Karl Bömelburg | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 October 1885 (1885-10-28) |
| Died | 26 December 1947(1947-12-26) (aged 62) |
| Conviction | War crimes |
| Criminal penalty | Death (1950) (in absentia) |
| SS service | |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch |  Schutzstaffel |
| Service years | 1931–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Sturmbannführer |
Karl Bömelburg (28 October 1885 – 26 December 1947) was an SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and head of theGestapo inFrance during theSecond World War. He notably had authority over section IV J, charged with the deportation of the Jews, for whichAlois Brunner (sent in 1943 byHeinrich Müller) was responsible. His aliases included Charles Bois, Mollemburg, and Bennelburger.
During his youth, he spent five years in Paris, in which he learned to speak nearly perfect French. He returned to Germany, was married and began working in his parents' bakery in Berlin. In 1931, Bömelburg became a member of theNational Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party), joining theSA then theSS. In 1933 he joined the Gestapo, in which he became a commissary directing theKripo inBerlin.
In 1938 he joined the staff ofJoachim von Ribbentrop in Paris. At the start of November, he was put in charge of enquiries into the murder ofErnst vom Rath. When this affair was quickly resolved, he became attached to the German ambassador in Paris, setting up an unofficial Gestapo centre in Paris. He worked inLyon andSaint-Étienne, making use of his French language ability.
In January 1939, he was expelled byAntoine Mondanel, the inspector general of thejudicial police, for helping extreme-right French organisations and fifth-columnists.[1] He moved toPrague, becoming police counsellor to the Gestapo and the head of its anti-Maquis section. After the Germans' uncontested invasion of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, for a time they encouraged Jews to leave the country while opposing the emigration of "political" refugees.[2] Bömelburg provided documents that enabledTrevor Chadwick andBeatrice Wellington of theBritish Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia to evacuate hundreds of both political and Jewish refugees, including 669 mostly Jewish children, from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia just prior to the beginning of World War II.[3][4][5]
On 14 June 1940, during theGerman invasion of France, Bömelburg returned to France in colonelHelmut Knochen's KommandoSD and acted asKommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei (KdS, Commander of Security Police). In August he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the SS and hadHeinrich Müller name him his personal representative and the head of theGestapo (section IV of the BdS covering France), with the title of criminal director. His activities during the time he spent in Paris passed from repression and interrogations to the frequent use of torture in the courts by his subordinates such asErnst Misselwitz, but also fashionable soirées and little gifts offered byHenri Lafont, derived from the black market or from war loot. One of Bömelburg's wishes was to have a poultry farm, and Henri Lafont obliged by giving him a farm nearGiverny staffed by his own men. His offices were situated at 11rue des Saussaies (1940–1942), then84 Avenue Foch, and his adjutants includedSturmbannführerJosef Kieffer.
In 1941 he succeededRudy de Mérode at 43,avenue Victor-Hugo in Neuilly, in aGasthaus (a house reserved for "forced" guests), which came to be called villa Boemelburg.[6] He personally recruited agents, with the initial B or Boe.[7] In summer 1941 he made a trip to theunoccupied zone to reactivate pre-war agents, and in the autumn he supervised the inquiry intoPaul Collette, who had tried to assassinatePierre Laval andMarcel Déat. During that year, he also headed up theRed Orchestra Kommando and enacted OperationFunkspiel against the workers' Soviets.
In autumn 1942 he putAktion Donar into effect, and in June 1943 he was the last German senior officer to seeJean Moulin alive. Moulin had been arrested on 21 June atCaluire, and then spent two weeks (25 June to 8 July) at villa Boemelburg, before dying on his train journey to Berlin. In November 1943, Bömelburg reached the age limit and was replaced by an officer surnamed Stindt.
Bömelburg was transferred toVichy, where he representedCarl Oberg, and then in June 1944 replaced SS captain Hugo Geissler (killed in an ambush nearMurat) as head of the Gestapo in the southern zone of France. On 28 August that year he ensured MarshalPhilippe Pétain's safe journey toSigmaringen, as security-chief, and then on 29 April 1945 authorised Pétain's departure for Switzerland.
In May 1945, after the German surrender, Bömelburg and his Gestapo chief in Berlin, Heinrich Müller, disappeared and were never recaptured. Bömelburg doctored the papers of a sergeant Bergman, killed in the bombardment, and adopted his identity. He was hired as a gardener near Munich, then promoted to librarian, and also directed a group of active Nazis fleeing toFrancoist Spain. At Saint-Sylvestre, in 1947, he slipped on ice, broke his skull and died. Later his son, Ralf, engraved his name on the family tombstone.[8] He was condemned to deathin absentia on 2 March 1950 by a military tribunal meeting in Lyon, and the Czechoslovak authorities were also seeking him for trial for war crimes.