Willibald Borowietz

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Willibald Erich Franz Josef Borowietz (born September 17, 1893 in Ratibor ; † July 1, 1945 in Clinton , Mississippi , United States ) was a German officer , most recently Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht in World War II .

First World War

On March 5, 1914 Borowietz joined as a cadet in the 4th Company of the 3rd Silesian Infantry Regiment. 156 of the Prussian army in Bytom one. After the outbreak of the First World War he came with the regiment to the western front . After being wounded on August 22nd near Cutry-Ugny ( Département Meurthe-et-Moselle ) he was taken to a hospital in Mannheim and returned to his regiment on September 1st. On September 10th, he was seriously wounded at Saint-André, lost his right eye, was taken to the hospital in Breslau and went to Bad Landeck for a cure . On October 2, 1914, he was promoted to ensign and on December 15, he joined his regiment's replacement battalion .

On December 30, 1914 he became the 2nd replacement machine gun company of VI. Army Corps transferred to Breslau and promoted to lieutenant on January 22, 1915 ; the officer's license was retrospectively dated July 23, 1913. On January 30th he was transferred to the machine gun company of the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 271 and on June 1st he was appointed company commander. After a vacation, he returned to the regiment on August 18, 1915, where he fell ill with his eye. He received a new prosthetic eye and was on leave from March 17 to 25, 1916, to Wroclaw. After recovering, returned to the regiment on March 27.

From May 22nd he took over the command of the machine gun sniper squad No. 123 in the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 269 . After that, on October 1, 1916, he was appointed leader of the 3rd company of machine gun sniper division 41 and on June 21, 1917, he was assigned to the rifle examination commission in Spandau-Ruhleben . After further assignments as a company commander, he was transferred to the 3rd Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 156 in Beuthen on June 21, 1918, where he became deputy orderly officer on July 1 . After several posts in the regimental staff , he was promoted to lieutenant on October 18 . After falling ill, he was taken to the reserve hospital in Wiesbaden on October 29, 1918 , where he experienced the end of the war . Borowietz was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and the Wound Badge in black for his achievements during the war .

Between the world wars

Borowietz was transferred from the Wiesbaden military hospital to the auxiliary hospital in Wittenberg , returned to the regiment's replacement battalion on November 9, 1918, and had been company commander of the 2nd company of the replacement battalion in Infantry Regiment 156 in Beuthen since November 29. In 1919 he was first employed in the Silesian Border Guard , discharged from the army in October 1919 and then joined the police in Wroclaw as a first lieutenant in the police force . On August 11, 1931, he was promoted to major in the police at the higher police school in Potsdam-Eiche . In February 1934 he was appointed commander of the Technical State Police School in Berlin and on October 1, 1935 he became a major in the headquarters of the motor vehicle combat force school in Wünsdorf and thus a supplementary officer in the Wehrmacht , and on October 12, 1937 he was transferred to the staff of the armored forces school .

His wife Eva Borowietz committed suicide in October 1938 in Berlin;

"Eva Borowietz, née Levin / Ledien (25.9.1896–26.10.1938) (" suicide "). Eva Borowietz also came from the Levin / Ledien family of lawyers in Wittenberg. (...) Married to the Wehrmacht major Willibald Borowietz, she committed suicide in October 1938 in Berlin “to make life easier for him and her three children”. (...) The son Jochen, who was considered to be a "half-Jew" under the Nazi race laws, fell as a soldier in 1940. After the mother's death, the children were recognized as " honorary Aryans " due to the father's position . "

- Ronny Kabus: Jews of Lutherstadt Wittenberg in the III. Rich . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2012, ISBN 978-3-8448-0249-8 , pp. 85 .

In February 1939, Major Borowietz was posted to head the rapid troops in the OKH and at the beginning of September 1939 was appointed commander of the anti-tank division 50 (→  4th light division ).

Second World War

At the beginning of September 1939, Major Borowietz led anti-tank division 50 in the attack on Poland . The unit was renamed Panzerjäger -Abteilung 50 and he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1940 . In May 1940 he led the unit into the western campaign , was transferred to the active officers in February 1941 and in April 1941 he was used with the Panzerjäger Department 50 in the Balkan campaign . On April 12th, he was awarded the Commander-in-Chief of the Army’s Certificate of Recognition for outstanding achievements on the battlefield and he was named in the Wehrmacht report:

“ During the advance of a tank division on Üsküb on April 6th and 7th, Colonel Apell , commander of a rifle brigade , and Lieutenant Colonel Borowietz, commander of an anti-tank division, distinguished themselves in particular. "

On June 10, he moved to the commandant of the 10th Rifle Regiment and led it in the eastern campaign in the attack on southern Russia at the end of June 1941 . In July 1941 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , in February 1942 he was promoted to Colonel and on June 14th he was awarded the German Cross in Gold. The 10th Rifle Regiment was renamed the 10th Panzer Grenadier Regiment , and Colonel Borowietz gave up his command on October 5, 1942 and was transferred to the Führerreserve .

On November 10, 1942, Colonel Borowietz was appointed commander of the 10th Panzer Grenadier Brigade, about a week later, after Lieutenant General Gustav von Vaerst , he took over the leadership of the 15th Panzer Division in North Africa, was promoted to major general on January 1, 1943 appointed their commander. In February 1943 he carried out counter-attacks in the Gafsa - Thelepte area as far as the Kasserin Pass . On March 10, 1943, he was awarded the Oak Leaves No. 235 for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross - at the same time he surrendered in Tunisia and became an American prisoner of war . On March 11th he was named in the Wehrmacht report:

“ In the African theater of war , the light Africa division under the leadership of Lieutenant General Graf Sponeck and the 15th Panzer Division under the leadership of Major General Borowietz have distinguished themselves . "

After the surrender and capture, he was promoted to Lieutenant General on May 15, 1943 - his seniority was dated back to May 1, 1943. He was a prisoner of war in the United States in Prisoner of War Camp (POW) in Clinton, Hinds County ( Mississippi brought). There he committed suicide by electrocuting in a bathtub on July 1, 1945 . Cerebral haemorrhage was given as the official cause of death . The funeral took place a few days later in Fort Benning .

Despite his captivity he dived because of his Jewish wife and his three children in October 1944 on a list of active officers who themselves or their wives of Hitler before the attack on him as a person of German were told to.

Awards

Participation

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Panzergrenadiers - The Fast Troops ( Memento from January 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Derek R. Mallett: Hitler's Generals in America: Nazi POWs and Allied Military Intelligence. University Press of Kentucky, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8131-4251-7 , p. 88.
  3. ↑ Bryan Mark Rigg: Rescued from the Reich: How One of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe . Yale University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-300-11531-4 , pp. 83 ( google.de [accessed February 1, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Borowietz, Willibald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Borowietz, Willibald Erich Franz Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently lieutenant general in the Wehrmacht
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Ratibor
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1945
Place of death Clinton , Mississippi , United States