Otto Abetz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 26 March 1903 (1903-03-26) |
| Died | 5 May 1958(1958-05-05) (aged 55) |
| Occupations | German Ambassador to France (1940–1944) |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Conviction | Crimes against humanity |
| Criminal penalty | 20 years imprisonment |
| SS service | |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Branch | Schutzstaffel |
| Rank | SS-Brigadeführer |
Otto Friedrich Abetz[1] (26 March 1903 – 5 May 1958) was a German diplomat, a Nazi official and a convicted war criminal duringWorld War II.
Abetz joined the Nazi Party and theSA in the early 1930s later becoming a member of theSS. In 1940, after the German occupation of France, he was appointed German ambassador to France and played a significant role in strengthening ties between Nazi Germany and the collaborationist Vichy government.
Abetz played a significant role in facilitating the persecution and deportation of Jews by the Nazi regime from France during the Holocaust. After Germany's defeat in 1945, Abetz was captured and later stood trial at theNuremberg Trials. He was found guilty ofwar crimes andcrimes against humanity, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in 1954 for health reasons and died in a car crash in 1958.
Abetz was born inSchwetzingen on 26 March 1903.[2] He was the son of an estate manager, who died when he was 13.[3] Abetz graduated inKarlsruhe, where he became anart teacher at agirls' school.[4]
He joined theHitler Youth where he became a close friend ofJoachim von Ribbentrop.[5] He was one of the founders of theReichsbanner, the paramilitary arm of theSocial Democrats, and was associated with groups such as theBlack Front, a group of dissidentNational Socialists associated withOtto Strasser.[6]
In his twenties Abetz started a Franco-German cultural group for youths, along withJean Luchaire, known asthe Sohlberg Congress.[7] The group brought together German and French youth of all professions, social classes, political leanings, and religious affiliation.[7] The group held their first conference in theBlack Forest, and were frequently convened around ski slopes, campfires, and in hostels.[7] The group maintained relations with the media through Luchaire's connection toNotre Temps, and Abetz started the Sohlberg Circle (Sohlbergkreis). In 1934 the Sohlberg Circle was reborn as the Franco-German Committee (Comité France-Allemagne), which includedPierre Drieu la Rochelle andJacques Benoist-Mechin.
Abetz married Luchaire's French secretary, Susanne de Bruyker, in 1932.[8]
Abetz "pledged his support" for theNazi Party in 1931 and formally joined in 1937, the year he applied for the German Foreign Service.[9] From 1938, he was representing Germany in Paris and joined themasonic lodge "Goethe" in 1939.[10]
Abetz attended theMunich Conference in 1938, where he worked to inform and distract French journalists[11] He was expelled from France in June 1939 following allegations he had bribed two French newspaper editors to write pro-German articles; his expulsion created a scandal in France when it emerged that the wife of the French Foreign MinisterGeorges Bonnet was a close friend of the two editors, which led to much lurid speculation in the French press that Bonnet had received bribes from Abetz, though no firm evidence has ever emerged to support the rumours.[12]
Abetz was present inAdolf Hitler's entourage at the fall ofWarsaw, and served as a translator for the German Führer.[13] He returned to France in June 1940 following theGerman occupation and was assigned byJoachim von Ribbentrop to the embassy inParis.[13]
Following Hitler's June 30 directive, Abetz was assigned by Ribbentrop thelooting of all objects of art, public, private, and especially Jewish-owned. Abetz announced to theWehrmacht that the embassy had been "charged with the seizure of French works of art... and with the listing and seizure of works owned by Jews."[14] On 17 September 1940 Hitler allowedEinsatzstab Rosenberg[15] to take part and push Abetz out. ThePétain government protested Abetz's undertakings in late October, but by the end of October so much material had accumulated at theLouvre that it was decided more space was needed.
In November 1940 Abetz was appointed to the German Embassy in Paris, in occupied France, at the age of 37 – a post he held until July 1944. He was also head of the French fifth columnists through Ribbentrop's special unit within the Foreign Service.[16]
He advised theGerman military administration in Paris and was responsible for dealing with the Vichy Government. In May 1941, he negotiated theParis Protocols to expand German access to French military facilities.
Abetz'santisemitic beliefs were a pivotal factor in his personal recruitment by Adolf Hitler. It was Abetz who proposed the deportation of stateless Jews toFrance's unoccupied zone and later toextermination camps in the East. Abetz assumed a prominent role in the deportation process, targeting both foreign Jewish refugees and French-born Jews, particularly after theoccupation of southern France by Germany. On July 2, 1942, Abetz advocated for the deportation of 40,000 Jews from France toAuschwitz in a telegram, emphasising the need for comprehensive measures within both the occupied and unoccupied zones. This marked a turning point in his involvement in theholocaust.[17]
Abetz's primary objective was to secure completecollaboration from the French, through negotiations withLaval and Admiral Darlan. Abetz's function eventually evolved into becoming the catalyst for society, the arts, industry, education, and above all,propaganda. He played a pivotal role in the appointment ofPierre Drieu la Rochelle as director ofLa Nouvelle Revue française, which allowed him to exert direct influence in shaping French literature.[18] In addition to running the German embassy in Paris, Abetz acquired theChâteau de Chantilly in the countryside. He often entertained guests in both these places, living and working like a self-styled autocrat. One of the guests, the French writerLouis-Ferdinand Céline, jokingly referred to him as "King Otto I", and France as "the Kingdom of Otto".[19]
The Embassy was theoretically responsible for all political questions in occupied France, which included SD operations, and for advising the German police and military. Abetz advised the military, theGestapo and theSD. As the official representative of the German Government with the rank of SS-Standartenführer (colonel), he created the German Institute headed by Karl Epting. Thirty thousand people signed up for the Institute's German language courses, the Institute's concerts featured Germany's best musicians, includingHerbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.[20]
Following theoccupation of all France on 11 November 1942, von Ribbentrop's influence diminished as all of France was run by German military authorities, in conjunction with military police. A NSDAP Reichskommissariat of Belgien-Nordfrankreich held sway in several northern departments. Von Ribbentrop recalled Abetz in November following the occupation of all France. In his memoirs, Abetz assumed that he was considered "too francophile" and that his constant warnings about the loss of the French fleet and the loss of theFrench North Africa colonies were a thorn in the side of von Ribbentrop. Thescuttling of the French fleet in Toulon on 27 November had ensured that the French would not join theAxis.
Abetz left France in September 1944 as the German armies withdrew, this despite claiming toSwedish consul-generalRaoul Nordling on the seventh of the previous month that the Germans had neither killedpolitical prisoners nor were making any plans to leave Paris.[21]
Abetz was arrested by Allied authorities in theSchwarzwald in October 1945. In the announcement of his arrest inFrance Soir, he was quoted as saying that Adolf Hitler was "certainly not dead", and "would return".[22] A French court sentenced Abetz to 20 years' imprisonment forcrimes against humanity. He was released fromLoos prison on 17 April 1954.
He died on May 5, 1958, on the Cologne-Ruhrautobahn after being burned to death in an accident, involving his speeding car nearLangenfeld.[23] His death may have been a revenge killing for his role in theHolocaust.[24][clarification needed] His wife also died in the accident. The car's steering failed and the ultimate cause of the accident could not be fully determined. The car had recently been given to him as a gift from a Frenchman.[25]
A great-nephew,Eric Abetz, is an Australian conservative and aLiberal Party former member of theAustralian Senate, and was at one time a cabinet minister in the government ofTony Abbott and since 2024 a member of the Tasmanian Parliament. One of Eric's brothers, another great-nephew, the ReverendPeter Abetz, was a member of theWestern Australian Legislative Assembly, also representing the Liberal Party. Eric Abetz has publicly distanced himself from his Nazi relative.[26]
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