Walter Hauck (SS member)
Walter Hauck (born June 4, 1918 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † November 6, 2006 ) was a German officer in the Waffen SS and war criminal . For his leading role in the Ascq massacre , he was sentenced to death in France in 1949 but released in 1957.
Life
In the Third Reich was Hauck policeman . During the Second World War in 1944 he was Obersturmführer in SS Panzer Reconnaissance Department 12 of the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth" . As a company commander , he led the 2nd Panzer Company. After an attack on a railway line, he organized the Ascq massacre, in which 86 people were shot. On August 17, 1944, Hauck's tank patrol was destroyed during the fighting in the valley near Caen . Hauck was taken prisoner of war , but was able to escape.
Walter Hauck is also responsible for the massacre in the village of Leskovice in May 1945 on the Czech Moravian highlands, in which 26 inhabitants of this village were murdered and 31 houses were set on fire.
On August 2, 1949, the trial of SS members of the division, allegedly responsible for the Ascq massacre, began at the Lille court . The only responsible person present was Hauck as the commanding officer in 1944. All the details were known because one of the division's trucks had fallen into the Thon River in Étréaupont ( Picardy ) when the troops had driven back through northern France on the night of September 1 to 2, 1944. This truck loaded with documents contained all the reports of the war crime.
On August 6, 1949 , Hauck and the other defendants - with one exception - were sentenced to death. Defense lawyers appealed to the Court of Cassation . The Court of Cassation rejected this appeal on June 3, 1950. After several revisions, President René Coty converted the death penalty to life imprisonment after some Ascq widows asked him for mercy for the convicted. Hauck was granted a reduction in his sentence and was released from Loos prison in 1957 . Then he returned to Germany.
In 1969 and 1977 Czechoslovakia demanded that Germany prosecute Hauck, which the Stuttgart public prosecutor did not pursue any further. In 2005, the Czech police had collected evidence of Hauck's involvement in the Leskovice massacre and opened criminal proceedings to bring him to justice. However, a court case did not materialize. Hauck lived in Germany until his death.
literature
- Claudia Moisel: France and the German war criminals. Law Enforcement Policy and Practice after World War II. Wallstein, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3892447497
- The Fascist Occupation Policy in France (1940–1944) Document selection. Ed. And Einl. Ludwig Nestler. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften , East Berlin 1990, ISBN 3326002971 (pp. 88, 109, 307f., 330)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Himmler's teacher: The ideological training in the SS at Google Books, accessed on November 27, 2018
- ↑ Crimes Hitlériens, Ascq, Le Vercors , Louis Jacob, Collection Liberation, Editions Mellottée (Paris), 1946
- ↑ Leskovická tragédie, 2007, website of the KSM (Communist Youth Organization)
- ↑ Češi našli další tři nacistické zločince , Idnes.cz, Zpravy, Luděk Navara, 3-10-2005, http://zpravy.idnes.cz/cesi-nasli-dalsi-tri-nacisticke-zlocince-fdy-/domaci. asp? c = A051103_084805_krimi_mr
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hauck, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German officer of the Waffen SS and war criminal |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 4, 1918 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Freiburg in Breisgau |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 6, 2006 |