Willy Tensfeld

Willy Tensfeld (born November 27, 1893 in Bornhöved ; † September 2, 1982 in Hamburg ) was a German SS brigade leader and major general of the police.

Life

Tensfeld joined the Imperial Navy after attending school and was deployed in the U- boat weapon during the First World War . After the war ended, he was retired from the army in 1923. He was then employed at the Kiel shipyard until 1931 .

He joined the NSDAP ( membership number 753.405) and the SS (SS number 14.724) in 1931. As a full-time SS leader, he headed the SS standard in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg (December 1933 to March 1935) and then the SS standard in Münster until April 1936 . From the beginning of April 1936 to the beginning of January 1939 he headed SS Section IX and ran unsuccessfully in the Reichstag elections in April 1938 . From January 1939 to June he was chief of staff in the SS upper section "Northwest" with headquarters in Hamburg . At the end of January 1941 he was promoted to SS-Brigadführer and in June 1942 to major general of the police.

During the German-Soviet War he was SS and Police Leader " Charkow " from August 1941 to May 1943 and in April / May 1943 he was also acting SSPF " Zhitomir ".

In September 1943 Tensfeld was transferred to the Supreme SS and Police Leader Italy Karl Wolff where he a. a. whose liaison officer to the Italian fascists was. From January 23, 1944 until the end of the war in May 1945, he was SS and Police Leader “Northern Italy West” based in Bologna and later Desenzano . Tensfeld was in command of a 3,000-strong German-Italian troop that attacked the partisan republic of Ossola in October 1944 .

In May 1945 Tensfeld came in Italy in British prisoner of war and was in April 1947 before a British military court in Padua for war crimes indicted but acquitted.

Awards

Tensfeld's SS and police ranks
date	rank
January 1933	SS-Sturmbannführer
September 1933	SS-Obersturmbannführer
June 1934	SS standard leader
September 1936	SS-Oberführer
January 1941	SS Brigade Leader
June 1942	Major General of the Police

• Iron Cross I (September 1943) and II Class (March 1943)
• War Merit Cross 1st Class with Swords
• German Cross in Gold (February 1945)

literature

• Andreas Schulz, Dieter Zinke: The generals of the Waffen SS and the police 1933–1945. Volume 5: SCHL-T (Schlake-Turner ), Biblio, Bissendorf 2011, ISBN 978-3-7648-2587-4 .

Web links

• SOME OF THE PRISONERS HELD AT SPECIAL CAMP 11 - Willy Tensfeld (1893-1982)
• Short biography of Willy Tensfeld (Polish language)