National Socialists wanted the replacement of leading police officers in the city, also because the police had cracked down on SS units that were launched after the Reichstag elections were deployed on March 5th . Eicke wrote to Gauleiter Bürckel on March 12th: He demanded the restoration of his "honor" as well as the lifting of his exclusion from the party, which was more or less arbitrarily decreed by the Gauleiter. On March 17, the situation escalated: Members of the SA and SS in Ludwigshafen learned of negotiations between representatives of the NSDAP district leadership and the controversial police officers. The place of the negotiation was stormed and the negotiators were taken into " protective custody ". The district administration had the police evacuate the building using mounted police, armored cars and tear gas and arrest those involved. Whether Eicke took part in the building storm is controversial.

Four days later, Eicke was taken into "protective custody" himself. He described the arrest in a letter to Himmler: “On March 21, 1933, at 10 o'clock in the morning, four detectives appeared in my apartment and declared me arrested. I picked up my pistol and explained that they would probably bring a dead but not a living Eicke out of the house, but on my word of honor I was ready to voluntarily appear in prison at noon on the dot, because an SS-Oberführer does not allow himself to be captured to take. After much deliberation, the gentlemen withdrew. ”Eicke responded to the arrest, presumably initiated by Gauleiter Bürckel, with a two-day hunger strike . Thereupon he was admitted to the "Psychiatric and Nervous Clinic of the University of Würzburg ". On April 3, Himmler ordered Eicke to be removed from the SS lists, stating that Eicke had not kept his word of honor. Himmler attributed this to Eicke's poor health and a nervous breakdown .

Letter from Eicke to Himmler dated May 16, 1933 (excerpt)

Eicke wrote to Himmler several times from psychiatry. These letters differ significantly from other written statements by Eicke, who usually wrote very spontaneously and without much regard for spelling rules. Eicke asked for his “protective custody” to be lifted: This was necessary “because I lost my existence as a soldier of Adolf Hitler and now have to pick up the shovel for my family. Only a few days ago my family informed me that they were without a penny and had to feed on the rest of the winter potatoes ”. In response to Eicke's letters, Himmler initially only arranged financial support from Eicke's family. Eicke's attending physician, Werner Heyde , sent the following findings to Himmler on April 22nd: “The several weeks of observations and multiple examinations […] did not reveal any signs of a mental or brain disease in E., nor are they indications of an abnormal personality disposition was recognizable in the sense of psychopathy. Mr. E. behaved in an exemplary manner here and was very pleasantly noticeable due to his calm, controlled demeanor, he by no means gave the impression of an intriguing personality. “Heyde joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 , according to his own later statements on the recommendation of Eicke. From 1939 Heyde was involved in a leading role in the murder of the sick and disabled in Operation T4 . Himmler replied to Heyde on June 2nd: “I had to let time pass again because the calming down in Ludwigshafen has not yet taken place. Personally, I am convinced that Eicke from the Gau Pfalz has done some injustice [...]. I am happy to give my consent that Eicke will be released from the clinic at Whitsun, but I would ask you to persuade Eicke that he will remain absolutely quiet for the time he is still in Ludwigshafen [...]. I intend to use Eicke in some state position, if possible, but he mustn't make things too difficult and impossible for me. "

Concentration camp organizer

Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp

"On June 26, 1933, Himmler appointed a man as commandant in Dachau, who at that time - measured in terms of bourgeois career ideas and from the perspective of the SS - was considered a failed personality: an unemployed, previously convicted psychiatric patient who, because of various quarrels within the SS Theodor Eicke was deleted from their lists. Himmler gave Eicke a chance to rehabilitate himself because he felt responsible for the ' old fighters '. Eicke used this and proved to be a stroke of luck in terms of personnel policy. "

- Karin Orth : The concentration camp SS.
Gate in Dachau concentration camp

On March 22, 1933, the first prisoners arrived at the Dachau concentration camp . Under the first camp commandant Hilmar Wäckerle , the SS murdered some prisoners, whereupon the Bavarian judiciary also investigated Wäckerle. In his functions as Munich Police President and Political Police Commander for Bavaria , Himmler tried to hinder the investigation; One of the methods he used was to replace Commandant Wäckerle with Eicke.

Eicke developed the "Dachau Model" in a short time: It can be described "as an attempt to systematize and centralize terrorism". The early concentration camps were very different from region to region, characterized by a great deal of improvisation, the prisoners were exposed to the arbitrariness and sadism of the guards, the public was at least partially informed about the conditions in the camps through press reports. In October 1933, Eicke issued the “ Disciplinary and Penal Code for the Prison Camp ” and a service regulation for guards : They were guaranteed impunity if they shot a prisoner trying to escape. By strictly preventing escapes, Eicke sealed off the camp from the outside against both the judiciary and the public. Possible punishments included food deprivation , post ban , dark detention , flogging , stake hanging, and the death penalty . The camp regulations gave the impression of a precisely regulated catalog of punishments, but little changed for the prisoners: Although the service regulations for guards prohibited spontaneous punishment by the guards, they were obliged to report "offenses" by the prisoners to the camp management. The punishment was carried out without reviewing the charges, but under centralized control. The murders in Dachau continued under Eicke, and Eicke is said to have been personally involved in some murders.

The camp administration model first introduced in Dachau also came from Eicke: at the top was the camp commandant , who was responsible for the security of the concentration camp. Subordinate to him was a command headquarters, divided into several departments, and separate from this the guard troops, which, depending on the size of the concentration camp, comprised a different number of guard companies.

Involved in murders during the Röhm putsch

During the so-called " Röhm Putsch ", the murder of the SA leadership and other competitors for power or other unpopular people ordered by Hitler and carried out between June 30 and July 2, 1934 , Eicke was partly directly and partly indirectly involved in numerous murders. On June 30, Eicke traveled from the Lichtenburg concentration camp , which he was reorganizing at the time, to Berlin and from there to the Dachau concentration camp. Some evidence suggests that during his stay in Berlin he shot and killed Gregor Strasser, the former head of the Nazi organization's organization, in the basement of the Secret State Police Office . Among other things, the former Oranienburg prisoner Elfterwalde later stated that Eicke had boasted of the fact to him in July 1934.

After Eicke's arrival, the SS murdered 20 people in and around the Dachau concentration camp: In the early evening of June 30, the former Bavarian Prime Minister Gustav Ritter von Kahr was admitted to Dachau and shot in the detention room of the commandant's office on Eicke's orders. Music critic Wilhelm Eduard Schmid, who was abducted to Dachau because of a mix-up, was also shot in the detention area . On the night of July 1, the anti-Nazi journalist Fritz Gerlich and the disgraced former Frontbann leader Paul Röhrbein were shot at the Dachau shooting range, while Ernestine Zoref was shot at the edge of the camp. In the woods outside Dachau, the former Bayernbund leader Otto Ballerstedt and the head of the Munich student union Fritz Beck were killed that same night .

In the early evening of July 1, Eicke drove to the prison, at that time a penitentiary in Munich-Stadelheim , on Hitler's personal instructions, to shoot Ernst Röhm , who had been arrested by Hitler the day before : After he and the leader of the Dachau guard, Michel Lippert, had access to Röhm, at Hitler's request he gave him the opportunity to commit suicide with a pistol, which Röhm did not want to use. There are different representations about the further process: While Lippert claimed in court in 1957 that Eicke shot Röhm alone, a prison guard declared that Eicke had fired the shots together with Lippert. With a view to his direct involvement in the shooting of Röhm and possibly Strasser, Eicke later declared: "Celebrities who risk their necks must be executed by celebrities [= himself as the leading SS leader]."

After Röhm's murder, Eicke had four other inmates extradited from Stadelheim ( Hans Schweighart , Max Vogel , Edmund Paul Neumayer and Erich Schiewek ), transferred them to the Dachau concentration camp and had them shot there. In the early morning of July 2, he had three other prisoners from Stadelheim executed in Dachau ( Martin Schätzl , Johann König and Julius Uhl ). Furthermore, the political prisoners Julius Adler , Erich Gans , Walter Häbich and Adam Hereth died in Dachau on July 1 , while the journalist Bernhard Stempfle was killed near the camp on the night of July 2.

Concentration camp inspector

Handwritten curriculum vitae of Eicke from March 15, 1937 (excerpt)

Based on his functions in Bavaria, Himmler was gradually able to unite responsibility for the political police of the states in his person; In April 1934 he also took over responsibility for the Gestapo in Prussia from Göring . At the end of May 1934, Himmler commissioned Eicke to reorganize the Lichtenburg concentration camp . Eicke gradually took over other camps: at the beginning of July the soon-to-be-disbanded Oranienburg concentration camp , also in July the Esterwegen concentration camp in Emsland and, at a time that is not exactly known, the Sachsenburg concentration camp . Eicke reorganized all retained camps according to the "Dachau model"; the Dachau camp regulations were adopted with minor changes.

As early as the end of May 1934, Eicke referred to himself as the "concentration camp inspector". The official appointment with the official title "Inspector of the Concentration Camps and SS Guard Associations" then took place on July 4, 1934. Before that, on June 20, he had been replaced as commander of the Dachau concentration camp and assigned to the staff of the Reichsführer SS . In this capacity Eicke was promoted within the SS to SS-Gruppenführer on July 11th. He had thus advanced to the rank of Reinhard Heydrich or Oswald Pohl in the SS hierarchy .

On December 10, 1934, the Concentration Camp Inspectorate (ICL) was formed; as an agency of the Gestapo, it became a state institution. Eicke became head of the inspection, which was initially housed in the Gestapo building at 8 Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse in Berlin . The IKL remained a small agency, at the end of 1935 it had eleven and at the end of 1938 there were 45 employees. Eicke gave his employees plenty of room for maneuver and decision-making in routine matters. From 1934 various departments of the IKL were created, of particular importance were the political department (from 1937 under Arthur Liebehenschel ), the administrative department (from 1936 headed by Anton Kaindl ) and the "senior doctor" (initially Friedrich Dermietzel , from 1937 Karl Genzken ) . Eicke's most important employee was Richard Glücks as staff leader and deputy from 1936 . The ICL decided on the conditions of detention in the concentration camps, while the Gestapo was responsible for briefing the inmates. Eicke's collaboration with Reinhard Heydrich and Werner Best from the Gestapo went largely smoothly, even if Eicke complained to Himmler about Best in August 1936.

Between 1935 and 1937, on behalf of Himmler, Eicke reorganized the concentration camps subordinate to the ICL : All existing smaller camps were dissolved. The only exception was the Dachau concentration camp, which was expanded considerably in the summer of 1937. Instead of the disbanded camps housed in existing buildings, two large new buildings were built, to which the barracks of the SS guards were attached: In the summer of 1936, the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Oranienburg was opened. The Buchenwald concentration camp was established near Weimar in the summer of 1937 . With Dachau, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald there were three large camps for a total of 15,000 to 20,000 prisoners at the end of 1937.

In August 1938 the headquarters of the IKL were moved from Berlin to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In June 1939 Eicke moved into a villa there, which was set up as an official residence with reception rooms.

From 1937 onwards Eicke concentrated on his function as leader of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, his duties in the IKL were gradually taken over by Richard Glücks , who on November 15, 1939 also became formally "Inspector of the concentration camps". Glücks made little changes to the structures created by Eicke; when in doubt he sought Eicke's advice.

Leader of the SS-Totenkopfverband

An SS guard was assigned to each concentration camp that was under the ICL from 1934 onwards; From March 1935 at the latest, Eicke was “Inspector of the Guard Associations”. From March 29, 1936, Eicke was entitled "Leader of the SS Totenkopfverbände ". In these functions Eicke was subordinate to the SS main office and thus to Himmler as Reichsführer of the SS; as the “Inspector of the Concentration Camps”, however, he was assigned to the Gestapo and thus Himmler as police chief. The double subordination - on the one hand part of the SS, on the other hand affiliated to the state apparatus - was mixed up by Eicke; he used them to secure and expand his own sphere of influence.

Looking back in August 1936, Eicke commented on the beginnings of the SS guards:

“The SS-Totenkopfverband emerged from a corrupt guard detachment of almost 120 men from Dachau in autumn 1934. There were times when there was no skirt, no boot, no stocking. […] We were generally seen as a necessary evil that only costs money: inconspicuous men behind barbed wire. [...] I have encountered infidelity, embezzlement and corruption. That's why I had to fire around 60 men within four weeks. "

With the takeover of the concentration camps in 1934, Eicke often associated the replacement of the leading personnel; "old fighters" who had already been involved with the National Socialists before the seizure of power were often appointed camp commanders. Several of Eicke's personnel decisions later had to be revised because new camp commanders like Hans Helwig in Sachsenhausen concentration camp proved unsuitable.

Based on the experience of guarding the concentration camps between 1933 and 1936, Eicke developed a training program for the guards that is now known as the “Dachau School”. According to prisoner reports, the daily controls were particularly brutal when a “newbie” was there to “train” them. He was specifically asked to abuse and often had inhibitions that he usually shed when his superiors called him a "coward". In this way, Eicke specifically accustomed the SS men to using violence. This also included the execution of flogging and the hand-held torture or killing of prisoners. Eicke legitimized the treatment of the prisoners with the "interests of the fatherland" and with an image of the enemy that emphasized the alleged dangerousness of the prisoners. “Tolerance means weakness. On the basis of this knowledge, there will be ruthless access where it appears necessary in the interests of the fatherland ", it said in Eicke's Dachau camp regulations of 1933. Eicke expected the leaders in the concentration camps to be a" rousing example "and an" authority ", Otherwise a concentration camp would" very soon develop into a dangerous powder keg which the criminals attempt to explode almost every day ". From 1936 onwards, when filling management positions, the focus was no longer on providing for " old fighters "; what was decisive was the "qualification" defined by Eicke for service in the concentration camps. Rudolf Hoess , Paul Werner Hoppe , Josef Kramer , Richard Baer and Martin Gottfried Weiß were among those who went through the “Dachau School” and then became commanders of concentration camps during the Second World War .

Within the skull and crossbones associations, one week of guard duty in the concentration camps alternated with three weeks of military and political training. For Eicke, the aim of the training was to be a "political soldier"; Topics of the political training courses were the history and party program of the NSDAP, the history and racial convictions of the SS as well as the analysis of the enemies of National Socialism: Jews, Freemasons , Bolshevism and the churches. Eicke attached particular importance to the spirit of corps and camaraderie within the death's head associations. During his regular visits to the concentration camps, Eicke spoke to the simple ranks in the absence of his direct superiors. He urged SS leaders to occasionally eat in the men’s canteen .

From the definition of the concentration camp prisoners as dangerous enemies of the state, Eicke's idea arose that the death's head associations were an elite within the SS, which saw themselves as an elite. Only such an elite could be entrusted with guarding the most dangerous enemies of the state. The self-image as a “political soldier” broke - more than in other parts of the later Waffen-SS - with the military traditions of the officer corps : “The highest SS leader is good enough to stand next to the youngest SS men in the comradeship home or in the To put the team room at the same table, ”said Eicke in an order. In organizational matters, the military model was used. In August 1936, Eicke wrote a letter to Himmler about his achievements in setting up the death's head associations. The reason for the letter were rumors within the SS that the Totenkopfverband were to be withdrawn from Eicke's leadership and made subordinate to the SS upper sections.

The death's head associations were initially divided into five storm bans, which were organized parallel to the concentration camps. In the summer of 1937, the skull associations were summarized in the three standards "Upper Bavaria", "Brandenburg" and "Thuringia", which were assigned to the main camps Dachau, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald. At the same time, the strength of the death's head associations increased: at the beginning of 1935 there were around 2,000, at the end of 1937 almost 5,000 and at the end of 1938 around 9,000 men. A decree issued by Hitler on August 17, 1938 described the task of the skull and crossbones as the "solution to special tasks of a police nature". A second decree of May 18, 1939 stipulated that in the event of mobilization , the skull and crossbones should replace the SS troops. With this, the skull and crossbones associations had also taken on a military function.

Commander of the SS division "Totenkopf"

Formation of the SS division "Totenkopf"

Eicke with the rank of SS group leader (before 1942)

In the German invasion of Poland on September 7, 1939, Eicke brought standards of the death's head associations to Poland. The Standarten operated in conjunction with SS Einsatzgruppen in the rear of the army. The standards were used in the Polish areas conquered by the 8th and 10th Army , their tasks were "cleaning and security measures": According to an activity report that was received, this included the capture and shooting of "looters" and "insurgents". Other people - Jews and Poles - were shot while attempting to escape. Units of the skull associations were involved in mass shootings in Bromberg ; in Włocławek they ransacked Jewish shops, destroyed the synagogue and shot leading members of the Jewish community. Eicke directed the actions of the death's head associations from Hitler's special train; From September 10 to October 1, 1939 he was the " Higher SS and Police Leader " (HSSPF) East in Krakow .

On October 16, 1939, Eicke was commissioned to set up an SS division from the death's head associations, which then became part of the Waffen SS . From October 1939, the grounds of the Dachau concentration camp were used to train the SS “Totenkopf” division, and the prisoners there were distributed to other concentration camps. In December 1939 the SS Totenkopfdivision was relocated to the Ludwigsburg-Heilbronn area, and in March 1940 to Korbach near Kassel. Eicke initially had considerable problems with equipping the division, as the Wehrmacht did not show itself ready to make military equipment available in large quantities until the spring of 1940. He therefore initially resorted to SS supplies, especially in the concentration camps; "Soon he was considered the most original, resourceful - and most successful - thief of weapons, supplies and equipment in the SS". The skull division was designed for a target strength of 15,000 men; almost half of them came from the three original Totenkopf standards, the others were previously with the General SS, the Ordnungspolizei and the newer Totenkopf units. At first there were considerable problems with the discipline of the new recruits, to which Eicke reacted with drastic penalties. As a division commander, he was the court lord and the final authority under military criminal law. One of the sentences imposed was being transferred to the concentration camps as guards, and inmates were also sent to a concentration camp. Eicke introduced double censorship of the field post ; Reports of grievances within the division were viewed as betrayal .

Eicke attached particular importance to the ideological training of his soldiers. In doing so, Eicke built on the image of the enemy developed in the concentration camps; the “internal enemy”, the concentration camp prisoners, was replaced by the “external enemy” who, as a “ Jewish-Bolshevik subhuman ”, wanted to destroy the German people . The existing elite consciousness was supplemented by military virtues such as self-sacrifice, contempt for cowardice and privation and the glorification of war death. Eicke was not interested in complex theories about military operations; he relied on the concentrated use of all available soldiers, weapons and vehicles on the front line and on attacks that were carried out with fanaticism and harshness.

"Skull" division in France

May 21 - June 4: Allied forces surrounded near Dunkirk

During the German attack in the west on May 10, 1940, the "Totenkopf" division was initially in the reserve. From May 23, Eicke's division was involved in pushing allied forces back towards Dunkirk : The “Totenkopf” division suffered considerable losses when it wanted to cross the La Bassée Canal near Béthune . Contrary to the orders given to him, Eicke had tried to cross the canal immediately. After a break in Boulogne , the division was used in the advance into the south of France.

A unit of the "Totenkopf" division was involved in the Le Paradis massacre on May 27 , in which around 100 British soldiers who had previously surrendered were murdered with several hand grenades and two heavy machine guns. The murder of the British soldiers was in contradiction to the express orders of the Wehrmacht, the responsible SS-Obersturmführer Fritz Knöchlein was not held accountable during the war. After the end of the war, Knöchlein was sentenced to death and executed on the basis of statements made by two survivors . Daily reports from the division also suggest that Moroccan soldiers in French units were not captured but killed.

After the armistice on June 22nd, the "Totenkopf" division served as an occupation force in Avallon and in the Bordeaux area . Eicke used the time for ideological training, for improved equipment and for training his unit. From November 1940, a focus of the training was mobile warfare in extensive and open areas and the rapid relocation of the division over greater distances.

At the same time, conflicts developed between Himmler and Eicke. Eicke also saw the “Totenkopf” division as an elite within the elite SS; He repeatedly sent back SS members who, in his opinion, were “racially inferior” as unsuitable for his division. Eicke also used SS replenishment depots, especially those in the concentration camps . At that time, Himmler tried to get uniform command over the rapidly expanding Waffen SS into his own hands. When Eicke imposed house arrest on regimental commander Matthias Kleinheisterkamp for allegedly refusing to give orders , Himmler wrote to Eicke on January 30, 1941: “It is, however, impossibility to punish a regiment commander for a minor thing and to announce this punishment for everyone in the divisional order. The announcement of the punishments of SS leaders for becoming sexually ill is even more insane . Dear Eicke, when I read something like this, I doubt your sanity. And here are the moments when I doubt whether you can really run a division. Don't worry about someone shooting you in my house. Firstly, I am not inclined to listen to intrigues, and secondly, you have such insane things written down in divisional orders yourself. "

Attack on the Soviet Union

At the beginning of June 1941 the “Totenkopf” division was relocated to Marienwerder near Danzig. During the attack on the Soviet Union , the division was assigned to Army Group North . From June 25, 1941, the “Totenkopf” division combed forests in the vicinity of the Lithuanian Jurbarkas for the remains of Soviet units that had been broken up on the border on the first day of the war. In early July the division encountered bitter resistance near Opotschka on the Stalin Line . On July 11th, the “Totenkopf” division had an initial strength of 17,400 men and around 1,700 were killed, missing or wounded. On July 7, Eicke was wounded in the right foot when his command vehicle hit a land mine . Eicke was flown out and first taken to the Berlin Charité ; later he stayed in his villa near the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Shot in the neck in Buchenwald Concentration Camp : The shot was fired through the guide of the head bar.

At the end of July or beginning of August, Eicke took part in a meeting in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp at which the murder of the “ political commissars ” of the Red Army was planned. According to the commissar's order , all captive commissars were to be murdered; Reinhard Heydrich decided in July that the commissioners were to be removed from the prisoner of war camps and executed in the nearest concentration camp. According to later statements by participants in the meeting, Eicke gave the introductory speech in which he justified the executions in retaliation for the murder of German soldiers in Soviet captivity. The "Inspection of the Concentration Camps" (ICL) coordinated the murders within the concentration camp system; At the time of the meeting, Eicke had no responsibilities within the ICL. The procedure of the executions was determined in the meeting: In several concentration camps a shot in the neck was built in which the commissioners were shot from an adjoining room through a narrow gap in the wall. Similar to Aktion 14f13, the victims were simulated a medical examination. In mid-September, Eicke, together with a group of 25 senior SS leaders, inspected one of the executions in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Eicke with Men of the "Totenkopf" Division at the Front in the Soviet Union (September 23, 1941)

When Eicke returned to the front on September 21, the German offensive had come to a standstill. The “Totenkopf” division was located in a swampy area southwest of Lake Ilmen , for which the well-motorized unit was hardly suitable. In Eicke's absence the condition of the division had deteriorated considerably; other SS units had arranged for officers and non-commissioned officers of the "Totenkopf" division to be transferred. When Eicke sent regimental commander Mathias Kleinheisterkamp home on his own, Himmler wrote “a serious letter” to Eicke on November 28: “Dear Eicke, after seeing Kleinheisterkamp, ​​I can't help feeling that if someone is sick and your nerves are at the end of it, you have to be it and not Kleinheisterkamp […]. ”Himmler also made it clear that the“ Totenkopf ”division was under his command and Eicke had no special rights.

Himmler and Eicke on the Eastern Front (January 1942), inclusion of an SS propaganda company

An offensive by the Red Army in January 1942 led to the formation of the Demyansk pocket on February 8 , in which a large part of the "Skull" division was enclosed. Two mixed combat groups consisting of units from the “Totenkopf” division and the Wehrmacht were formed within the pocket; Eicke took over the leadership of the larger combat group. The soldiers of the "Totenkopf" division were far better protected than those of the Wehrmacht against temperatures of up to 40 degrees below zero: Eicke had received large amounts of winter clothing from the Higher SS and Police Leader in Riga, Friedrich Jeckeln . The clothing came partly from the stocks of the SS and partly from the property of Jews who had been murdered in Riga. After continuing fighting, a supply corridor to the troops encircled near Demyansk was established on April 22nd . On May 5, Eicke was given the command of a corps that consisted of SS and Wehrmacht units, the approximately 14,000 survivors of the six divisions from the Demyansk pocket. Eicke tried several times, largely unsuccessfully, with Himmler to give his division a break or to get replacement men and additional equipment. In the summer of 1942, units of the "Totenkopf" division were involved in the selection of Russian prisoners of war who were then sent to Germany for forced labor . Preserved files of the division show that the "commissioner's order" was consistently implemented at least in the first year after the attack on the Soviet Union.

On December 26, 1941, Eicke was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , and on April 20, 1942, he received the oak leaves. Hitler presented the oak leaves on June 26th. According to Eicke's own statements, Hitler is said to have promised to move the “Totenkopf” division to France in August. Eicke was on vacation in Germany in July and August. During this time, the “Totenkopf” division was led by the then SS Brigade Leader Max Simon . Still deployed in an exposed section of the front near Demyansk, the division suffered further heavy losses. The final decision to reorganize the “Totenkopf” division was made on August 26th; the last units were withdrawn from Demyansk in the first half of October. During this time, Eicke commuted between Germany and Demjansk, as recruits were already being trained in the Sennelager near Paderborn to reorganize the division.

At the end of October 1942, the old and new parts of the division were brought together for realignment in south-west France. On November 9, the division was renamed the SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Totenkopf". On November 10th, the division took part in the “ Operation Anton ”, the occupation of the part of France that was not previously under the control of German troops . Until December 18, the division took over the coastal protection between Béziers and Montpellier . Generous equipment was planned for the Panzergrenadier Division, because Hitler and Himmler wanted the Waffen SS units to be deployed in trouble spots. In fact, however, there were delays, especially when it came to equipping tanks. That is why Eicke got Himmler to postpone the division's planned transfer to the Eastern Front for four weeks at the beginning of 1943.

Death in Ukraine

On January 30, 1943, the Panzer Grenadier Division "Totenkopf" was transferred from Bordeaux to Poltava in the Ukraine . Together with two other units of the Waffen SS, the divisions “ Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler ” and “Das Reich” , under the joint command of Paul Hausser , it advanced to Pavlograd . The Waffen-SS units successfully took action against troops of the Red Army, which had recently recaptured the city of Kharkov .

On February 26, Eicke was killed during a reconnaissance flight when his Fieseler Storch was shot down by a Soviet anti-aircraft gun between the villages of Michailowka ( Михайловка , Ukrainian: Mychajliwka ) and Artelnoje ( Артельное ) ⊙ . On March 1, the funeral took place in the nearby town of Otdochnina, on the same day Eicke's death was announced publicly. An SS Panzer Grenadier regiment of the "Totenkopf" division was named after Eicke. Himmler received numerous letters of condolence, including from Gauleiter Bürckel: According to von Bürckel, “things that could be misunderstood from time to time” had occurred between him and Eicke during the struggle, and he was “happy” that these misunderstandings were later resolved in a conversation can. The Völkischer Beobachter published a detailed obituary for Eicke on March 4, 1943.

personality

In a 1977 study of the commanders of the concentration camps, the historian Tom Segev came to the following assessment of Eicke's personality:

“Eicke […] was the impertinence in person and certainly did not suffer from a lack of self-confidence. The records he left show a constant fear that someone somewhere was discriminating against him, robbing him of what he was entitled to, or questioning his honor. He kept looking over his shoulder as if expecting an attack; he was always ready to defend himself. In this sense he actually found his right place in the National Socialist movement, as it counted a large number of people of this kind among its members. The myth of the imaginary opponent who intrigued not only against the cause but also against every single German was consciously cultivated here. [...] Eicke identified his own struggle against his adversaries with the general struggle of the movement [...]. "

literature

Biographies and extensive considerations

  • Niels Weise: Eicke: an SS career between a mental hospital, concentration camp system and Waffen SS . Schöningh, Paderborn 2013, ISBN 978-3-506-77705-8 (Phil. Diss. Würzburg 2011).
  • Tuviah Friedman (ed.): The personal file of SS-Obergruppenführer Theo Eicke, head of the concentration camps in the Third Reich, his letters to SS-Reichsführer Himmler in the years 1933–1943. A documentary collection of SS documents. Institute of Documentation in Israel for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes, Haifa 1994.

Biographical sketches

Obituaries

Monographs on Eicke's sphere of activity

  • Johannes Tuchel : Concentration Camp. Organizational history and function of the “Inspection of the Concentration Camps” 1934–1938 (= writings of the Federal Archives , Volume 39). Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 .
  • Charles W. Sydnor Jr .: Soldiers of Death. The 3rd SS Division "Totenkopf" 1933–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-79084-6 .
  • Karin Orth: The concentration camp SS. Social structural analyzes and biographical studies. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89255-380-7 .
  • Karin Orth: The system of the National Socialist concentration camps. A political organization story. Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-930908-52-2 .
  • Franz Maier: Biographical organization manual of the NSDAP and its structures in the area of ​​today's state of Rhineland-Palatinate (=  publications of the commission of the state parliament for the history of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . No. 28 ). 2nd Edition. Zarrentin v. Hase & Koehler, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-7758-1408-9 , pp. 201-203 .

Web links

Commons : Theodor Eicke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eicke's curriculum vitae based on largely identical information from Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform. The members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the ethnic and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 , p. 119 f., And Andreas Schulz, Günter Wegmann: Die Generale der Waffen-SS and the police. Volume 1, Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf, 2003. ISBN 3-7648-2373-9 , p. 280 ff.
  2. ↑ With reference to relatives in Tom Segev: The Soldiers of Evil. On the history of the concentration camp commanders. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1992, ISBN 3-499-18826-0 , p. 135.
  3. ^ Veit Scherzer : Himmler's military elite. The highly decorated members of the Waffen SS. An evaluation based on the files of the Federal Archives and the National Archives of the USA. Volume 1: A-Ka. Verlag Veit Scherzer, Bayreuth 2014, ISBN 978-3-938845-26-4 , p. 253.
  4. ^ Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (accessed April 14, 2019)
  5. ^ Weise, Eicke , p. 39f.
  6. ↑ Weise, Eicke , pp. 40–46.
  7. ↑ Tuchel, concentration camp , p. 130, similar to Segev, soldiers , p. 136 f.
  8. ^ Weise, Eicke , pp. 48–50.
  9. ↑ Lilla, extras , p. 119 f. Excluded from the SS from April 3 to June 26, 1933, then reinstated with the old SS rank. According to Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 181, the exact date of the promotion to the group leader cannot be determined. On November 14, 1939, Eicke was appointed "Lieutenant General of the SS-Totenkopfverband" (Lieutenant General of the SS Totenkopfverband), and in the total service certificate of April 30, 1943, he is referred to as "Lieutenant General of the Waffen SS". This rank was only introduced in the fall of 1940.
  10. ^ Weise, Eicke , p. 65.
  11. ^ Lothar Meinzer: Stations and structures of the National Socialist seizure of power: Ludwigshafen am Rhein and the Palatinate in the first years of the Third Reich (= publications of the City Archives Ludwigshafen am Rhein , Volume 9). City Archives Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1983, p. 57.
  12. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 131. This was also the first verifiable meeting between Eicke and Himmler; earlier meetings are likely.
  13. ^ Weise, Eicke , p. 83.
  14. ↑ Meinzer, stations , p. 56. On Bürckel and the conflict with Eicke, pp. 52–58.
  15. ^ Weise, Eicke , pp. 135f.
  16. ^ Weise, Eicke , pp. 91, 102f, 109, 117-119.
  17. ^ Weise, Eicke , pp. 121, 125, 127f, 147f.
  18. ^ Weise, Eicke , p. 129; Eginhard Scharf: Nazi justice and political police using the example of the Palatinate. In: Hans-Georg Meyer, Hans Berkessel (eds.): "A National Socialist Revolution is a thorough matter." ( The time of National Socialism in Rhineland-Palatinate , Volume 1). Schmidt, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-87439-451-4 , pp. 357-368, here p. 359.
  19. ^ Weise, Eicke , pp. 126, 129, 141.
  20. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 132.
  21. ^ Hannes Obermair : Monuments and the City - an almost inextricable entanglement . In: Matthias Fink u. a. (Ed.): Multiple identities in a "glocal world" - Identità multiple in un "mondo glocale" - Multiple identities in a "glocal world" (=  Euregio-Atelier ). Eurac Research , Bozen 2017, ISBN 978-88-98857-35-7 , pp. 88–99, here: p. 93 .
  22. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 132 f. Excerpts from the letter from the NSDAP regional leadership in Austria dated November 4, 1932 at the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com ( memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com
  23. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 133 f.
  24. ↑ On the events in Ludwigshafen see Meinzer, stations , pp. 181–187, the internal correspondence of the SS and NSDAP cited in excerpts from the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com ( Memento of the original of September 29, 2007 on 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 / motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com
  25. ↑ Eicke's letter of March 12, 1933 in excerpts from the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com .
  26. ↑ Meinzer, stations , p. 186, assumes Eicke's involvement, while Tuchel, concentration camp , p. 135, speaks of a significant involvement of Eicke's brother.
  27. ^ Letter from Eicke to Himmler of March 22, 1933, quoted in Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 135.
  28. ↑ For the form and content of the letters, see Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 136.
  29. ^ Letter from Eicke to Himmler of April 13, 1933, quoted in Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 137.
  30. ^ Letter from Heydes to Himmler of April 22, 1933, quoted in Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 137.
  31. ^ Letter from Himmler to Heyde dated June 2, 1933, quoted in Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 138.
  32. ^ Orth, Concentration Camp SS , p. 100.
  33. ^ Orth, System , p. 26 ff .; Tuchel, concentration camp , p. 125 ff.
  34. ↑ the quotation from: Orth, System , p. 28. On the details of the “Dachau Model”, ibid., P. 28 ff., P. 40; Tuchel, Concentration Camp , pp. 143–150.
  35. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , pp. 178–181; Otto Gritschneder: The Führer sentenced you to death ... Hitler's “Röhm Putsch murders” in court. , Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37651-7 , pp. 32-36. Gritschneder's portrayal is based on the court case against Eicke's Adlatus Michel Lippert in the 1950s. According to Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 178, Eicke was not involved in the selection of the murder victims in the run-up to the "Röhm Putsch", as has been shown on various occasions.
  36. ^ Rainer Ort: The Gregor Strasser case. In: Ders .: The SD man Johannes Schmidt. P. 95 ff.
  37. ^ Karl Dietrich Bracher / Wolfgang Sauer / Gerhard Schulz: The National Socialist Seizure of Power , Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne and Opladen 1960, p. 961.
  38. ^ See list of shootings from June 30th to July 2nd in the IfZ archive, quoted u. a. at Bennecke: Reichswehr , Appendix 1.
  39. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , pp. 159–165, 184–202.
  40. ↑ Martin Broszat: Anatomy of the SS State - National Socialist Concentration Camp 1933-1945. Munich 1967, p. 50./ Service certificate of the SS-Personalhauptamt dated March 30, 1943.
  41. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , pp. 209–214, 231–234; Orth, System , p. 39.
  42. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , pp. 212–217, which contradicts representations in the older literature here.
  43. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , pp. 315–342.
  44. ^ Hermann Kaienburg : The SS military and economic complex in the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camp site (= series of publications by the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation , Volume 16). Metropolverlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-938690-03-8 , pp. 146, 160, and Klaus Drobisch / Günther Wieland : System of Concentration Camps, 1933–1939. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-000823-7 , p. 266.
  45. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 339; Orth, Concentration Camp SS , p. 163 f.
  46. ↑ According to Eicke's personnel records, the appointment was issued on February 17, 1936 with retroactive effect to July 4, 1934. The designation “SS-Wachverbände” was introduced in December 1934, and in the correspondence that has survived the designation “Inspector of the SS-Wachverbände” can be found for the first time in March 1935. See: Tuchel, Concentration Camp , p. 224.
  47. ↑ Also on March 29, 1936 Eicke received a seat in constituency 30 (Chemnitz-Zwickau) in the insignificant Reichstag . See Theodor Eicke in the database of members of the Reichstag.
  48. ↑ Tuchel, Concentration Camp , pp. 209 ff., 220–229.
  49. ↑ Letter from Eicke to Himmler dated August 10, 1936 at the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com ( Memento of the original from September 29, 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. ; on the guard associations Tuchel, concentration camp , p. 149 ff; Orth, Concentration Camp SS , pp. 34–37. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com
  50. ^ Orth, Concentration Camp SS , pp. 101, 127; further examples of wrong personal decisions in Tuchel, concentration camp , pp. 169–175.
  51. ↑ On the term “Dachau School”, on training and on the image of the enemy: Orth, Concentration Camp SS , pp. 127–152, there p. 131 the prisoner reports.
  52. ^ "Disciplinary and punitive rules for the prisoner camp ", quoted from Orth, Concentration Camp SS , p. 130.
  53. ^ Letter from Eicke to Schmidt dated June 14, 1938, quoted in Orth, Concentration Camp SS , p. 127.
  54. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 24-27.
  55. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , p. 26.
  56. ^ Eickes order of April 1937, quoted in Kaienburg, Wirtschaftskomplex , p. 48.
  57. ↑ Letter from Eicke to Himmler dated August 10, 1936 at the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . The strength of the skull bandages given by Eicke is misleading. For this: Kaienburg, economic complex, pp. 37, 56.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com  
  58. ↑ Wegner, soldiers , pp. 100-105, 112-123.
  59. ^ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 33–39, and Orth, Concentration Camp SS , pp. 153–156.
  60. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 39–68, and Orth, Concentration Camp SS , pp. 156 f. The military background with Bernd Wegner: Hitler's Political Soldiers: The Waffen-SS 1933–1945. 3rd edition, Schöningh, Paderborn 1988, ISBN 3-506-77480-8 , pp. 124-132.
  61. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , p. 48.
  62. ^ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 56, 258.
  63. ^ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 76-102.
  64. ^ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 91–93.
  65. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , p. 100 f; There quote from the daily report of June 21: The result of the fighting of the day were "25 French prisoners and 44 dead negroes".
  66. ↑ On the occupation and the disputes between Eicke and Himmler: Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 103–120.
  67. ↑ Letter from Himmler to Eicke of January 30, 1941, quoted from: Helmut Heiber (Ed.): The normal madness under the swastika. Trivial and strange things from the files of the Third Reich. Herbig, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7766-1968-6 , Doc. 128.
  68. ^ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 120–142.
  69. ↑ Orth, System , pp. 122–129.
  70. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 144–172.
  71. ^ Letter from Himmler to Eicke dated November 28, 1941, quoted from the facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com ( Memento of the original of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; see also: Heinrich Himmler's service calendar: 1941/42 (edited, commented and introduced by Peter Witte on behalf of the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg). Christians, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-7672-1329-X , entry from November 30, 1942. On that day, Himmler inquired about Eicke's condition. Since Eicke is not known to have been wounded again, Eicke's nervous condition may have been referred to. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com
  72. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 177–194. To supply the “Totenkopf” division with winter clothing, ibid, pp. 182 and 270 f., And Richard Breitman: Friedrich Jeckeln. Specialist for the "final solution" in the east. In: Ronald Smelser , Enrico Syring (ed.): The SS: Elite under the skull. 30 résumés. Schöningh, Paderborn 2000, ISBN 3-506-78562-1 , pp. 267–275, here p. 273. In 1940, Friedrich Jeckeln was commander of a battalion in the “Totenkopf” division for six weeks.
  73. ^ Sydnor, soldiers , p. 257.
  74. ^ Dates of the awarding of the medal at Schulz, Wegmann, Generale , p. 281; about the deduction in general Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 195–208; Eicke's information on Hitler's commitment in a letter to Max Simon dated July 5, 1942, see Sydnor, p. 196; Decision to withdraw: Himmler's service calendar , entry from August 26, 1942.
  75. ^ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 207–217.
  76. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 218–222.
  77. ↑ Sydnor, soldiers , pp. 222–225.
  78. ↑ Bürckel's letter in a facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com ( memento of the original from September 29, 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 / motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com
  79. ↑ Völkischer Beobachter of March 4, 1943, in facsimile at the Simon Wiesenthal Center motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com ( Memento of the original of September 29, 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 / motlc.specialcol.wiesenthal.com
  80. ↑ Segev, soldiers , p. 143 f.
personal data
SURNAME Eicke, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (NSDAP), MdR, SS-Obergruppenführer of the SS-Totenkopfverband and general of the Waffen-SS, commandant of the Dachau concentration camp and inspector of the concentration camps
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampont , Château-Salins district in Alsace-Lorraine
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1943
Place of death near the village of Michailowka, south of Kharkov (Ukraine)