Herbert Böttcher | |
|---|---|
 Böttcher in captivity in Poland (c.1947–1950) in a photograph taken by the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland | |
| Born | 24 April 1907 (1907-04-24) Prökuls,East PrussiaKingdom of Prussia,German Empire |
| Died | 12 June 1950 (1950-06-13) (aged 43) Radom,People's Republic of Poland |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Schutzstaffel (SS) |
| Years of service | 1939–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Brigadeführer andGeneralmajor of Police |
| Commands | SS and Police Leader, "Radom" Police Director,Memel Police President,Kassel |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class, with Swords |
Herbert Kurt Böttcher (24 April 1907 – 12 June 1950) was aGermanlawyer, and chief of police of Memel (today,Klaipėda) andKassel. He was also an SS-Brigadeführer andGeneralmajor of police who served as the lastSS and Police Leader inRadom during theSecond World War. After the war, he was tried andexecuted forHolocaust-related crimes.
Böttcher was born in Prökuls,East Prussia (today,Priekulė,Lithuania) the son of a local politician, and attended the Memelgymnasium. After passing hisAbitur, he studiedlaw at theUniversity of Königsberg, theUniversity of Munich and theUniversity of Vienna. In 1925 he became active in theCorps Littuania, aGerman Student Corps inKönigsberg. He was awarded aDoctor of Laws degree in May 1931 at theUniversity of Leipzig. After passing the state law examination in 1933, he settled into practice as alawyer andnotary in Memel.[1]
In theinterwar years,Memelland had been ceded by Germany in theVersailles Treaty and was governed by Lithuania. Böttcher was active in the Socialist People's Community of the Memel Region (Sozialistische Volksgemeinschaft des Memelgebiets, SOVOG) and became involved in political agitation on behalf of reunification of the region with Germany. Along with dozens of other agitators around this time, he was brought totrial, convicted of actions against the state and sentenced to eight years in prison in 1934. After being released from prison in 1937, Böttcher was elected to theParliament of the Klaipėda Region in September 1935 as a representative of the Unified German List. In January 1939, Böttcher became one of the six members of theDirectorate of the Klaipėda Region, the region's executive. (His father Otto, had served as the Directorate President in 1931–1932.) Böttcher remained in office until theGerman ultimatum to Lithuania resulted in thecession of Memelland to Germany on 23 March 1939.[2]
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In the spring of 1939, Böttcher became a member of theNazi Party (membership number 7,093,097) and also joined theSS (SS number 323,036) on 23 March with the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer. From 1 August 1939 to 15 March 1941 he headed the 105th SS-Standarte "Nordost," headquartered in Memel. In addition, he was named Acting Police Director for the Memel region on 27 March 1940. On 1 October 1940, he transferred to become the Police President inKassel. On 12 May 1942 he succeeded SS-BrigadeführerCarl Oberg as the lastSS and Police Leader (SSPF) of theRadom District in theGeneral Government.[3] There he oversaw thedeportation of more than 300,000 Jews from theRadom Ghetto to theTreblinka extermination camp between August 1942 and June 1944.[4] In an effort to prevent Poles from assisting those Jews who tried to escape from the ghetto, Böttcher issued the following instructions:
In the Radom District ... police superintendent Herbert Böttcher’s order to German police stations ... provided that if weapons or Jews were found in a Polish house all persons living there (including children) were to be killed and the house was to be burnt down. Such actions were to serve as a warning to other Poles who might want to help those fleeing the ghettos.[5]
Böttcher also was implicated in the relatedMichniów massacre of 12–13 July 1943, in which 204 inhabitants were murdered and their village burned to the ground in retaliation for their alleged assistance to thePolish resistance. On 9 November 1944, Böttcher was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer andGeneralmajor of police. TheRed Army liberated Radom on 16 January 1945, and Böttcher's command was effectively eliminated.[2]
| Böttcher's SS and police ranks | |
|---|---|
| Date | Rank |
| 23 March 1939 | SS-Sturmbannführer |
| 1 August 1940 | SS-Obersturmbannführer |
| 9 October 1941 | SS-Standartenführer |
| 20 April 1943 | SS-Oberführer |
| 9 November 1943 | Oberst der polizei |
| 9 November 1944 | SS-Brigadeführer undGeneralmajor der polizei |
After theend of the war in Europe, Böttcher was arrested by theRoyal Military Police and sent to internment camps inNeumünster-Gadeland andNeuengamme located in theBritish occupation zone. He wasextradited to thePeople's Republic of Poland by the British in 1947. He was put on trial in Radom, sentenced to death on 18 June 1949, and a year later executed byhanging.[2]