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Heinz Reinefarth | |
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| Born | (1903-12-26)26 December 1903 Gnesen,Kingdom of Prussia,German Empire |
| Died | 7 May 1979(1979-05-07) (aged 75) Westerland,Schleswig-Holstein,West Germany |
| Allegiance |  Germany |
| Service |  Waffen-SS |
| Years of service | 1933–45 |
| Rank | SS-Gruppenführer, alsoGeneralleutnant of the Waffen-SS and Police |
| Unit | Kampfgruppe Reinefarth |
| Commands | XIV SS Corps XVIII SS Corps |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves |
| Other work | Politician and judge |
Heinz Reinefarth (26 December 1903 – 7 May 1979) was a GermanSS commander duringWorld War II and government official inWest Germany after the war. During theWarsaw Uprising of August 1944 his troops committed numerousatrocities. After the war, Reinefarth became the mayor of the town ofWesterland, on the isle ofSylt, and member of theSchleswig-HolsteinLandtag. Polish demands forextradition were never accepted, and Reinefarth was never convicted of anywar crime.
Reinefarth was born inGnesen (Gniezno),Province of Posen. After finishing thegymnasium in 1922, he studied law at theUniversity of Jena. He became a member of the student fraternity[1] (this was the origin of the "Schmiss" – German for "dueling scar" – on his left cheek). He graduated in 1927 and passed the 1st degree state exams. Until 1930 he completed hisapplication at the local court inJena and was promoted tojudge. On 1 August 1932, he joined theNSDAP and received party identification card 1,268,933. In December of the same year, he joined theSS.
Shortly before the outbreak ofWorld War II, Reinefarth was conscripted as a reserveFeldwebel. For his actions during theinvasion of Poland he received the 2nd ClassIron Cross. He took part in the 1940campaign against France, for which he was awarded theKnight's Cross of the Iron Cross. On 20 April 1942, he was promoted toSS-Brigadeführer, the equivalent of Generalmajor in theWehrmacht.
After promotion to brigadier, Reinefarth was appointed as General Inspector of SS in theProtectorate of Bohemia-Moravia. In September 1943, he was transferred toBerlin where he served in the Ministry ofOrder Police (Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei). On 29 January 1944, Reinefarth was assigned to beSS and Police Leader inReichsgau Wartheland (PolishPoznań Voivodeship annexed by Germany in 1939).
After the outbreak of theWarsaw Uprising, Reinefarth was ordered to organise a military unit consisting of personnel from various security units and head forWarsaw. Upon arrival, his forces (Kampfgruppe Reinefarth) were included in the Korpsgruppe von dem Bach of GeneralErich von dem Bach-Zelewski who was ordered byHeinrich Himmler to quell the rebellion. From 5 August 1944, Reinefarth's group took part in mass murders in the undefendedWola area.
In two days, the units of Reinefarth, which included the notoriousSS-Sonderregiment Dirlewanger under SS-OberführerOskar Dirlewanger, murdered approximately 60,000 civilian inhabitants of Warsaw in what is known as theWola massacre. In one of his reports to the commander of the German 9th Army Reinefarth stated that"we have more prisoners than ammunition to kill them".[2] After securing the Wola area, his troops took part in heavy fighting against theArmia Krajowa in the Old Town. In September, his forces were transferred to attack the boroughs ofPowiśle andCzerniaków, where they committed further atrocities, including killing of POWs and wounded found in military hospitals. In all 150,000–200,000 Polish civilians were killed during the uprising. For his actions during the Warsaw Uprising Reinefarth was awarded theOak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1944.
In November 1944, Reinefarth was given command over theXIV SS Corps on the Upper-Rhine and in December 1944 over theXVIII SS Corps in the centralOder river area. Between January and March 1945, he commanded the defence of "Festung Küstrin" (Kostrzyn nad Odrą). He declined to defend it to the last man and Hitler found fault with the way he withdrew his troops. Himmler, acting on Hitler's order, had Reinefarth arrested at the end of March 1945. Later he was sentenced to death by a military court. However, the sentence was not carried out, and he continued to command those of his troops that managed to leave the fortress. He moved his troops to the west and surrendered to the British.
After World War II, the Polish communist authorities demanded Reinefarth'sextradition. However, the British and American authorities of occupied West Germany repeatedly refused extraditing him on grounds of security reasons. Reinefarth had by then secretly been recruited by the CIC, the Intelligence Service of the US Army, for consultation on Soviet military tactics.[3] After Nuremberg trials, he was arrested for war crimes, but the local court inHamburg released him shortly afterwards on the grounds of lack of evidence.[4] Reinefarth went on to live a normal life. In December 1951, he was elected mayor of the town ofWesterland, the main town on the island ofSylt. In 1962, he was elected to the parliament (Landtag) ofSchleswig-Holstein.[5] After his term ended in 1967, he worked as a lawyer. Despite numerous demands byCommunist Poland, he was not extradited as the German courts had ruled that there was no evidence of him committing any crimes. He was considered not guilty in the eyes of the law and the federal government. He received a general's pension upon retirement.[6] He died on 7 May 1979 in his mansion on Sylt.
In 2014, the local authorities of Westerland raised a memorial table remembering Polish victims of Reinefarth. A local SPD member, Ernst Wilhelm Sojan, who was present at the ceremony had campaigned since the 1960s to raise awareness of acts committed by Reinefarth but said that he was always met with a "wall of silence". The regional Schleswig-Holstein government issued a special statement expressing regret that Heinz Reinefarth had been allowed to work as politician in the region. Polish PresidentBronislaw Komorowski praised the authorities of Sylt for attempting to deal with its past.[7]
"Holiday on Sylt" 1957 by the Eastern German film directorAndrew Thorndike
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