On this date, March 23, 1942, Einsatzgruppe A Commander, Franz Walter Stahlecker was killed in action during a clash with Soviet Partisans. I will post information about this Nazi Death Squad Commander from Wikipedia.
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Franz Walter Stahlecker
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Born
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October 10, 1900
Sternenfels, Germany |
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Died
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March 23, 1942 (aged 41)
Krasnogvardeysk, Russia |
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Occupation
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Lawyer
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Known for
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Holocaust perpetrator
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Franz Walter Stahlecker (10 October 1900 – 23 March 1942) was Commander of the Sicherheitspolizei
(Sipo) and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (German: Befehlshaber der
Sipo und des SD; BdS)
for the Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941–42. Stahlecker commanded Einsatzgruppe A, the most murderous of the
four Einsatzgruppen (death squads during the Holocaust) active in German-occupied
Eastern Europe. He was killed in action
during a clash with Soviet partisans;
he was replaced by Heinz Jost.
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Map used to illustrate Stahlecker's report to
Heydrich on January 31, 1942
From the U.S. Holocaust Museum: Map from
Stahlecker's report entitled "Jewish Executions Carried Out by
Einsatzgruppe A" and stamped "Secret Reich Matter." It shows the
number of Jews executed in the Baltic States and Belarus in 1941. The legend at
the bottom states that "the estimated number of Jews still on hand is
128,000." Estonia is marked as "judenfrei". Held in
the Latvian State Historical Archives, Riga.
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Early
life
Stahlecker
was born into a wealthy family in Sternenfels on 10 October 1900. From 1919–20
Stahlecker was a member of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund and the
Organisation Consul. He studied at the University of Tübingen, where he
obtained a doctorate of law in 1927. On 14 October 1932, he married
Luise-Gabriele Freiin von Gültlingen; their marriage produced four children.
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A wounded Stahlecker on 22 December 1941
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Early
Nazi career
On
1 May 1932, Stahlecker joined the Nazi Party (no. 3,219,015) as well as the SS (no. 73,041). On 29 May 1933, he was appointed
deputy director of the Political Office of the Württemberg State Police. In
1934, he was appointed head of the Gestapo
in the German state of Württemberg and
soon assigned to the main office of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). On 11 May 1937,
he became head of the Gestapo in Breslau. After the incorporation of Austria in 1938,
Stahlecker became SD chief of the Danube district (Vienna), a post he retained even after
being promoted to SS-Standartenführer.
In the summer of 1938, Stahlecker became Inspector of the Security Police in
Austria, succeeding Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller.
As of the 20th of August, 1938, Stahlecker was the formal head of the Central
Agency for Jewish Emigration in Vienna, though its de facto leader
was Adolf Eichmann.
Differences of opinion with Reinhard Heydrich
motivated Stahlecker to move to the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), after which
he held posts as the commander of the Security Police and SD in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
under SS-Brigadeführer Karl Hermann Frank. In mid-October 1939, Eichmann and Stahlecker decided to
begin implementation of the Nisko Plan.
On
29 April 1940, Stahlecker arrived in Oslo, Norway, where he held various posts,
most notably as commander of about 200 Einsatzgruppe members of the
Security Police and SD. He was promoted to SS-Oberführer. He was
succeeded in this position in autumn 1940 by Heinrich
Fehlis.
Einsatzgruppe
A
On
6 February 1941 Stahlecker was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor
der Polizei and took over as commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe
A in hopes of furthering his career with the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), Nazi
Germany's security police and intelligence organization.
In
June 1941, Einsatzgruppe A followed Army Group North and operated in the Baltic states and areas of Russia up to Leningrad. Its mission was to hunt down and
annihilate the Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and other
"undesirables". In a 15 October 1941 report, Stahlecker repeatedly
emphasized the following point: "Native anti-Semitic forces were induced
to start pogroms against Jews during the first hours after capture [German
occupation]." In the introductory part of the report he wrote, "though
this inducement proved to be very difficult [emphasis added]." Further
on in the report, while describing the events in Lithuania, he touched on the
point again: "This [local involvement in the killings] was achieved for
the first time by partisan activities in Kovno. To our surprise it was not
easy at first to set in motion an extensive pogrom against Jews [emphasis
added]. Klimatis [sic],
the leader of the partisan unit... who was primarily used for this purpose,
succeeded in starting a pogrom on the basis of advice given to him by a small
advanced detachment acting in Kovno, and in such a way that no German order or
German instigation was noticed from the outside." By winter 1941,
Stahlecker reported to Berlin that
Einsatzgruppe A had murdered some 249,420 Jews. He was made Higher SS and
Police Leader (German: Höhere
SS- und Polizeiführer,
HSSPF) of Reichskommissariat
Ostland, which included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus, at
the end of November 1941. Stahlecker was killed in action on 23 March 1942, in
a clash with Soviet partisans
near Krasnogvardeysk, Russia.[2] Heinz Jost then assumed command of Einsatzgruppe
A.
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