Hans-Adolf Prützmann | |
|---|---|
 Prützmann in 1934 | |
| Born | 31 August 1901 |
| Died | 16 May 1945(1945-05-16) (aged 43) |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Schutzstaffel Waffen-SS |
| Years of service | 1930–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei |
| Commands | Higher SS and Police Leader, "Baltic States and Northern Russia"; "Southern Russia" Supreme SS and Police Leader, "Ukraine" |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | German Cross in Gold Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords |
Hans-Adolf Prützmann (31 August 1901 – 16 May 1945) was among the highest-rankingGermanSS officials during theNazi era. From June 1941 to September 1944, he served as aHigher SS and Police Leader in the occupiedSoviet Union, and from November 1943 was the Supreme SS and Police Leader inUkraine. He oversaw the activities of theEinsatzgruppen detachments that perpetratedthe Holocaust in theBaltic States and Ukraine. After being captured at the end of theSecond World War, he committed suicide.
Prützmann was born in theEast Prussian town ofTolkemit, the son of a businessman. After completing his secondary education at thegymnasium, Prützmann became a member of theFreikorps "Aulock" between 1918 and 1921, seeing active service in theUpper Silesian uprisings in the summer of 1921. Afterwards, he studiedagriculture at theUniversity of Göttingen from 1921 to 1923 and then worked for seven years as an agricultural official in the Prussian provinces ofPomerania,Brandenburg, and East Prussia.[1]
Prützmann joined theNazi Party on 1 August 1929 (membership number 142,290) and was a holder of theGolden Party Badge. He entered theSturmabteilung (SA) shortly afterward, but he left the SA and transferred to theSchutzstaffel inBochum on 12 August 1930 (SS number 3,002).[2]
By August 1931 he was promoted to SS-Standartenführer and became the first commander(Führer) of the 19th SS-Standarte "Westfalen-Nord," based inGelsenkirchen. At this point in time, Prützmann's career began a steep rise. In April 1932, he was elected to theLandtag of Prussia.[3] In July of that year he was elected to theReichstag for electoral constituency 17,Westphalia North. He would continue to serve in theReichstag until the end of the Nazi regime, and he would successively be elected forEast Prussia (March 1933),Württemberg (March 1936) andHamburg (April 1938), as his SS postings changed.[4]
In September 1932, Prützmann transferred from Westphalia to take command of the18th SS-Standarte "Ostpreussen", based inKönigsberg (nowKaliningrad). This was followed by a stint as commander of SS-Abschnitt (District) X based inStuttgart from July to November 1933. He was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer in November 1933, and appointed the first commander of the newly-formed SS-Oberabschnitt (Main District) "Südwest," also based in Stuttgart. In February 1934, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer.[5]
From 1 March 1937 through 30 April 1941, Prützmann led SS-Oberabschnitt "Nordwest" (renamed "Nordsee" 20 April 1940) whose headquarters were inHamburg. In June 1937, he joined the State government as aStaatsrat (State Councillor) and member of the Hamburg Senate. At the end of March 1938, he was named chief of police administration for Hamburg, Germany's second largest city. When the post ofHöherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF), (Higher SS and Police Leader) "Nordwest" (renamed "Nordsee" 20 April 1940) was created on 28 June 1938, Prützmann became the first holder of this position. As HSSPF, he reported directly toReichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler. From Hamburg, Prützmann was transferred on 30 April 1941 to become the HSSPF "Nordost" and commander of theOberabschnitt "Nordost," in Königsberg.[6]
By April 1941, Prützmann had been appointedGeneralleutnant (Lieutenant General) of Police. Immediately afterthe German invasion of the Soviet Union, he took up the position of HSSPF "Ostland und Rußland-Nord" (Baltics and Northern Russia) inRiga on 29 June 1941. In this position, he was responsible for internal security and combatingpartisans in theArmy Group North Rear Area encompassing theBaltic States andwestern Belorussia. He commanded all SS,SD (Security Service) andOrder Police in the region, includingPolice Regiment North. He retained this position until November 1941 and then was transferred to become HSSPF "Rußland-Süd" (Southern Russia), headquartered inKiev. At that time he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer andGeneral of Police.[7]
In early 1942, Prützmann was put in charge of securingforced labor for theDurchgangsstrasse IV, a large project to build a road from Lemberg (nowLviv) to Stalino (nowDonetsk). Workers came from Sovietprisoners of war and Jewishconcentration camp inmates. Thousands perished from the harsh conditions and from liquidation of the labor camps when the project was completed.[8]
In August 1942, Himmler made Prützmann responsible for all anti-partisan activities in Ukraine. During the first half of 1943, Prützmann conducted numerous anti-partisan operations, each one resulting in the deaths or capture of many thousands.[9]
The next major advancement in Prützmann's career came on 29 October 1943 when he was named to the new post ofHöchster SS- und Polizeiführer (HöSSPF), (Supreme SS and Police Leader) "Ukraine," one of only two officers to attain this designation, the other being SS-ObergruppenführerKarl Wolff in Italy. In this post, Prützmann oversaw his own HSSPF "Rußland-Süd" as well as HSSPF "Schwarzes Meer" (Black Sea). His vast jurisdiction encompassed some sixteen subordinateSS- und Polizeiführer (SSPF) commands, and controlled the largest contingent ofOrder Police battalions andSchutzmannschaft (Auxiliary Police) battalions in any of theoccupied territories.[10]
From June to November 1941, Prützmann held the post of HSSPF in the Baltic States underHinrich Lohse, who was in charge of theReichskommissariat Ostland. The killing ofJews and other persons began almost immediately, and at first they were primarily conducted by a specialized mobile killing group (Einsatzgruppe A). In late July 1941,Einsatzgruppe A moved out of the Baltics as it followed the GermanArmy Group North further east into the Soviet Union, and primary responsibility for organizing the murder of Jews then moved to the Riga office of the SD. As HSSPF, Prützmann was in charge of the SD, and the person responsible for locally implementing theFinal Solution.[12]
After the departure ofEinsatzgruppe A, a dispute arose among the Nazi rulers about their so-called "Jewish problem." One group, consisting mainly of civilian Nazi Party administrators headed by Lohse, and backed byAlfred Rosenberg, theReichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, wanted to confine the Jews toghettos,confiscate all their property and work them as slave laborers in support of Germany's war effort.Reichsführer-SS Himmler, the overall head of the SS and SD, and Prützmann's direct superior, wanted the Jews exterminated as quickly as possible. Up until November, 1941, the Lohse/Rosenberg faction had prevailed. Although about 30,000 of Latvia's approximately 70,000 Jews and 80,000 of Lithuania's 210,000 had been killed by then, Himmler was unhappy with the pace.[13] He replaced Prützmann in mid-November 1941 withFriedrich Jeckeln, who inUkraine had developed his own "Jeckeln system" of killing 10,000 or more people in a single day. Prützmann was assigned to Ukraine in Jeckeln's place.[12] By the time Jeckeln took over as HSSPF, massive numbers of Jews had already been killed under Prützmann's administration, including those in the earlyLiepāja massacres. Also, Prützmann was responsible for rounding up additional masses of Jews and confining them together into ghettos, which allowed them to be more readily killed later by Jeckeln and others.[12]
When Prützmann arrived in Ukraine in November 1941,mass murders of Jews and other Ukrainians had already been underway since shortly after the German invasion in June. In fact, some of the most notorious mass executions such as those atBabi Yar (29-30 September) andNikolaev (16-30 September) had already taken place under the direction of Prützmann's predecessor, Jeckeln. There were twoEinsatzgruppen (designated C and D) operating in Ukraine and they continued their gruesome work throughout Prützmann's tenure. Shortly after his arrival, the massacre atDrobytsky Yar on 15 December took place in which over 16,000 were murdered. InDnepropetrovsk in February 1942, Einsatzgruppe D reduced the city's Jewish population from 30,000 to 702 over the course of four days.[14] In theLutsk Ghetto on 19–23 August 1942 another 14,700 victims were murdered. AtVolodymyr-Volynskyi on 1–3 September an estimated 13,500 were shot.
Ongoing executions continued to take place throughout the remainder of the Nazi occupation under Prützmann's administration. Though most mass killings were committed by theEinsatzgruppen, as HSSPF, Prützmann commanded the SS, SD, Order Police and Auxiliary Police battalions that also took part in the suppression, persecution and murder of Jews and other Ukrainians, as the following illustrates:
Throughout 1942, Prützmann was heavily implicated in the actions against the Jews and the partisans of the Ukraine ... and Prützmann showed himself to be a willing participant by his ruthless methods ... On 27 October 1942, Himmler directed Prützmann to clear the ghetto atPinsk, with the intention of making the UkraineJudenfrei, and by 26 December 1942, Prützmann was able to report to Himmler that 363,211 Jews had been liquidated.[9]
In January 1944, Prützmann was placed in command of his ownKampfgruppe (Battle Group) "Prützmann" under the command ofArmy Group South and was awarded with theGerman Cross in Gold for his actions. AsRed Army advances on theeastern front pushed the German forces out of Ukraine, he moved back to Königsburg where he was still the titular HSSPF, though others had acted on his behalf during his long assignment in the Soviet Union. In June 1944, he was made Himmler'sliaison officer toOKW (Armed Forces High Command) and, on 1 July 1944, he was made a General of theWaffen-SS.[15]
One of his last major assignments came in September 1944 when Prützmann was appointed by Himmler asGeneralinspekteur für Spezialabwehr (Inspector General for Special Defense) and assigned the task of setting up OperationWerwolf headquarters inBerlin, and organizing and instructing this force for operations behind the enemy lines. Prützmann had studied the guerrilla tactics used by Russian partisans while stationed in Ukraine and the idea was to teach these tactics to the members of OperationWerwolf.[16] As originally conceived, theWerwolf units were intended to be legitimate uniformed military formations trained to engage in clandestine operations behind enemy lines in the same manner as Allied Special Forces such ascommandos.[17][18]
On 21 November 1944, Prützmann was named the GeneralPlenipotentiary to the Nazipuppet state established inCroatia. In early 1945, under orders from Himmler, Prützmann directed the assassination byWerwolf operatives of the Allied-appointed mayor ofAachen,Franz Oppenhoff. AfterAdolf Hitler's suicide, Prützmann briefly acted as Himmler's representative to theFlensburg government ofGroßadmiralKarl Donitz, until Dönitz made it clear that he had no interest in Himmler's involvement in the administration. Shortly after the war ended, Prützmann was captured inLüneburg by elements of theBritish 2nd Army on 15 May 1945. The next day, while being transported to the interrogation center inDiest, he committed suicide by swallowing acyanide capsule he had hidden in a cigarette lighter. Some sources incorrectly give 21 May as his date of death, but 16 May is documented by the contemporaneous diary entry of British Major Norman Whittaker who was present at Lüneburg.[19]
In the 1972 Frederick Forsyth novelThe Odessa File the head ofODESSA is given as SS GeneralRichard Glücks who is determined to destroy the State of Israel nearly two decades after the end of World War II, while the head ofODESSA in Germany is a former SS Officer called the "Werwolf" who is implied to be Prützmann. (If the real Glücks had still been alive he would have been 74 years old and Prützmann would have been 62 in 1963).
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