Wilhelm Koppe

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Wilhelm Koppe
As a greeting, children hand over flowers to Heinrich Himmler, from left: SS-Gruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe, Heinrich Himmler and the Gauleiter of Upper Silesia, Fritz Bracht (around 1941).

Karl Heinrich Wilhelm Koppe (born June 15, 1896 in Hildesheim , † July 2, 1975 in Bonn ) was a German SS-Obergruppenführer , general of the Waffen-SS and the police . At the time of National Socialism he was, among other things, a member of the German Reichstag , from 1937 to 1939 head of the Gestapo in Dresden and from March 1938 inspector of the security police and the SD Saxony. During the Second World War , as Higher SS and Police Leader, he had almost 2,000 disabled people murdered in East Prussia and was particularly responsible for the Holocaust in the western part of German-occupied Poland . After the war ended, Koppe was initially able to go into hiding and pursue a career as a factory director. After his exposure, he was charged in the Federal Republic, but the proceedings were discontinued due to inability to stand trial.

Life

Youth and career

Wilhelm was the son of the bailiff Robert Koppe and his wife Franziska, née Ising. He attended high schools in Stolzenau , Harburg and Wilhelmsburg . After graduating from high school, during the First World War in October 1914, he volunteered for the Schleswig-Holstein Pioneer Battalion No. 9. In January 1915, he came to the Western Front with the 2nd field company of the battalion . After his promotion to lieutenant in the reserve in December 1916, Koppe was deployed here as a battalion gas officer from January 1917 and was wounded during the fighting in Flanders .

After the armistice of Compiègne and its demobilization , Koppe was dismissed from army service in December 1918. He then went into business for himself as a businessman and owner of a wholesale business for food and tobacco products in Harburg.

Career in the NSDAP, SS and police

At the beginning of September 1930 Wilhelm Koppe joined the NSDAP ( membership number 305.584). He also became a member of the SA . In November 1933 he was elected to the Reichstag, which was insignificant at the time of National Socialism and to which he belonged until the end of the Nazi regime in 1945.

At the beginning of January 1932 he switched from the SA to the SS (SS no. 25.955). He quickly made a career in the Schutzstaffel and was promoted to SS-Standartenführer in April 1933. As early as 1934 he was appointed SS-Oberführer and a few months later SS-Brigadführer. Since he proved himself as the leader of several SS sections and SS upper sections, including in Münster and from October 1934 in the Free City of Danzig , Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler noticed him and promoted him to SS-Gruppenführer in September 1936 .

Himmler commanded Koppe, then located in Königsberg, to Saxony, where he succeeded Lothar Beutel as head of the SD upper section Elbe in February 1937 . At the same time, he was given the management of the Dresden State Police Headquarters, although he had neither police nor intelligence experience. The background to Himmler's decision to change personnel was his hope that Koppe would assert himself in the course of the disputes over competence between Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann and the Gestapo . As a clerk for political and police matters in the Saxon Ministry of the Interior , Koppe was formally obliged to provide the state government with information about secret police activities in the state, on the other hand, this allegation should not run contrary to the requirements of his superior Reinhard Heydrich . Koppe, who had his office and residence in Dresden , concentrated mainly on his work as Gestapo leader. He left most of the work for the SD to his deputy in Leipzig, the headquarters of the SD upper section Elbe . In March 1938 he was appointed local inspector of the Security Police and the SD .

World War II, Holocaust, crimes against humanity

After the attack on Poland at the end of September 1939, he was entrusted with the organization of the Volksdeutsche self-protection in the military district of Poznan and the establishment of SS and police associations. On October 26, 1939, he was appointed Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) in the Warthegau , based in Poznan, and at the same time the representative of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Ethnicity (RKFdV). In a letter dated November 12, 1939, he named the number of 100,000 Jews and 200,000 Poles who were to be expelled from his area (especially from Posen, Lodz , Gnesen and Hohensalza ) to the Generalgouvernement in order to make room for the Baltic Germans .

At the end of May / beginning of June 1940 Koppe organized the mass murder of 1,558 German and approx. 300 Polish disabled people in the East Prussian transit camp Soldau by means of gas vans , which was carried out by the Lange Sonderkommando under his control. On October 18, 1940, he wrote to the HSSPF Nord-Ost Jakob Sporrenberg that he and his predecessor in the Wilhelm Redieß office had agreed an amount of 10 RM for the “evacuation” of each patient and that he was now claiming the outstanding 15,580 RM. Later Koppe asked Himmler whether 30,000 terminally ill Polish tuberculosis patients could be killed.

Koppe was primarily responsible for the deportation of the Jews to the Litzmannstadt ghetto and the Kulmhof extermination camp . On September 10, 1941, he sent Himmler a letter in which he offered to take in "60,000 Jews in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto" from the German Reich. On the instructions of Gauleiter Arthur Greiser and Koppes, an extermination camp was set up in Chełmno nad Nerem by the Lange Sonderkommando , where mass murders of Jews and "Gypsies" were committed from December 1941 using gas vans . Koppe delegated supervision of the Lange Sonderkommando, which was officially under his control, to the local inspector of the Security Police and SD Ernst Damzog .

From November 9, 1943, he succeeded Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger as HSSPF Ost and State Secretary for Security in the government of the Generalgouvernement under Hans Frank . In these functions he was responsible for National Socialist crimes in the Generalgouvernement. As State Secretary and HSSPF, he reported directly to the Governor General. Since the State Secretary was also Himmler's RKFdV representative, he could also give orders to Koppe directly. Koppe, SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Police since January 1942, was finally promoted to General of the Waffen-SS in early July 1944. On July 11, 1944, he survived an attempted assassination attempt by fighters of the Polish Home Army in Krakow after 20 resistance fighters shot at his armored service vehicle shortly after he left the Wawel . Koppe was able to get to safety on the floor of the official vehicle, but his adjutant was fatally wounded. Two attackers died in the incident, three were seriously injured and executed eleven days later.

In the final phase of the Second World War, Koppe became commander in Special Staff III of Army Group Vistula . On April 20, 1945 he succeeded HSSPF Süd Friedrich Karl von Eberstein in Munich, who had fallen out of favor with the Nazi rulers .

Post war period, professional career, rejection of the process

At the end of the war in May 1945, he followed the so-called Rattenlinie Nord to Flensburg . Koppe then went into hiding and took his wife's maiden name (Lohmann). Professionally, he continued his time as an entrepreneur and, under his false name, became managing director of the large Sarotti chocolate factory in Bonn . In what was then the federal capital, his daughter was employed as a secretary for the Federal Ministry of Defense. His son Manfred Lohmann worked as a lawyer in Bonn and, in particular with Werner Best , lobby work with politicians in the early 1960s for the impunity of Nazi perpetrators.

Koppe's real identity was revealed in 1960. In the early 1960s he was investigated for the murders in the east in his area of ​​responsibility. He was arrested on February 1, 1960 and immediately taken into custody. During interrogations, Koppe denied that he was responsible for the Kulmhof extermination camp. On February 2, 1960, during his testimony, he said: "At that time, evacuation meant the physical extermination of the Jews." In 1961 Eichmann made incriminating statements against Koppe in his trial in Israel , which were forwarded to the Bonn public prosecutor. On April 19, 1962, however, Koppe was released on payment of a bail of DM 30,000. In 1964 proceedings were opened against him in Bonn . Among other things, he was charged with "suspicion of aiding and abetting and inciting mass murder in 145,000 cases" as part of the Kulmhof complex . The proceedings were suspended for “health reasons”. In 1966, the opening of the main proceedings was finally rejected by the Bonn Regional Court because of illness. In the FAZ the Koppe case was commented on as follows: "Koppe, whose past nobody in Bonn had any idea about, played a considerable role in the society of the federal capital until his arrest". Koppe then lived unmolested until his death in 1975.

Awards

literature

  • Tôviyyā Friedman : The higher SS and police leader at the Reichsstatthalter in Posen in the military district XXI Wilhelm Koppe, SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the police: Document collection . Haifa: Inst. Of Documentation in Israel for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes, 1997 DNB .
  • Peter Klein, The "Gettoverwaltung Litzmannstadt" 1940 to 1944: a service center in the field of tension between local bureaucracy and state policy of persecution , Hamburger Ed., Hamburg 2009 ISBN 978-3-86854-203-5 , pp. 134 ff.
  • Joachim Lilla , Martin Döring, Andreas Schulz: extras in uniform: the members of the Reichstag 1933–1945. A biographical manual. Including the Volkish and National Socialist members of the Reichstag from May 1924 . Droste, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7700-5254-4 .
  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Andreas Schulz , Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 2: Hachtel – Kutschera. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2005. ISBN 3-7648-2592-8 . Pp. 552-562.
  • Carsten Schreiber: Elite in the Secret - Ideology and Regional Rule Practice of the Security Service of the SS and its Network Using the Example of Saxony, Studies on Contemporary History , Volume 77, Oldenbourg Wissenschafts-Verlag GmbH, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58543-8 .
  • Szymon Datner: Wilhelm Koppe: nieukarany zbrodniarz hitlerowski , Zachodnia Agencja Prasowa, Warszawa 1963.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Koppe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g indexing volume for the microfiche edition: With an introduction by Angelika Ebbinghaus to the history of the process and short biographies of those involved in the process , p. 114. Karsten Linne (Ed.): Der Nürnberger Ärzteprocess 1946/47. Verbal transcripts, prosecution and defense material, sources on the environment. Published by Klaus Dörner , German Edition, Microfiche Edition, Saur, Munich 2000 on behalf of the Hamburg Foundation for Social History of the 20th Century
  2. ↑ a b c Carsten Schreiber: Elite in the Hidden - Ideology and Regional Rule Practice of the Security Service of the SS and its Network Using the Example of Saxony , Munich 2008, p. 47.
  3. ↑ 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, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 330.
  4. ↑ a b c Carsten Schreiber: Elite in the Hidden - Ideology and Regional Rule Practice of the Security Service of the SS and its Network Using the Example of Saxony , Munich 2008, p. 48.
  5. ^ The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto / Litzmannstadt (5 volumes)
    Series of publications on the Lodz Ghetto Chronicle (published by the Holocaust Literature Department (University of Giessen) and the Lodz State Archives).
    Edited by Sascha Feuchert, Erwin Leibfried, Jörg Riecke. In cooperation with Julian Baranowski, Joanna Podolska, Krystyna Radziszewska, Jacek Walicki. With the collaboration of Imke Janssen-Mignon, Andrea Löw, Joanna Ratusinska, Elisabeth Turvold and Ewa Wiatr. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2007, here 1941 , p. 411.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Curilla : The murder of Jews in Poland and the German order police 1939-1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77043-1 , p. 59.
  7. ↑ See also Document BArch 70 Poland / 198, Bl. 1, in: Klaus-Peter Friedrich (edit.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (source collection) Volume 4: Poland - September 1939- July 1941 , Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-58525-4 , pp. 680f.
  8. ↑ Ernst Klee : "Euthanasia" in the Third Reich. The "destruction of life unworthy of life". Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 2010 ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , pp. 171ff
  9. ↑ Ian Kershaw : Hitler 1936-1945. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 978-3-421-05132-5 , pp. 644f
  10. ^ Peter Longerich : Heinrich Himmler. Biography . Siedler, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-88680-859-5 , p. 560
  11. ^ Ulrich Herbert , Karin Orth , Christoph Dieckmann : The National Socialist Concentration Camps - Development and Structure. Volume I, Wallstein, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-89244-289-4 , p. 499
  12. ↑ John Schwantner, Andreas Schwantner, Thekla Schwantner: ideology and reality of National Socialism. Hermann Langbein Symposium 2007, Vienna / London 2008, p. 40
  13. ↑ Dieter Schenk: Hans Frank - Hitler's Crown Lawyer and Governor General , Frankfurt 2008, p. 318 f.
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Curilla : The murder of Jews in Poland and the German order police 1939-1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77043-1 , p. 53
  15. ↑ Dieter Schenk : Krakauer Burg: the power center of the Governor General Hans Frank, 1939-1945. Ch.links, Berlin 2010, p. 167
  16. ↑ 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. 22.
  17. ↑ Marc von Miquel: Punish or amnesty? West German Justice and Politics of the Past in the Sixties , Series: Contributions to the History of the 20th Century, Volume 1, Wallstein, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89244-748-9 , pp. 211 ff.
  18. ↑ a b Ruth Bettina Birn : A German Public Prosecutor in Jerusalem - On the knowledge of the prosecution in the Eichmann trial and the criminal prosecution authorities of the Federal Republic . In: Werner Renz (Ed.): Interests around Eichmann. Israeli justice, German law enforcement and old comradeships . Campus, Frankfurt a. M. 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39750-4 , p. 109
  19. ↑ Koppes testimony on February 2, 1960 (18 Js 52/60 OstA Bonn). Quoted from 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, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 330
  20. ↑ Carsten Schreiber: Elite in Hidden - Ideology and Regional Rule Practice of the Security Service of the SS and its Network Using the Example of Saxony , Munich 2008, p. 48f.
  21. ↑ See proceedings against Koppe discontinued. The former SS-Obergruppenführer is certified incapable of imprisonment . In: FAZ of May 29, 1965. Quoted in: Carsten Schreiber: Elite im Verborgenen - Ideology and regional rule of the SS security service and its network using the example of Saxony , Munich 2008, p. 49
  22. ↑ Andreas Dwulecki: The Gauehrenzeichen des Reichgaues Wartheland: Decoration of honor for services in the national struggle . In: Internationales Militaria-Magazin No. 129 September / October 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Koppe, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lohmann, Wilhelm; Koppe, Karl Heinrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, SS leader, politician (NSDAP), MdR and policeman
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Hildesheim
DATE OF DEATH 2nd July 1975
Place of death Bonn