Emanuel Schäfer | |
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.jpg) Schäfer in 1943 | |
| Born | 20 April 1900 (1900-04-20) |
| Died | 4 December 1974 (1974-12-05) (aged 74) |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Imperial German Army Freikorps Schutzstaffel |
| Years of service | 1918 1919–1921 1936–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Oberführer andOberst of Police |
| Commands | Einsatzgruppe II Commander ofSiPo &SD,Serbia;Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral |
| Battles / wars | World War I Silesian Uprisings World War II |
| Awards | War Merit Cross |
| Alma mater | University of Breslau |
Emanuel Paul Viktor Schäfer (20 April 1900 – 4 December 1974) was a German lawyer and police official who was also an SS-Oberführer in theSchutzstaffel (SS) and a protégé ofReinhard Heydrich inNazi Germany. During theSecond World War, he was the commander ofEinsatzgruppe II during thePolish campaign in 1939. He then served as commander of thesecurity police (SiPo) andSD, first inSerbia and later innorthern Italy. He was complicit inHolocaust atrocities and, after the war ended, he was put on trial and convicted ofwar crimes.
Schäfer was born in Hultschin (today,Hlučín) in PrussianSilesia, the son of a hotel owner. He attended local schools and enlisted in theImperial German Army in June 1918 during theFirst World War, but was never deployed to the front. After the war, Schäfer joined theUpper Silesian Border Guard in early 1919 to repel thefirst Silesian uprising. He was a member of far-right militant groups such as theMarinebrigade Ehrhardt, a component of theFreikorps. Schäfer enrolled as a law student at the University of Breslau (today, theUniversity of Wrocław) for the winter semester of 1920–1921. As part of a student volunteer company, he participated in theBattle of Annaberg during the third Silesian uprising. After resuming his interrupted studies, he received hisDoctor of Law degree on 1 August 1925. From 1925 to the spring of 1928, he was a member ofDer Stahlhelm, theparamilitary organization of German war veterans.
In April 1926, Schäfer joined the police force as a detective inspector candidate and completed his training at the police institute inBerlin-Charlottenburg. After passing his final state law examination in early 1928, he was hired by the Breslau police headquarters on 1 March 1928, and appointed a permanent detective inspector on 11 August 1928. At the end of 1928, he became head of the homicide squad and remained in this position until his appointment as head of the city's political police on 26 February 1933. He was promoted to criminal inspector on 1 September 1933.
At the beginning of 1933, Schäfer joined theNazi Party's paramilitary unit, theSturmabteilung (SA), and was appointed an SA-Truppführer on 20 April 1933. He was subsequently promoted to head of theGestapo in Opeln (today,Opole) in May 1934, was commissioned an SA-Sturmführer in 1935, and became aRegierungs- und Kriminalrat (government and criminal law councilor) on 1 October 1936.
In 1933, Schäfer became a member of theSicherheitsdienst (SD), the SS security and intelligence service headed byReinhard Heydrich, and he entered theSchutzstaffel (SS number 280,018) as an SS-Untersturmführer in September 1936. He was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer on 20 April 1937, to SS-Hauptsturmführer on 1 August 1938, to SS-Sturmbannführer on 9 November 1938, and to SS-Obersturmbannführer on 10 September 1939. Schäfer did not formally become a member of theNazi Party until August 1937 (membership number 4,659,879), on an application that was pending since May 1933 due to the national recruitment freeze imposed on new memberships.
As head of the Oppeln Gestapo, Schäfer was involved in thefalse flag attack on theGleiwitz transmitter, which served as a pretext for the German attack onPoland that precipitated theSecond World War in Europe. Schäfer was designated as the commander ofEinsatzgruppe II, one of five such groups initially set up by Heydrich to combat all elements perceived as hostile in the army rear areas and to destroy the Polish intelligentsia. Composed of 4Einsatzkommando sub-units of 100 to 150 men, Schäfer's task force followed in the wake of the 10th Army commanded by GeneralWalter von Reichenau. Armed with previously prepared lists, the units rounded up Polish officials, teachers, doctors, priests, landowners, businessmen and Jews. They were gathered into camps where executions without trial were carried out.[1]
Following the conclusion of the Polish campaign, Schäfer was appointed head of the newly established Gestapo office in Katowitz (today,Katowice) in November 1939. Shortly after his promotion toOberregierungs- und Kriminalrat (senior government and criminal law councilor) on 1 September 1940, he was transferred to the leadership of the Gestapo office inCologne in October 1940.[2] During his tenure in that city, he dispatched 3 transports of Jews to concentration camps in the east between October and December 1941.[3]
On 6 January 1942, Schäfer succeededWilhelm Fuchs as theBefehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD or BdS (Commander of the Security Police and the SD) inSerbia and promoted to SS-Standartenführer at the end of the same month. Between March and May 1942, Schäfer utilized aSaurergas van to murder around 7,300 Jews, predominantly women and children, from theSemlin camp across theSava river fromBelgrade. The van made one or two trips daily except for Sundays and holidays. The van was used for the last time on 10 May 1942 when the camp's Jewishprisoner functionaries were murdered. A further 1,200 Jews died as a result of the camp's harsh conditions, or from executions. It has been estimated that only 1,115 members of the Belgrade Jewish community, amounting to approximately 16% of its prewar count of 11,870, survived the war.[4] In May 1942, Schäfer sent a cable to his superiors in theReich Security Main Office boasting "with pride" that "Belgrade was the only great city in Europe that was free of Jews".[5][6][7]
On 21 June 1943, Schäfer attained his final promotion to SS-Oberführer andOberst of police.[8] TheRed Army andYugoslav partisans launched theBelgrade offensive and drove the Germans out of city by late October 1944. After leaving Serbia, Schäfer served briefly as the commander ofEinsatzgruppe K with the5th Panzer Army during theBattle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. He then was appointed as the BdS in theOperational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, with headquarters inTrieste, from early 1945 until thesurrender of German forces in Italy on 29 May. Schäfer then lived for a time under theassumed name of Ernst Schleiffer.[2]
The American occupation forces discovered and detained Schäfer. In February 1951, he was arrested byWest German authorities for hisGestapo and SD membership. On 20 June 1951, Schäfer was sentenced to 21 months in prison by adenazification court. He was released from prison in February 1953. Schäfer was then again arrested for his involvement in murder while heading the SiPo and SD in Serbia. On 20 June 1953, Schäfer was sentenced by the CologneState Court to six-and-one-half years in prison for one count of aiding and abetting murder and two counts of aiding and abetting manslaughter while in Serbia. In July 1954, he was sentenced along with two others for his involvement in the deportations of Jews from Cologne, for which he was given a sentence of 6 years and 9 months, which took into accounttime served.[9] He was released from prison early in 1956 and subsequently worked in commercial advertising atDüsseldorf.[2] Schäfer died at Cologne in December 1974.
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