Waldemar Klingelhöfer

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Waldemar Klingelhöfer during the task force process

Waldemar Klingelhöfer , born as Woldemar Klingelhöfer (born April 4, 1900 in Moscow ; † January 18, 1977 in Villingen ) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer who was involved in Einsatzgruppe B on the murder of Jews in the areas occupied by the German Reich Northern Ukraine and Belarus was involved. Klingelhöfer was sentenced to death in the Einsatzgruppen trial in 1948 , but was released in 1956.

Life

Klingelhöfer was born in Russia to parents of German origin. He attended the Wilhelmsgymnasium Kassel and took part in the First World War as a soldier from June to December 1918 . Klingelhöfer returned to Kassel after the end of the war , where he graduated from the Wilhelmsgymnasium Kassel in 1919. In 1923 he completed training as a singing teacher at a music academy. He gave singing concerts at a number of performance locations in Germany and from 1935 also worked as an opera singer .

Klingelhöfer joined the NSDAP on June 1, 1930 - well before the " seizure of power " - at the age of 30 . ( Membership number 258,951). In February 1933 he also joined the SS (SS membership number 52.744), and in 1934 also the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD).

From June 1941 he was Günther Rausch's deputy in Sonderkommando 7b , and from July 1941 he was part of the "Moscow Pre-Command", a special command of Einsatzgruppe B, which he temporarily led on the orders of Arthur Nebe . In September of that year he was a member of Group B staff, and Erich Körting replaced him as commander of the Sonderkommando . His last rank was SS-Sturmbannführer .

From 1947 to 1948 Klingelhöfer was one of 24 defendants in the Einsatzgruppen trial ; his defense attorney was Erich Mayer, assisted by Ferdinand Leis. The judge was Michael A. Musmanno . The public prosecutor, headed by Benjamin Ferencz , charged Klingelhöfer, on the basis of the official reports from the Einsatzgruppen, with responsibility for the murder of at least 100 people up to September 13, 1941 and a further 1,885 people up to September 28, 1941 , and part of the 572 people murdered by October 26, 1941. On April 9, 1948, Klingelhöfer was found guilty on all three charges - (1) crimes against humanity , (2) war crimes , (3) membership in a criminal organization. He was sentenced to death .

The Advisory Board on Clemency (German: Advisory Board for Appeals for Clemency , also called the Peck Panel after its chairman ), formed in the spring of 1950, recommended in the Klingelhöfer case on August 28, 1950 that the appeal for clemency be rejected and the death penalty carried out. The American High Commissioner John McCloy did not follow this recommendation and reduced Klingelhöfer's sentence on January 31, 1951 to life imprisonment . In the course of further shortening of his prison term, Klingelhöfer was finally released on parole from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison in December 1956 . Freed again, he lived in Villingen and worked as an employee.

literature

  • Jeffry M. Diefenforf, Axel Frohn, Hermann-Josef Rupieper: American Policy and the Reconstruction of West Germany, 1945-1955 . Cambridge University Press, 1994, ISBN 0521431204 .
  • Hilary Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-45608-1 .
  • Norbert Frei : Politics of the past: the beginnings of the Federal Republic and the Nazi past . Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-41310-2 .
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (Updated 2nd edition)
  • Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10 , Vol. 4 : United States of America vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. (Case 9: “Einsatzgruppen Case”) . US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950. In: National Archives Microfilm Publications, NM Series 1874-1946, Microfilm Publication M936. National Archives and Record Service, Washington 1973. (Excerpts from the grounds of the judgment on Waldemar Klingelhöfer: pp. 568 - 570. )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus-Michael Mallmann , Andrej Angrick , Jürgen Matthäus and Martin Cüppers : The "Event Reports USSR" 1941. Documents of the Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2011, ISBN 978-3-534-24468-3 , p. 381.
  2. ^ A b c Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 4, United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950, pp. 568-570.
  3. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial , pp. 108-109.
  4. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial , p. 121, "Table 3 - Education of the Defendants".
  5. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial , p. 126, "Table 4 - Joining Date of Defendants".
  6. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial , p. 129, "Table 5 - Joining Date of the SA, SS, SD and Gestapo".
  7. ^ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 4, US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia 1950, p. 11 .
  8. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial , pp. 280–285, in particular "Table 9 - Recommendations of the Advisory Board on Clemency (Peck Panel), August 28, 1950".
  9. ^ Earl: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial , p. 293, "Table 11 - Sentence Modifications of the Einsatzgruppen Leaders between 1948 and 1958".
  10. ^ Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , p. 316. (Personal entry on Klingelhöfer).
personal data
SURNAME Klingelhöfer, Waldemar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klingelhöfer, Woldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS-Sturmbannführer and convicted war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1977
Place of death Villingen-Schwenningen