Werner Grothmann

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Heinrich Himmler (right) and Werner Grothmann as SS Hstuf in 1943

Werner Grothmann (born August 23, 1915 in Frankfurt am Main ; † November 27, 2002 ) was a German SS leader, most recently with the rank of SS Obersturmbannführer . From autumn 1941 until his capture in May 1945 he was chief adjutant of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler . Although, as a close associate of Himmler, he was informed in detail about all events, he claimed after the Second World War that he only learned about the Holocaust in autumn 1944 . After he had been denazified as a “fellow traveler” in 1950 , a preliminary investigation into aiding and abetting murder against him was discontinued in 1966 because no individual guilt could be proven.

Life

The Grothmanns lived as a merchant family in Königsberg and became impoverished in the course of the global economic crisis . Therefore Werner Groth husband had with the GCSEs , the school left. He completed an apprenticeship as a banker , which he completed in the summer of 1934. After he had been a member of the Jungstahlhelm from 1931 to 1933 , he joined the SS in July 1933 (SS No. 181.334). He attended a trainee driver course in Jüterbog , the driver's school in Braunschweig and the train driver course in Dachau . As SS-Untersturmführer he came to the SS standard "Germany" and in the spring of 1938 he became an instructor in Dachau together with Max Wünsche . Grothmann was also a member of the NSDAP (No. 4,820,975).

During the Second World War , Grothmann took part in the attack on Poland and was wounded as a company commander of an SS regiment in June 1940 during the western campaign in France . Subsequently, from August 15, 1940, Grothmann was second adjutant of the Waffen SS in Heinrich Himmler's personal staff. In autumn 1941 he replaced Joachim Peiper as Himmler's First Adjutant. He was then chief adjutant of the "Adjutantur der Waffen-SS", a separate department of the Reichsführer SS. His duties as adjutant included planning Himmler's daily routine, e. B. his trips and appointments. Due to his close contact with Himmler, he had insight into all processes and was therefore informed in detail about the Holocaust . He accompanied Himmler on inspections of extermination camps and witnessed a mass gassing in Auschwitz in July 1942.

At the end of the war, Grothmann headed Himmler's 150-person staff. Himmler, Grothmann and the RFSS staff fled to Flensburg via the so-called Rattenlinie Nord in early May 1945 . After Himmler was not involved in the newly established last Reich government under Karl Dönitz , Himmler and Grothmann left the Flensburg area together with other SS leaders. After the group split up, Himmler, Heinz Macher and Grothmann near Bremervörde fell into British captivity on May 21, 1945.

During the Nuremberg Trials , Grothmann was heard several times as a witness from 1946 to 1948. Although the prosecution confronted him with incriminating documents in Nuremberg, he was not charged. He claimed that as an adjutant he was merely a clerk without professional competence and that he did not find out about the Holocaust until autumn 1944.

From July 1948 Grothmann was imprisoned in the Dachau internment camp and on September 15, 1948 was sentenced to four years imprisonment by the camp judgment chamber as the “main culprit” , partly because he had approved the posting of concentration camp prisoners for medical experiments . He lodged an objection, was released from Dachau on September 29, 1948, initially classified by the Upper Bavaria Appeals Chamber as a "minor offender" and finally denazified by the Munich Main Chamber in July 1950 as a "follower" .

In the Federal Republic of Germany, Grothmann avoided the public, but was in close contact with SS circles and the mutual aid community of members of the former Waffen SS . In 1961 he was summoned as a witness in the proceedings against Karl Wolff . On the basis of incriminating documents, a case against him for murder was opened. Although his knowledge of the Reinhard campaign could be proven to him, no individual guilt could be proven, so that the proceedings were discontinued on January 7, 1966.

literature

  • Rainer Karlsch, Heiko Petermann (ed.): For and against Hitler's bomb. Waxmann Verlag, Münster / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-8309-1893-6 .
  • Jens Westemeier : Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 673.
  2. ^ Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 101 f.
  3. ^ Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 102.
  4. ^ Rainer Karlsch, Heiko Petermann (ed.): For and Against Hitler's bomb. Waxmann Verlag, Münster / New York 2007, p. 18.
  5. ^ Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 101.
  6. ^ Fritz Bauer : Justice and Nazi crimes. 20. The criminal judgments issued from April 12, 1964 to April 3, 1965, serial no. No. 569-590 , APA - Holland Univ. Press, 1981, p. 397.
  7. ^ Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 200.
  8. ↑ a b c Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 578.
  9. ↑ Stephan Linck: Committed to order: German police 1933–1949: the Flensburg case. Schöningh, 2000, p. 149.
  10. ↑ Stephan Link: "Rattenlinie Nord". War criminals in Flensburg and the surrounding area in May 1945. In: Gerhard Paul, Broder Schwensen (Hrsg.): Mai '45. End of the war in Flensburg. Flensburg 2015, p. 21 f. and 25
  11. ^ Peter Longerich : Heinrich Himmler. Biography. Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 757.
  12. ^ Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes trials Interrogations 1946-1949. (PDF; 186 kB), published 1977.
  13. ^ Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 579.
  14. ^ Jens Westemeier: Himmler's warriors. Joachim Peiper and the Waffen-SS in the war and the post-war period . Partly zugl .: Potsdam, Univ., Diss., 2009. Schöningh, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 9783506772411 , p. 581.
personal data
SURNAME Grothmann, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German SS leader and adjutant Heinrich Himmler
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 2002