Helmut Bischoff | |
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| Born | 1 March 1908 |
| Died | 1 January 1993(1993-01-01) (aged 84) |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch |  Allgemeine-SS |
| Rank |  SS-Obersturmbannführer |
| Unit |
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| Battles / wars |
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Helmut Hermann Wilhelm Bischoff (1 March 1908 – 1 January 1993) was aGermanSS-Obersturmbannführer,Gestapo officer andNazi government official. DuringWorld War II, he was the leader ofEinsatzkommando 1/IV inPoland and later headed theGestapo offices inPoznań (Posen) andMagdeburg.
From 1943 to 1945 Bischoff served as a senior deputy toSS-ObergruppenführerHans Kammler and was the chief of security for Germany'sV-weapons program. He later commanded theSicherheitsdienst (SD) at theMittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Following the war, Bischoff would spend nearly a decade inSoviet captivity. He was repatriated toWest Germany in 1955. Between 1967 and 1970 Bischoff was a defendant in theEssen-Dora war crimes trial.
Bischoff was born on 1 March 1908 in thetown ofGlogau in theProvince of Silesia, then a part of theGerman Empire (now:Głogów, Poland). He was the son of a prosperousmetzgermeister (master butcher) and attended theGlogauGymnasium. From 1923–1925 Bischoff was a member ofJungwiking, theyouth-wing of theViking League, anultra-nationalist andantisemiticparamilitary group associated with thefar-rightOrganisation Consul movement. After graduating from gymnasium, Bischoff went on tostudy law atLeipzig University (where he was a member of theLeipziger Burschenschaft Dresdendia) and theUniversity of Geneva.
It was during his time as a law student that Bischoff first became active in theNazi movement. He joined theNazi Party in March 1930 (Member # 203 122) and theSturmabteilung (SA) in 1933. After receiving hisdoctorate of jurisprudence (Dr. jur.), Bischoff returned to his nativeLower Silesia and worked as anassessor at thedistrict court offices inSchweidnitz andStrehlen.[1] By 1934, Bischoff had also begun serving as aconfidential informant (Vertrauensmann) for theSicherheitsdienst (SD), the Nazi Party's internalintelligence service.
After completing hislegal clerkship, Bischoff joined theSchutzstaffel (SS) in November 1935 (SS # 272 403). He entered theGestapo shortly afterward and served as chief of the organization's district bureau inLiegnitz until October 1936. Bischoff went on to lead the Gestapo departments inHarburg-Wilhelmsburg (1936-1937) andKöslin (1937-1939).[2] By the outbreak ofWorld War II he had risen to the rank ofSturmbannführer (Major) in theAllgemeine-SS.
During theinvasion of Poland in September 1939, Bischoff served as the commander ofEinsatzkommando 1/IV (a sub-unit ofLothar Beutel'sEinsatzgruppe IV) which was deployed in the northern Polish territories ofPomerania,Warsaw,Białystok andPolesie. Bischoff's unit was involved in the bloodypacification of Bydgoszcz (Bromberg) along with themass-killing of ethnic Poles carried out as part ofOperation Tannenberg, the Naziethnic cleansing campaign targeting Poland'sintelligentsia and other members of the nation's elite.
On 27 September 1939 Bischoff and hisEinsatzkommando staged a raid on the town ofPułtusk. The action ended with the mass-expulsion of the town's largeJewish population from their homes, followed by theirdeportation across theNarew River into theSoviet-occupied east.[3] In October 1939Einsatzgruppe IV was placed under the command ofSS-StandartenführerJosef Albert Meisinger and stationed inWarsaw, where it took part in the initial round-up of the city's Jewish residents, setting in motion their eventualghettoization.
Following the dissolution ofEinsatzgruppe IV in November 1939, Bischoff was transferred to thenewly annexed Polish territory ofReichsgau Wartheland and served as chief of theGestapo for the city ofPoznań (Posen). In this capacity Bischoff was also the actingcommandant of theFort VII concentration camp, which was initially called "KZ Posen" and in 1939 became "Übergangslager (transit camp) Fort VII". While primarily a detention center, Fort VII also served as a regular execution site for many local Poles, Jews and thephysically or mentally disabled. Prisoners usually remained in the camp for about six months, before being sentenced to death, a long prison term or transfer to a larger concentration camp.[4]
Bischoff was promoted to the rank ofSS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) in September 1941 and returned toGermany, where he had been appointed chief of the State Police Headquarters (Staatspolizeileitstelle) inMagdeburg. Bischoff played a central role in orchestrating thedeportation of the Jews from Magdeburg and the nearby towns ofStendal,Dessau,Bernburg andAschersleben. Hundreds of German Jews were deported by theSS and security services between November 1942 and March 1943. The initial wave of deportees were routed mainly to theghettoes ofTheresienstadt andWarsaw, while later rail transports were dispatched directly toAuschwitz-Birkenau.[5]
In December 1943 Bischoff was reassigned to theSS-Main Economic and Administrative Office (SS-WVHA) and attached to thegeneral staff ofSS-ObergruppenführerHans Kammler, ostensibly as a representative of theOrganisation Todt. Kammler was the director ofAmtsgruppe C (Buildings and Works), the organization tasked with managing the extensivecivil andmilitary engineering projects of the SS-WVHA. This included the construction of factories, storehouses and other manufacturing facilities for Germany's varioussecret weapons programs.
Most of Germany'sV-1 flying bombs andV-2 ballistic missiles were produced atMittelwerk, a major armaments factory housed in an elaborate tunnel system in theHarz Mountains that had been built, and was partially administered, byAmtsgruppe C. The complex and dangerous work performed to assemble the V-weapons themselves was done under brutal conditions in the tunnels by thousands ofslave-laborers (mainlyRussians,Poles andFrench, among other nationalities) drawn from the inmate population of the adjunctMittelbau-Dora concentration camp.
Bischoff was appointed by Kammler to serve as "Defense Officer" (Abwehrbeauftragter) forGermany'sV-weapons program. As chief of security, Bischoff managedcounter-intelligence operations by the German security services meant to conceal the Nazi missile production program's existence fromAllied intelligence. Bischoff was also responsible for preventing organized attempts by Mittelwerk'sprisoner-laborers to sabotage theV-weapons during the assembly process.[6]
In February 1944 theSS police and security services in theNordhausen district (which surroundedMittelwerk and the adjunct camp ofMittelbau-Dora) were placed under the authority of Bischoff's organization, now headquartered inIlfeld. Counter-sabotage operations began soon after, mainly targeting the numerousresistance organizations operating among the prisoners working in the tunnels atMittelwerk and those imprisoned in the camp at Dora.[7]
At Bischoff's direction, Mittelbau-Dora'sPolitische Abteilung (Political Department) had the leaders of the camp'sRussian,French andCommunist inmates rounded up in November 1944 and interned insolitary confinement. Many of those taken into custody were interrogated undertorture with some later being executed.[8] In February 1945 theSS administration of Mittelbau-Dora was reorganized under formerAuschwitzcommandantRichard Baer. Under this new arrangement, Bischoff took over as chief of the camp'sSicherheitsdienst (SD) bureau.
As chief of the camp's SD, Bischoff supervised a wave ofexecutions at Mittelbau-Dora in March 1945 that saw hundreds of prisoners, mostlySoviet POWs, killed in a series ofmass-hangings. He also ordered the surviving leadership of the camp'sresistance organizations to be shot byfiring squad prior to the liberation of Mittelbau-Dora by theUS Army in April 1945.[9] In all, roughly 20,000 people died at eitherMittelwerk orMittelbau-Dora between 1943 and 1945.
Following theGerman defeat, Bischoff went into hiding inBavaria andHamburg before returning toMagdeburg, where he was identified and arrested by theSoviet security services in January 1946. Bischoff was interned atNKVD Special Camp No. 1 nearMühlberg until September 1948 when he was transferred toNKVD Special Camp No. 2 (formerly theBuchenwald concentration camp) outside ofWeimar.
In January 1950 Bischoff was deported to theSoviet Union. He was sentenced to twenty five yearshard labor by amilitary tribunal inMoscow and sent to aGerman POW camp located inSiberia. Bischoff would remain imprisoned in the USSR for the next five years. In October 1955 Bischoff would be among the last German prisoners of war and war criminals to be released from captivity by theSoviet Union. After resettling inWest Germany, Bischoff was employed by theGerman Red Cross-Tracing Service from 1957 to 1965.[10]
On 17 November 1967 Bischoff and two other formerSS officers who had served with him atMittelbau-Dora, wereindicted forwar crimes by the district court inEssen. The charges against Bischoff stemmed from his involvement in the series ofmass executions that occurred at Mittelbau-Dora between February–April 1945. He was also charged with the use oftorture on prisoners underinterrogation. Bischoff entered a plea ofnot guilty.[11]
The trial (known as theEssen-Dora Process) began in November 1967 and would continue for two and a half years. The proceedings included the testimony of over 300 witnesses, among them formerNazi Armaments MinisterAlbert Speer and the famed inventor of theV-2 rocket,Wernher von Braun, now a premierrocket scientist in theUnited States. The eminentEast German jurist Friedrich Karl Kaul served as counsel for the plaintiffs.
On 5 May 1970 the case against Bischoff waspostponed by the court due toreasons of his poor health.[12] He was thus able to avoid being formally convicted of war crimes. The case against Bischoff was dropped on the grounds that:
If the main hearings were to be continued, there were serious grounds for assuming that the defendant ... would be accused of being guilty of murder in a manner which, according to experts, would lead to an excessive rise of blood pressure.[13]
Other attempts to prosecute Bischoff for his wartime activities also met with little success. An investigation by the district court ofWest Berlin into his involvement with theEinsatzgruppen killings in Bydgoszcz was discontinued in 1971, citing alack of evidence. A further effort to prosecute Bischoff, this time for atrocities committed during his tenure as the Gestapo chief of Poznań, was likewise abandoned in 1976, once again owing to Bischoff's precarious health. Bischoff continued to reside inWest Germany for the remainder of his life. He died inHamburg on 1 January 1993.
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