Waldemar Wappenhans

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Waldemar Wappenhans , (born October 21, 1893 in Berlin , † December 2, 1967 in Hanover ) was a German SS group leader, lieutenant general of the police and SS and police leader (SSPF).

Career

Wappenhans, son of Professor Friedrich Wappenhans, attended a cadet school in Karlsruhe from 1902 and then the main cadet institute in Berlin-Lichterfelde . In early July 1914, Wappenhans was promoted to lieutenant .

First World War

After the outbreak of World War I , Wappenhans was a member of the 5th Baden Infantry Regiment No. 113 and from September 1914 became a battalion adjutant in Infantry Regiment 239. Wappenhans was admitted to the hospital in April 1915 because of a shrapnel injury. After his discharge from the hospital, he was transferred to the air force and trained at the Observer Field Aviation Department 55. After being wounded again in December 1916, another hospital stay followed until March 1917. He then worked as a pilot in the 300 "Pasha" and 305 in Palestine . In September 1918 he was still the leader of Battle Squadron 27 on the Western Front .

Time of the Weimar Republic

After the end of the war, Wappenhans was employed at the border guard in Silesia and left the army in 1923 with the rank of first lieutenant. His marriage took place in October 1923. He then went on to work as a volunteer at Halpaus-Zigaretten, where he eventually became branch manager in Gdansk . He later became a representative for Danziger Goldwasser . He belonged to the German-national Lodge Unity and acted as chairman of the Danzig Aviation Association. Through Werner Lorenz , Wappenhans made the acquaintance of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler in early 1930 . Then he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 465.090) and SS (membership number 22.924) on February 1, 1931 .

At the same time he was staff leader of the SS section Danzig until November 1931. After that he was deployed to SS section VII in Danzig and headed it from February 1932 to September 1932. From September 1932 to April 1, 1933 he was in command of the 19th. SS standard "Westphalia North". In March 1933 he was elected to the Prussian state parliament, to which he belonged until the corporation was dissolved in October 1933.

time of the nationalsocialism

From April 1933 to December 1933 he was in command of the SS standard "Weser" and then until the end of October 1934 in command of the SS standard "Ostfriesland". After that he was a leader for special use in the SS upper section "Northeast". From the beginning of April 1935 he became the commandant of SS Section IX in Würzburg . After he divorced his wife in 1930, he remarried in 1935; the marriage resulted in two sons and four daughters.

In 1935, Wappenhans met Hermann Göring , whom he knew from the Karlsruhe cadet school , and so returned to the Air Force in January 1936. Wappenhans became an officer in the Luftwaffe and completed an exercise with Reconnaissance Group No. 127 from the beginning of March 1937 to mid-April 1937. In addition, from April 1938 he led SS Section XVII in Augsburg and from May 1938 was staff leader of the SS Upper Section “Baltic Sea ". From November 1938 he was leader of SS Section XXXIII in Schwerin until January 1, 1942.

Second World War

After the outbreak of the Second World War he was head of the "Long Distance Reconnaissance England" (4th (F) / 122 based in Goslar until the end of November 1940. Since he was only able to work as an instructor in the Air Force due to a weak heart muscle, he applied again active SS service, after which he completed a police course in the headquarters of the Ordnungspolizei , where he worked until the beginning of September 1941.

From September 4, 1941 to September 1, 1942 he was SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in Volhynia-Brest-Litovsk and then SSPF Nikolajew until April 1943 and also SSPF Dnepropetrovsk-Krivoi-Rog from October 4, 1942 to October 1943. In this role he announced:

“The actions are carried out in such a way that the resettlements in the district capitals and the rayons take place at the same time as possible. I notice that given the scope of the major campaigns, some incidents will be inevitable and that the smooth handling that has taken place so far seems all the more remarkable. "

In Volhynia , the Jewish communities were wiped out; in September 1942, for example, the SS shot 13,500 Jewish ghetto residents in Volodymyr-Volynskyi . In total, around 160,000 Jews fell victim to the massacres in Volhynia from May to December 1942.

From October 1943 Wappenhans was SSPF for special use with the higher SSPF "Ukraine" Hans-Adolf Prützmann and was commander of a combat group there until January 1944. After that he was on leave due to illness, in an investigation from April 1944 it is said:

“He looks excited and exhausted. [...] I think it is urgently necessary from the medical point of view for him to calm down and to recapture himself. "

In January 1945 Wappenhans was transferred to General Field Marshal Walter Model on the Western Front . Towards the end of the war he was ordered to make his way to Berlin. Wappenhans deserted and came to Hahnenklee , where his family lived.

After the end of the war

Under the false name "Hans Seemann", Wappenhans worked as a farm worker and in September 1945 successfully applied to British Property Control for a position as a representative for the confiscated assets of former National Socialists in the Hanover district .

In November 1949, Wappenhans was exposed, but protected from arrest by the Hanover Criminal Police by the British Intelligence Service . He received new papers on his real name and was designed by interrogators of the Intelligence Service in Herford about the partisan warfare interrogated in Russia and the enemy fighting in Germany. Wappenhans put his statements down in writing on 75 typewritten pages. In it he denies knowledge of the shootings of Jews; he only heard about it later in Russia and then complained about it, since it happened without his knowledge. Then he had to answer before the court in Bielefeld as part of the denazification . He then worked for the coffee importer Heimbs & Co. in Braunschweig , his wife was née Heimbs, Carl Heimbs was a promoter of Adolf Hitler's naturalization in 1932 .

Wappenhans died in Hanover in early December 1967.

Awards

Wappenhans Army and SS ranks
date rank
July 1914 lieutenant
1923 First lieutenant
July 1932 SS-Sturmbannführer
December 1932 SS standard leader
November 1934 SS-Oberführer
May 1937 Reserve captain
October 1940 Major of the reserve
September 1941 SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Police
November 1943 SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police

literature

  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (Updated 2nd edition).
  • Ernst Kienast (Ed.): Handbook for the Prussian Landtag , edition for the 5th electoral period, Berlin 1933, p. 394.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d I should stay tough . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1949, pp. 11 ( online - December 15, 1949 ).
  2. ^ Norbert Frei , Sybille Steinbacher , Bernd C. Wagner (eds.): Exploitation, destruction, public. New Studies on National Socialist Camp Policy. (=  Representations and sources on the history of Auschwitz. Volume 4) Institute for Contemporary History, Saur, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-598-24033-3 , p. 161.
  3. ^ Christian Hartmann : The German War in the East 1941-1944. Facets of crossing borders. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59138-5 , p. 183 f.
  4. ^ Peter Longerich : Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 342.
  5. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 655.
personal data
SURNAME Wappenhans, Waldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lieutenant General of the Police as well as SS and Police Leader, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 1967
Place of death Hanover