Walter von Soosten

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Walter von Soosten (born May 14, 1895 in Pasewalk , † 1945 in Yugoslavia ) was a German SS-Obersturmführer and senior officer of the police at the time of National Socialism .

Life

Soosten, whose father was a middle school teacher, completed his school career at high school with the Abitur . Soosten took part in World War I as a soldier . After the end of the war, he joined the Württemberg Freikorps Haas under Otto Haas , with whom he took part in the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic . Then he entered the police force. Soosten became a member of the NSDAP ( membership number 1,494,744) in early March 1933 and joined the SS in early May 1939 . In March 1941, Soosten rose to become SS-Obersturmführer in the police and SS .

After the outbreak of World War II , Soosten was commander of Police Battalion 122 from October 1939 and then from November 1940 at the police authorities in Dortmund and Saarbrücken . In November 1941, as a police major, he became commander of the police in Lublin . There Soosten implemented Karl Eberhard Schöngarth's so-called “shooting order” , according to which Jews found outside the ghettos should be shot dead. At the beginning of June 1942 Soosten became the commander of the Ordnungspolizei in Lemberg , replacing Joachim Stach in this function . Under the staunch National Socialist Soosten, the police in the Galicia district were integrated into the implementation of the Holocaust .

In August 1943, Soosten moved to Vienna and between March 1944 and May 1944 was in charge of Police Battalion 3. In May 1944 Soosten became commander of the police in Yugoslavia. Soosten was taken prisoner in Yugoslavia, where he died in 1945.

literature

  • Dieter Pohl : National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944. Oldenbourg, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-486-56233-9 .
  • Thomas Sandkühler: Final solution in Galicia. The murder of Jews in Eastern Poland and the rescue initiatives of Berthold Beitz 1941–1944. Dietz successor, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-8012-5022-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Thomas Sandkühler: Final solution in Galicia. The murder of Jews in Eastern Poland and the rescue initiatives of Berthold Beitz 1941–1944. Bonn 1996, p. 443.
  2. ↑ Dieter Pohl: National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944. Munich 1997, p. 90.
  3. ↑ Dieter Pohl: National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944. Munich 1997, p. 420.
  4. ↑ Dieter Pohl: National Socialist Persecution of Jews in East Galicia, 1941–1944. Munich 1997, p. 297.
personal data
SURNAME Soosten, Walter von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soosten, Walther von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German policeman and SS leader
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Pasewalk
DATE OF DEATH 1945
Place of death Yugoslavia