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Franz Kutschera | |
|---|---|
 Kutschera in about 1938 | |
| SS and Police Leader ofWarsaw | |
| In office 25 September 1943 – 1 February 1944 | |
| Preceded by | Jürgen Stroop |
| Succeeded by | Paul Otto Geibel |
| SS and Police Leader ofMogilev | |
| In office 5 May 1943 – 20 September 1943 | |
| Preceded by | Georg-Henning Graf von Bassewitz-Behr |
| Succeeded by | Hans Haltermann |
| Gauleiter ofReichsgau Carinthia | |
| In office 12 February 1939 – 27 November 1941 | |
| Preceded by | Hubert Klausner |
| Succeeded by | Friedrich Rainer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1904-02-22)22 February 1904 |
| Died | 1 February 1944(1944-02-01) (aged 39) |
| Political party | NSDAP |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Years of service | 1931-1944 |
| Rank | SS-Brigadefuhrer |
| Unit | Schutzstaffel |
Franz Kutschera (22 February 1904 – 1 February 1944) was anAustrian Nazipolitician andgovernment official. He held numerous political and administrative offices with theNazi Party and theSchutzstaffel (SS) both before and after theAnschluss ofAustria in 1938. DuringWorld War II, he served with the SS inFrance,Yugoslavia, theSoviet Union, and finallyPoland.
In 1943, Kutschera was appointed theSS and Police Leader in German-occupiedWarsaw. Due to his crimes against Poles, including Polish Jews, the PolishHome Army, in agreement with thePolish government in exile, targeted him for assassination. On 1 February 1944, he was gunned down in front of the SS headquarters in Warsaw in a special operation byKedyw, a dedicated resistance special operations unit. In reprisal, the Germans executed 300 Polish civilians.
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Kutschera was born inOberwaltersdorf,Lower Austria (then part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire) on 22 February 1904 and was the son of a professionalgardener and minorcivil servant. After primary school he served as acabin boy in theAustro-Hungarian Navy from 1918–19 and later attended agymnasium inVillach. After graduation he briefly enrolled at amachinists school inBudapest before training to become a gardener like his father. For several years Kutschera would reside inOpava andKarlovy Vary in theSudetenland region ofCzechoslovakia.
Kutschera joined theAustrian Nazi Party in December 1930 and theSchutzstaffel (SS) in November 1931. The Nazi Party in Austria was banned in July 1933 by theAustrofascist government ofEngelbert Dollfuss. Despite the government ban, Kutschera remained a committed Party activist and was arrested several times by Austrian authorities for illegal pro-Nazi political activities. From 1933 he served as anSS-Truppführer inCarinthia, and he joined theSicherheitsdienst (SD) in 1934. In July 1935 he was appointed Deputy Commander of the 90thSS-Standarte inKlagenfurt, serving in this capacity until March 1938.
After the AustrianAnschluss toNazi Germany in March 1938, Kutschera joined thecivil administration of the newly-establishedReichsgau Carinthia as an aide toGauleiterHubert Klausner. Following the10 April 1938 election and referendum, Kutschera became a member of theGroßdeutscher Reichstag, maintaining this position until his death. On 24 May he was formally appointed DeputyGauleiter, essentially running the Gau during Klausner's frequent absences in Vienna in his capacity as deputy toReichskommissarJosef Bürckel.[1]
In February 1939, he was also appointed to thePeople's Court as alay judge and upon Klausner's sudden death on 12 February, Kutschera was elevated to the post of ActingGauleiter for Carinthia.
Shortly after the outbreak ofWorld War II, Kutschera was named the representative in Carinthia ofFriedrich Rainer, theReich Defense Commissioner forWehrkreis (Military District) XVIII, who was headquartered in Salzburg.[2] Kutschera volunteered for military service with theWehrmacht in March 1940 and was assigned to the 139thGebirgsjäger (light infantry) regiment of the3rd Mountain Division. He was later transferred to the6th Mountain Division and took part in theBattle of France, serving in theVosges during May and June 1940.[3]
He was promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer in November 1940. During the GermanBalkan Campaign, on 14 April 1941 Kutschera was namedChief of Civil Administration forSlovenian Carinthia andUpper Carniola, which were administered as part of his Gau, and where he became infamous in the war against theYugoslav Partisans for his fanaticism and extreme harshness. On 27 November 1941, Kutschera was dismissed asGauleiter for reportedly plotting to absorb the neighboringReichsgau Salzburg into his jurisdiction. He was succeeded by his rival, Friedrich Rainer, the Gauleiter in Salzburg.[2]
In January 1942, Kutschera was seconded to the staff ofObergruppenführerErich von dem Bach-Zelewski, theHigher SS and police leader (HSSPF) for Central Russia (Belarus), where he served as a representative of theReich Commissariat for the Strengthening of German Nationhood (RKFDV). Soon after his arrival on theEastern Front, Kutschera personally directed numerousanti-partisan andmass-killing operations in the occupied territories of theSoviet Union. In November 1942 he was given the rank ofGeneralmajor derPolizei and on 5 May 1943 he was appointedSS and Police Leader (SSPF) for theMogilev district.
On 25 September 1943, Kutschera took office as SS and Police Leader for theWarsaw district of theGeneral Government in occupied Poland. Once in power in Warsaw, he increased the number ofroundups (łapanka) of Polish citizens and the number ofhostage executions. Every day lists were hung in public announcing the names of the next Poles to be executed in the event of any attack on a German soldier or police officer. These notices were always signed anonymously by the "Commander of the SS and Police at Warsaw District".
Kutschera's exact whereabouts while in Warsaw was a closely guarded secret within theReich Security Main Office but were discovered in December 1943 by Aleksander Kunicki (Rayski), chief of intelligence for the Agat (Anti-Gestapo) unit ofKedyw. In the course of his routine surveillance of theGestapo offices on Aleje Szucha, Rayski noticed anOpel Admiral limousine entering the driveway of the nearby Warsaw SS headquarters. The SS officer who emerged from the car wore the clearly identifiable rank and insignia of aBrigadeführer. Intrigued, Rayski began to secretly monitor the mysterious SS man's arrivals and departures from SS headquarters and filed a report with his superiors. An investigation by Kedyw in January 1944 confirmed that the man being observed by Rayski was Franz Kutschera.
Following his discovery by Rayski, Kutschera was triedin absentia by a secretSpecial Court of thePolish Underground State. He was charged withcrimes against the Polish nation, in particular, the routine mass murder of Polish civilians in Warsaw. Kutschera was convicted and sentenced to death. InLondon the leadership of thePolish government-in-exile concurred with the decision of the Special Court and approved Kutschera's death sentence. The execution order was soon drafted and relayed to the commander ofKedyw, Brigadier GeneralEmil August Fieldorf (Nil), whose organization had been given the tasks of planning and performing the assassination.
The execution was carried out by thecombat-sabotage unit ofKedyw (the predecessor ofBattalion Parasol). The assassination team consisted of 12 individual operatives, mostly members of thescouting andguidingGray Ranks.[4] It was planned to carry out the execution in front of the Warsaw SS Headquarters at 23Ujazdów Avenue. On the morning of 1 February 1944 three Kedyw gunmen:Bronisław Pietraszewicz [pl] (Lot), who was armed with a GermanMP 40submachine gun;Zdzisław Poradzki [pl] (Kruszynka), carrying a BritishSten; andMichał Issajewicz [pl] (Miś), armed with aLuger pistol, ambushed Kutschera as his limousine approached SS Headquarters and opened fire directly into the car. Both Kutschera and his driver were shot multiple times and killed. A gun battle then erupted between the members of the assassination team and the responding German troops in which four Poles and two Germans were killed.
Kutschera's funeral ceremony was held by the Nazis atBrühl palace. Afterwards, his body was laid to rest onHeldenfriedhof part ofPowązki Military Cemetery - not moved to Berlin or any part of Germany, as it was thought for decades.[5] On 2 February 1944, the German authorities in Warsaw staged a public execution of 300 Polish civilian hostages as a reprisal for the assassination. The Germans also imposed a crushing 100 millionzłotytribute on the Polish residents ofWarsaw andWarsaw County. Kutschera was succeeded as SS and Police leader by SS-OberführerPaul Otto Geibel in March 1944.
In 1990, during the construction ofAleja Prymasa Tysiąclecia in Warsaw, Kutschera's body was moved (together with over 2000 bodies of German soldiers) to the German military cemetery inJoachimów-Mogiły.[5]
On 4 February 1944, inDeutsches Haus in Warsaw, Kutschera's pregnant Norwegian girlfriend, Jane Lilian Gjertsdatter Steen, daughter of Gjert Henrik Gjertsen Steen and Magna (or Magda) Anette Hansdatter (néeGjengstø) Steenposthumously married Kutschera in accordance with pagan rituals.[6][7]
Jane Kutschera (later Rognskog) died in Norway in 1994. Her son, Sepp Kutschera, became an Alpinist, who was the first to climb Koh-e Keshni Khan in the Hindukush mountains, in 1963. He died in 2014.[8]
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