Theodor Paeffgen

Theodor Wilhelm Paeffgen (born June 12, 1910 in Cologne ; † April 16, 1969 in Aachen ) was SS-Sturmbannführer in the National Socialist German Reich and government advisor at the Reichsführer SS security service , including deputy head of the Gestapo in Tilsit and head of Section IB 2 and the office group VI D of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA).

Life

Origin and studies

Theodor Paeffgen was born on June 12, 1910 in a middle-class Catholic family in Cologne .

After graduating from high school in 1928, Paeffgen studied law in Geneva , Bordeaux , Edinburgh and Bonn . After the 1st state examination in February 1933, he completed his legal clerkship in Cologne and obtained his doctorate in 1934. jur. After passing the assessor examination, his attempt to find work in the diplomatic service failed.

In the security service of the SS

Paeffgen joined the Stahlhelm in June 1933 . After his transfer to the SA and his entry into the security service of the SS ( SD ) in May 1938 , Paeffgen finally also became a member of the SS.

Initially employed only in auxiliary work in the SD main office, he was transferred to the Gestapo , where he took over Section IB 2 (Organization of the SD) in 1939/40.

With the conclusion of the French campaign , Paeffgen was appointed SD leader of a task force of the security police and SD in Metz ( Lorraine ) in June 1940 .

Communications officer in the RSHA

After the start of the war against the USSR , Paeffgen acted as SS-Sturmbannführer from July to October 31, 1941 as a communications officer to the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD in the Office Group II D of the Reich Security Main Office. In this function as "Einsatznachrichtenführer", who was responsible for drawing up the list of the "locations and communications" of the Einsatzgruppen and their subdivisions, Paeffgen, dated July 10, 1941, received the first copy of the "incident reports of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police" and the SD in the USSR ”. Since July 10, 1941, he had first-hand knowledge of the German extermination policy in the East.

In Ronald Headland's book, first published in 1992, entitled Messages of Murder, A Study of the Reports of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the Security Service, 1941-1943 , it says on page 50 about Paeffgen:

“To conclude this discussion of the general features of the reports, a final observation about the distribution lists is of interest. In Operational Situation Report 18 [dated July 10, 1941], the distribution list contained for the first time the name of Theodor Paeffgen, the man responsible for keeping track of the movement of the commands. When we compare the copy number for a particular report with the corresponding numerical listing of that copy in the distribution list of the report, it appears that many of the copies discovered after the war were those sent to Paeffgen himself. Thus it is to Paeffgen that we probably owe our knowledge of the reports. He, or his subordinates, obviously neglected to destroy the copies that were sent to him. "

At the Gestapo in Tilsit

From November 1, 1941, Paeffgen was employed as deputy head of the Gestapo in Tilsit and later until August 1942 in the office of the commander of the security police in Białystok .

In the RSHA

In September 1942 Paeffgen took over the management of the Office Group VI D (West, Anglo-American sphere of influence with nine lectures) of the RSHA.

Office VI (SD-Auslands) of the RSHA was evacuated from Berlin towards the end of the war, first to Fürstenwalde and then to Tegernsee . Together with Eugen Steimle (Head of Office Group IV B) and Martin Sandberger (Head of Office Group IV A), Paeffgen left Tegernsee on April 26, 1945 to find his way to his family.

After the war

After allied internment from 1945 to 1948, Paeffgen found a job as a commercial clerk in Aachen . A preliminary investigation by the Bielefeld public prosecutor's office for murder ended without the initiation of criminal proceedings, since Paeffgen died in Aachen in April 1969.

literature

• Michael Wildt : Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office. Hamburger Edition , 2002, ISBN 3-930908-75-1 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Theodor Paeffgen in the catalog of the German National Library