Walter Blume

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Walter Blume during the task force process

Walter Blume (born July 23, 1906 in Dortmund ; † November 13, 1974 there ) was SS-Standartenführer and Ministerialrat. For offenses between June and September 1941 as the leader of Sonderkommando 7a (within Einsatzgruppe B) in Russia and Belarus , he was charged with crimes against humanity , war crimes and membership in a criminal organization in the Einsatzgruppen trial in 1948 and sentenced to death in 1951 but pardoned and released from prison in 1955.

Life

Walter Blume was born in Dortmund in 1906 as the son of a senior teacher . Raised Protestantism, he studied law in Bonn , Jena and Münster after graduating from high school . He passed his first state examination in law in 1929. In 1932 he passed his assessor exam with "sufficient". Like many other young assessors , he was then happy to receive a so-called free judicial commissioner.

He worked as an unpaid assistant judge in the district court in Dortmund . With the " seizure of power " by the NSDAP , an unexpected career opportunity arose for Blume. A lawyer found him a job at police headquarters. On March 1, 1933, the newly appointed police chief Wilhelm Schepmann appointed him head of the political department of the police headquarters. With the start of service he joined the SA and on May 1, 1933 the NSDAP. In the same year he began working for the SD .

Like all members of the executive service at the Gestapo , he constantly changed jobs in the years that followed. He stayed in Dortmund until autumn 1934 and was then transferred to Berlin , Halle and Hanover . In 1935 he transferred from the SA to the SS .

Through this constant change of personnel, Heydrich's later leadership of the RSHA achieved that the leading forces could gain as much experience as possible in matters of terror and oppression. On the other hand, they were able to show a high degree of flexibility and willingness to work due to their "non-sedentary lifestyle".

In December 1935, Blume proudly reported from Halle about his successes in the persecution of the Jews:

"1. Halle is avoided by an influx of Jews. 2. Increased emigration is noticeable. 3. In Halle an almost complete withdrawal of the Jews from the public can be noticed. "

Flower continued to rise. In September 1936 he was appointed a member of the government, and shortly after the beginning of the war, in December 1939, he became a senior government councilor and head of the Gestapo Berlin. In March 1941 he moved to the Reich Security Main Office and became head of the personnel department (Group IA) in Office I, which was headed by SS Brigadefuhrer Bruno Fahrtbach .

In the following months, Blume played a key role in the composition of the personnel for the murder squads of the task forces that were being formed . In June 1941 he was given command of Sonderkommando 7a (in Einsatzgruppe B). By mid-September, Einsatzgruppe B reportedly had murdered a total of 24,000 people in Belarus and Russia .

In September 1941, Blume moved from the slaughter in the trenches back to the desk in the personnel office of the RSHA seemingly effortlessly. He was promoted to Ministerialrat and SS Standartenführer.

In June 1942 he was used to “fight gangs” by partisans in Slovenia . After an interlude as head of the security police in Düsseldorf , he went to Athens in August 1943 as commander of the security police and the SD . There he received support from Eichmann employees Dieter Wisliceny and Anton Burger . They organized the deportation of the remaining Greek Jews to the Auschwitz extermination camp .

For Christmas 1943, Blume presented his subordinates with selected items of clothing (from the property of the murdered Greek Jews).

Blume returned to Berlin at the end of 1944.

After 1945

Blume was arrested and had to answer in the Einsatzgruppen trial . When asked by the presiding judge Musmanno why he ordered the murder of defenseless civilians, Blume replied:

“Actually, a German soldier does not shoot defenseless people, but the Führer ordered these shootings because otherwise these people would shoot us or our comrades as partisans [if they stayed alive] and would also have to protect our wives and children we think."

Blume was sentenced to death in 1948 and pardoned in 1951 to 25 years in prison. In 1955 he was released from the Landsberg War Crimes Prison . Blume then worked as managing director in Soest, among other things .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 55.
personal data
SURNAME Blume, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mass murderer, leader of Sonderkommando 7a in Belarus, head of the personnel department in the Reich Security Main Office
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Dortmund
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1974
Place of death Dortmund