Walter Gerlach

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Walter Gerlach in Allied internment (1945–1948)

Walter Gerlach (born August 25, 1896 in Gusow , † April 19, 1964 in Haiger ) was a German SS leader , prison director of the Columbiahaus and camp commandant in Sachsenburg concentration camp during the Nazi era .

Life

After completing secondary school and secondary school, Gerlach completed a one-year course at a building trade school as well as training as a bricklayer. As a soldier, Gerlach took part in the First World War between August 1914 and 1918 and was discharged from the army at the end of the war in 1919. Together with his two brothers, Gerlach took over his father's wood goods factory and became the sole managing director there in 1927. Due to high debts, Gerlach had to give up operations in 1930, pay a fine for violating the Reich Insurance Code and take the oath of disclosure.

Gerlach joined the NSDAP ( membership number 307.120) in early September 1930 and the SS (SS number 14.567) in February 1931 . From August 1932 Gerlach became a leader of the 27th SS Standard. Through the intervention of SS-Obergruppenführer Josef Dietrich , Gerlach came to the Gestapa in July 1934 . From August 1, 1934 to November 30, 1934, Gerlach headed the Columbiahaus prison until the Columbiahaus became a concentration camp . His adjutant in the Columbiahaus was Arthur Liebehenschel , who was under him in this capacity at the 27th SS Standard.

From December 1, 1934 to April 20, 1935, Gerlach was camp commandant in Sachsenburg concentration camp . Gerlach then became adjutant to camp commandant Heinrich Deubel in the Dachau concentration camp . After Deubel was replaced as camp commandant by Hans Loritz in April 1936, Gerlach asked for his transfer to the general SS. Because of a brawl in July 1935, Gerlach was sentenced to two months' imprisonment by the Munich regional court and should be from the SS on instructions from RFSS Heinrich Himmler be dismissed. The sentence was converted into a three-year suspended sentence and Gerlach remained in the SS.

From the end of 1938 he led SS Section VII in Königsberg and from 1942 was employed by the Reich Commissioner for the consolidation of German nationality . From 1944 Gerlach headed the office of the Higher SS and Police Leader Günther Pancke in Denmark. Gerlach was arrested on May 30, 1945 and was interned until 1948. On November 14, 1947, Gerlach was heard as a witness during the Nuremberg trials .

Gerlach's SS ranks Promotions
SS-Untersturmführer (Appointment) October 1931
SS-Sturmhauptführer December 1, 1932
SS-Sturmbannführer April 7, 1934
SS-Obersturmbannführer August 27, 1934
SS-Oberführer January 30, 1939

literature

  • Dirk Riedel: vigilante and mass murderer in the service of the "Volksgemeinschaft". The concentration camp commandant Hans Loritz. Metropol, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940938-63-3 , pp. 146-148 and 364f.
  • Johannes Tuchel: Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934–1938. (= Writings of the Federal Archives, Volume 39). H. Boldt, 1991, ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e f Johannes Tuchel: Concentration camps: organizational history and function of the inspection of the concentration camps 1934–1938. 1991, pp. 375f.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 2: Early camp, Dachau, Emsland camp. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52962-3 , p. 58f.
  3. ↑ Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes trials Interrogations, 1946-1949 (PDF file; 182 kB) at www.archives.gov
personal data
SURNAME Gerlach, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German commander in the Columbiahaus and the Sachsenburg concentration camp
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Gusow
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1964
Place of death Haiger