Willy Litzenberg

Litzenberg in Allied internment (photo taken between 1945 and 1949)

Willy Litzenberg (born November 27, 1900 in Liebenwalde , † 1964 in Würzburg ) was a German police officer and SS leader .

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After attending school, which he graduated from high school in 1918, Litzenberg took part in the First World War as a soldier for a few months . After the end of the war, he became a member of a volunteer corps in 1918 . He then studied law for several semesters, but dropped out of the course for economic reasons in 1924 without a degree.

Instead, Litzenberg joined the police service: after he had registered as a commissioner candidate in 1925, he completed his training as a detective commissioner from 1925 to 1928, which he completed on 10 October 1928 when he passed the commissioner examination. At the end of 1928 he became a detective commissioner in Berlin, where he finally took up his first service as a detective commissioner in Department K in Berlin police headquarters on May 1, 1929.

After the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Litzenberg was transferred to Department IA (Political Police) of the police headquarters. On May 1, 1933 , he was also admitted to the NSDAP ( membership number 2.593.248).

On July 17, 1933, Litzenberg was taken over into the Secret State Police , which was founded in April : In the Gestapa's business distribution plan of January 22, 1934, he can be identified as an employee in the field service of Department III C (counter-revolutionary efforts) led by Hans-Walter Rhode . His direct supervisor in the field service at this time was Emil Berndorff .

During the National Socialist era , Litzenberg continued his career with the NS police until the end of the war: on April 1, 1935, he was promoted to the criminal councilor and by the end of the Nazi regime he had achieved the rank of higher government and criminal councilor. On January 1, 1939, he was taken over to the main office of the Security Police . In the Reich Security Main Office he took over the management of the subject area or section IV A 3 and later IV A 1 b ("reaction and right-wing opposition") in Office IV.

The head of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller , described Litzenberg's work in the political police apparatus in an assessment of May 5, 1941 as follows:

“His criminalistic skills are to be valued higher than his political conception. Diligence and energy are severely hindered by an internal illness. Apply a particularly sharp standard to yourself and other employees. In political and ideological terms absolutely impeccable. Likewise in terms of character. Outwardly seems negative, suspicious, negative, but is a very good comrade towards his employees. "

In the final months of the Nazi regime, Litzenberg was involved in the criminal investigation into the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 : He was a member of a special commission that investigated the motives and backgrounds of the crime (as a political commission as opposed to the technical Commission). When the Reich criminal director Arthur Nebe , who was involved in the July 20 conspiracy , went into hiding, it was Litzenberg who finally located him and arrested him.

Since February 1937 Litzenberg was also a member of the SS (SS No. 290.171), in which he was promoted to Obersturmbannführer (November 9, 1944).

At the end of the war, Litzenberg was taken prisoner by the Allies. He spent several years in detention. He was heard as a witness at the Nuremberg Trial , in particular about the Columbia concentration camp .

literature

• Christoph Graf: Political police between democracy and dictatorship. Individual publications by the Historical Commission in Berlin, Vol. 36, Berlin 1983.
• Michael Wildt: Generation of the Unconditional. The leadership corps of the Reich Security Main Office. Hamburger Edition 2003. ISBN 3-930908-87-5 .