POST 196: DR. WALTER ROTHHOLZ’S FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF JEWISH MISTREATMENT IN THE GRINI CONCENTRATION CAMP IN NORWAY

Note: In a follow-up to a post published in 2019, I present the testimony submitted by Dr. Walter Rothholz, my second cousin once removed, about the mistreatment of Jews held at a Nazi detention center in Bærum, Norway. I also discuss the “White Buses” mission negotiated between Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte in the closing months of the war, a humanitarian effort that resulted in over 15,000 people being saved from German concentration camps, many of them Scandinavians.

Related Posts:

POST 65: GERMANY’S LAST EMPEROR, WILHELM II, PICTURED WITH UNKNOWN FAMILY MEMBER 

POST 66: DR. WALTER ROTHHOLZ, INTERNEE IN NAZI-OCCUPIED NORWAY

This post tiers off Post 66 written in 2019 about Dr. Walter Rothholz (1893-1978) (Figure 1), my second cousin once removed, who was interned in Nazi-occupied Norway from the 2nd of December 1942 until the 2nd of May 1945. Walter provided testimony on the 4th of October 1945, five months after his liberation from the Nazi Grini concentration camp/detention center in Bærum, Norway, a suburb southwest of Oslo, describing the mistreatment of Jews there. It was sent to me by Hans Peter Lindemann, a Norwegian gentleman from Oslo, whose grandmother, Emmi Skau, née Gronemann (1907-1979), coincidentally was among the seven Jews released from Grini in early 1945, a group that included Dr. Rothholz.

 

Figure 1. Dr. Walter Rothholz (1893-1978) in 1964

 

Along with 45 surviving Jews at the nearby Berg concentration camp, approximately 90-100 kilometers (55-63 miles) away from Grini, Walter and Emmi were sent to Sweden. It was indirectly part of the “White Buses” mission agreement negotiated between Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler and the Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte in the closing months of the war. More on this below. 

Walter Rothholz and Emmi Skau, as it turns out, were born and grew up meters apart in Stettin, Germany (today: Szczecin, Poland). It’s unclear whether they knew one another, though it’s likely their families were aware of each other. Walter’s father, Dr. Hermann Rothholz, was an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Stettin, while Han Peter’s grandmother’s maternal uncle, Dr. Alfred Peyser, was also an ear, nose, and throat doctor. 

Before quoting Walter’s words on the treatment of Jews detained in Grini, let me explain the White Buses mission. Ignorant of this humanitarian operation prior to Hans Peter Lindemann’s email, Walter Rothholz benefited indirectly from this action. Knowing my family’s history can be of limited interest to followers, I try to frame the events that impacted them in the context of the geopolitical climate of the time. I reckon this will be of broader interest to readers. 

During the Second World War, many Scandinavians, mostly Norwegians and Danes, were deported and imprisoned by the Nazi regime. They were imprisoned for various reasons. Some were Jewish, some held opposing political views, others were part of the resistance, and some were Danish border police. Many of the deportees were sent to concentration camps and labor camps in Germany. 

By 1944, it became clear Germany was losing on the battlefield and that the Second World War would soon come to an end. This raised concerns in Sweden about the safety of the Scandinavians held in the concentration camps and labor camps; the Swedes feared the Germans might liquidate all their prisoners. Thus, in early 1945, as the war was nearing its end, the Swedish government asked the Swedish Red Cross to help rescue Scandinavian inmates. 

One sidebar. Sweden was the only Nordic country that remained neutral during the Second World War. Not only did Sweden remain neutral, but they provided Nazi Germany with crucial raw materials, primarily high-quality iron ore, which was indispensable for German steel production, along with other strategic goods like ball bearings and timber; they also facilitated troop movements through its territory. Sweden’s neutrality involved a delicate balancing act, trading with both Allies and Axis countries. Its economic support for Germany, especially early on, was crucial to Germany’s war effort. Some historians have argued Sweden’s early support prolonged the war. Notwithstanding the merits of this claim, Sweden’s neutrality would have positioned it as a logical intermediary between the Allies and Germany had any negotiations ever taken place. 

Back to the topic at hand. White Buses was a Swedish humanitarian operation aimed at freeing Scandinavians held in German concentration camps in Nazi Germany in the waning days of the Second World War. Though the goal was to rescue Scandinavian prisoners, slightly less than half of the 15,345 people estimated to have been removed from concentration camps and transported to Sweden in March and April 1945 were of other nationalities. The number of Jews among those rescued has never been determined as the former prisoners were registered by nationality rather than by ethnic group or religion. 

The Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte, a nephew of Sweden’s King Gustav V, negotiated the humanitarian operation primarily with Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. While Hermann Göring was officially designated as Hitler’s second-in-command, Heinrich Himmler was generally considered the second most powerful man in Germany after Adolf Hitler during the Second World War. This stemmed from the fact that Himmler came to preside over a vast empire that included the SS, the Gestapo, the Reich Security Main Office (RHSA), and the concentration camp system. 

Realizing the war was lost, Himmler attempted to open peace talks with the Allies in March 1945 without Hitler’s knowledge. The negotiations with the Swedes on the White Buses mission was similarly conducted without Hitler’s awareness as he opposed prisoner or inmate releases. When Hitler found out about Himmler’s machinations on April 28, 1945, he was furious, stripped Himmler of all his offices and ranks, and ordered his arrest. Himmler attempted to go into hiding but was captured by British forces. 

The buses used to transport the prisoners from German concentration camps were painted white with red crosses painted on the roof, side, front, and back, ergo how the mission got its name. They were thus marked so they would not be mistaken for military targets by the Allies. Those freed from the various concentration camps were transported by the white buses and trucks and gathered at the Neuengamme concentration camp near Lübeck, Germany. Swedish ships took most of the former prisoners onward to Malmö, Sweden though the Danes continued by land on the white buses to Denmark. 

The White Buses mission, notwithstanding that it was deemed a humanitarian success and saved the lives of many who would otherwise have died of malnutrition and/or deprivation or been executed in a final paroxysm of Nazi violence, is not without its detractors. 

The key criticisms of the mission are:

(1) Nationality Bias: The initial mandate focused on rescuing Danish and Norwegian prisoners, leading to accusations that other nationalities, especially Jews and Eastern Europeans, were neglected or abandoned.

(2) Cooperation with the Nazis: The Swedish Red Cross, led by Count Bernadotte, negotiated directly with Himmler raising the obvious moral quandary of compromising with the enemy, specifically the odious architect of the Holocaust.

(3) Selective Rescue: Volunteers initially had to leave people behind who were not on an approved list though the operation was later expanded.

(4) Moral Trade-Off: As already discussed, some felt that Sweden’s neutrality and trade had already prolonged the war, making the rescue efforts ethically complex even though they saved lives. 

As noted above, the agreement between the Swedish Red Cross and Himmler required gathering the prisoners at the Neuengamme concentration camp. At some point, the Germans announced the camp was full and could no longer receive any more prisoners from other camps. The Germans demanded that the Swedes, using their buses and other vehicles, transport around 2,000 non-Scandinavian prisoners to other camps. The Swedish drivers initially refused this request. However, because the Germans insisted the transfer of Scandinavian prisoners could not continue unless space was made in Neuengamme, higher unidentified, presumably Swedish, authorities ordered the drivers to cooperate and so the transports began. 

The outcome is that between March 27 and 29, 1945, about 2,000 French, Russian, and Polish prisoners were transported to concentration camps in Hannover and Braunschweig. Each bus was escorted by two SS guards, one condition of the agreement between the Swedish Red Cross and the Germans. Many prisoners were obviously seriously ill, weak, or dying, and several died during the journey. Cruel to the bitter end, German guards beat some of these prisoners to death. 

Readers can draw their own conclusions as to whether the moral compromises that were made during the White Buses mission were worth it. 

Earlier I alluded to the fact that my relative Dr. Walter Rothholz benefited indirectly from the White Buses mission. Recall that Walter was freed from Grini concentration camp in Norway, not transferred from a camp in Germany. Walter explains this in his testimony of October 1945 quoted below but suffice it to say that because he was married to a non-Jewish Norwegian woman, Else Marie “Elsemai” Bølling (1915-1976) (Figure 2), he was therefore exempt from deportation to a German concentration camp. However, he’d already been stripped of his German nationality through the Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935, and by the Eleventh Decree to the Reich Citizenship Law of November 25, 1941, and thus was deemed “stateless.”

 

Figure 2. Else Marie “Elsemai” Rothholz, née Bølling (1915-1976) in 1964, Dr. Walter Rothholz’s wife

 

Knowing Walter was interned in Norway, I became curious why he was transported to Sweden shortly before liberation on May 2, 1945. Jewish internees liberated from Norway on May 7, 1945, like those from Grini, were sent to Sweden in 1945 because neutral Sweden provided sanctuary and a crucial staging ground for rescue efforts, especially through the Swedish Red Cross. 

It appears that prior to liberation the Swedish Red Cross and Count Bernadotte had not only negotiated the release of Scandinavian prisoners from Germany but had also negotiated safe passage for Scandinavian Jews from Nazi camps in Norway like Berg and Grini to safety. 

Following arrival in Sweden, the former prisoners were quarantined and then sent to refugee centers, like Kjesäter, for treatment and care as “The Rescued of 1945,” with the goal of eventual repatriation to their home countries or resettlement elsewhere. In essence, Sweden served as a vital humanitarian haven and a place for former prisoners to recover from years of starvation and inhumane treatment. 

After May 1945, Norway began prosecuting thousands for collaborating with the Germans. Grini and other Norwegian camps became holding facilities for these accused collaborators. These people were processed within Norway for treason. The primary reason for holding people at Grini post-liberation was to detain collaborators for trial, not to deport them to Sweden or elsewhere. 

Below is the testimony Dr. Walter Rothholz provided in October 1945 (Figures 3a-c):

 

Figure 3a. Page 1 of Dr. Rothholz’s October 1945 testimony describing the mistreatment of Jews at Grini typed in Norwegian

 

Figure 3b. Page 2 of Dr. Rothholz’s October 1945 testimony describing the mistreatment of Jews at Grini typed in Norwegian

 

Figure 3c. Page 3 of Dr. Rothholz’s October 1945 testimony describing the mistreatment of Jews at Grini typed in Norwegian

 

Walter Rothholz witness testimony 4 October 1945, at Victoria Terrasse, translated with Google translate 

Questioned at Vict. Terrasse on 4.10.45: Walter Rothholz, born 24.4.95 in Stettin, Dr. Juris, lives at St. Hallvards vei 8, Jar, tel. 35020, familiar with the case and the responsibility to testify, willing to explain himself and explained 

regarding the mistreatment of Jews at Grini 

“I came to Grini on 2.12.42 and was there until 2.5.45, when I, together with 6 ladies, was sent to Sweden at the expense of the Swedish Red Cross. When I came to Grini there were about 25-26 Jews there. We lived in rooms 1 and 2 in barracks 6. The rest of the rooms in this barracks were inhabited by Norwegians. 

In Jan.–Feb. 1943 I participated in two punishment exercises. The first began at about 19 in the evening and was held with the entire barracks 6, both Jews and Norwegians, while the second was held less than 14 days later and then with only Jews from 2:30 to 5:30 at night. Both of these exercises were held on the old roll call square. 

The first exercise lasted about an hour. It was very hard and I remember that many of the prisoners were quite upset afterwards. However, I cannot with the best of my ability remember who was in command, whether it was ZEIDLER or someone else, nor can I remember which Germans were present. However, I believe that Feldwebel FIEDLER was not there. 

The Jews this time were treated better by the one who conducted the exercise than the Norwegians for the reason that we Jews understood the commands and could immediately obey them, which was not always the case with the Norwegians. I saw that several Norwegians were beaten and kicked during this exercise, but I cannot remember any names. I do not remember that Prof. Jaroczy was beaten. I lived in the same barracks as him, and I have no recollection that he had any signs of abuse after the exercise. Nor do I remember that he spoke of having been abused. 

The second exercise took place about 14 days later. Then only the Jews were present. We were woken up in the middle of the night and had to stand at the old roll call square. I cannot say who woke us up, but when we got beyond the barracks and ran towards the roll call square we were beaten by the driver SCHLEGEL, who had positioned himself there and punched some one or two who he thought were coming too late. 

When we got to the roll call square I seem to remember that ZEIDLER was there, as was apparently Feldwebel FIEDLER. I cannot say who else was there. HEILMANN was not there at first, but came later. 

Before the exercise began ZEIDLER took the Jew BLUMENFELD out of the line. Then, as far as I remember, he handed over the command to FIEDLER and himself went out with BLUMENFELD and disappeared for a while. I did not hear if he said anything to FIEDLER when he gave the latter the command. 

The exercise began at 2:30 and lasted until 5:30. During this whole time, we were chased back and forth across the roll call area in a chorus, ‘Hinlegen’, ‘Auf’, ‘Hinlegen’, ‘Auf’, ‘Laufen’. [EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘LIE DOWN’, ‘UP’, ‘LIE DOWN’, ‘UP’, ‘RUN’] Once during the exercise, FIEDLER heard someone talking to each other, he then became even more furious, lined us up and asked who had spoken, at first no one wanted to say anything, but eventually someone pointed to a Lurje from Oslo. FIEDLER then went up to Lurje and hit him several times in the face. I cannot say whether FIEDLER hit with a clenched fist, but he hit him so hard that Lurje fell over. Lurje was then ordered to run around and immediately knock him down again. How many times this was knocked down, I cannot say, but it was several times. 

During the exercise, Prof. Jaroczy came to say that he was a front-line soldier from the last world war and that for that reason he thought he was subjected to brutal treatment. When FIEDLER heard this, he was completely furious, went over to Jaroczy and the latter then received the same treatment as Lurje. He was first knocked down and while he was lying down FIEDLER kicked and stomped on him everywhere. He then had to get up again, was knocked down and kicked and stomped on again. Whether he was knocked down as many as 12 times, I dare not say, but I will not rule out the possibility of it either. 

I did not directly see FIEDLER directly mistreat anyone during the exercise, but he kicked right and left with his shaft boots when he walked between us during a “Hinlegen” [EDITORS’S NOTE: ‘LIE DOWN’]. I for one also got a kick from his boots in passing, and they hurt quite a bit. When ZEIDLER had been gone for an hour he came back. I was then called forward and he read me an anti-Semitic song that he said I should get the Jews to sing. The song itself was only one verse and it ended with ‘und dann nicht mehr’ [EDITOR’S NOTE:AND THEN NO LONGER’. When he had instructed this, ZEIDLER disappeared and FIEDLER was to make sure that we practiced correctly. After a while ZEIDLER came back and we had to sing the verse for him too and kept singing the verse over and over for at least half an hour. 

ZEIDLER then disappeared again and was gone for a while. During that time FIEDLER was again doing ‘hinlegen’ [EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘LIE DOWN’] etc. HEILMANN was then present but he did not like it and I saw that he tried several times to slow down FIEDLER, who was still just as furious. Then HEILMANN left too. 

During the time between ZEIDLER’s return after being gone for about an hour, and at 5:30 when the exercise ended, ZEIDLER was only partially present. He came earlier to see that everything was going as it should. FIEDLER drove us the whole time, either we had exercises or we had to sing the aforementioned song, but it was not as hard as the first hour. 

As far as I could see, ZEIDLER did not hit us once during the entire exercise. He made speeches to us and mocked the Jews for being unintelligent and cowardly, etc., but he did not hit. 

When the exercise was over, 6-7 of the oldest ones were so badly injured that we had to carry them from the square to the barracks. In the barracks we were received by BLUMENFELD whom I had not seen since he was taken away by ZEIDLER at the beginning of the exercise. Where he had been during that time I do not know. 

The next morning 5-6 of the Jews were in bed, including Jaroczy, Lurje, Rothkopf and Pintzow. The latter was over 60 years old. They all looked bad, their faces swollen and bloody. Rothkopf had, among other things, been hit on the nose at the beginning of the exercise so that the blood flowed. For this reason, his nose became completely blocked, but he still had to do the exercise at the same time as the rest of us. It was probably FIEDLER who had hit Rotkopf too, but I did not see it. Dr. Poulsson and Dr. Halvorsen came to see them, and one of them determined that Rotkopf had suffered a concussion. 

The rest of us who had not been so ill that we had to stay in bed had to go out to work as usual in the morning. I heard that WARNECKE had been to the barracks in the morning and recorded a report on what had happened, but I was not there at the time. A couple of days later, ZEIDLER came into the barracks and asked if the exercise had been so terribly hard, but he did not get any answer. 

The morning after the exercise, the entire roll call area was covered in bloodstains. 

I remember that Frau FIEDLER was present during the exercise, but I did not see her hitting or kicking any of the prisoners. When I noticed her, she was standing on the main stairs and shouting: ‘Schneller, schneller!’ [EDITOR’S NOTE: ‘FASTER, FASTER’] 

Apart from these two exercises, I do not remember that the Jews were subjected to any mistreatment. They were of course treated worse than the Norwegians, were constantly subjected to insults, etc., but violence was not used against them. 

I remember that ZEIDLER decided that we should work on both Christmas days in 1942, when other prisoners had the day off. Moreover, it was impossible for us to receive visitors. I know that my wife was at Vict. Terrasse in Feb. or March 1943 and that she had been granted a visitor’s permit there. When she came to Grini with this, she was placed and rejected by ZEIDLER. The same was twice the case with the wife of a Jew named BLUMENAU, she too was rejected by ZEIDLER after permission had been granted at Terrassen. 

Most of the Jews were sent from Grini to Germany on 1 Feb. 1943, only about 10-14 days after the last penal exercise, and many of them were not completely recovered from the treatment they had received when they were sent. Only those Jews who were married to Norwegian or German women avoided being sent. 

For the above reason I was not sent to Germany and remained at Grini until just before the capitulation. At one time or another during this time I spoke to ZEIDLER about the treatment the Jews had been subjected to. This did not only apply to Grini, but in general. ZEIDLER then said: ‘Ja, das haben wir getan, und wir entschuldigen uns nicht dafür’ [EDITORS’S NOTE: YES, WE DID THAT, AND WE MAKE NO APOLOGIES FOR IT’]. 

At Grini the Jews were not allowed to go to hospital. If any of us got sick, we had to stay in the barracks. Fortunately, no one got so sick that the matter was brought to the fore, but the order was that no Jews were to be admitted to the hospital. 

The Jews were also given the worst and heaviest work, they were preferably put to dig ditches and do other heavy work. It was completely impossible for a Jew to enter a workshop or kitchen. In 1944 things improved, and Jews could then enter workshops, such as broom making, etc. The latter was, for example, the case with me. 

I have never seen ZEIDLER and DENZER beat prisoners. On the other hand, I saw both HEILMANN, KUNZE and POHL beat, but I cannot remember any names or cases. It was especially when they thought that the prisoners were cheating their way out of work, or that they had caught them in some violation of the camp regulations. They beat both with their hands and with the sticks they were carrying. 

The first day I arrived at Grini, I was beaten by KUNTZE right at the reception. When he heard that I knew German, he put me in charge of the other prisoners ‘Augen rechts’ and ‘Augen links’ [EDITORS’S NOTE: ‘EYES RIGHT’ AND ‘EYES LEFT’]. When some of them did the exercise wrong, it affected me and I was hit in the face with a clenched fist. 

Adopted

Walter Rothholz” 

While the affidavit speaks for itself, let me explain a few things. 

According to Walter’s statement, he and six women were sent to Sweden at the expense of the Swedish Red Cross on May 2, 1945, five days before the formal German surrender in Norway on May 7th. This is the clearest evidence we have that the prisoners at Grini were released before liberation day because of the agreement Count Bernadotte and Himmler negotiated on behalf of Scandinavians held in German concentration camps. 

The Grini detention center in occupied Norway was primarily administered by Gestapo and SS personnel. The camp commander at Grini at the time of liberation was a German SS officer whom Walter merely identifies as “Zeidler.” His full name was Alfred Zeidler, and he held the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer; he was the last commander of the Grini detention center, a position he held from July 1942 until the end of WWII in May 1945. This encompassed the entire time Walter was imprisoned. Upon being appointed commander, Zeidler promised the prisoners they would get used to “Prussian discipline,” something clearly reflected by the two “punishment exercises” Walter was forced to endure. 

On the day of German surrender in Norway, May 7, 1945, Zeidler handed over command as he’d been ordered. Later he attempted to disguise himself as a regular member of the German army, the Wehrmacht, along with a group of 75 other members of the Gestapo but was apprehended. Though sentenced to a life of forced labor in 1947, he was released in 1953 after an all-too-short incarceration. 

Walter Rothholz mentions the name “Denzer.” This seemingly is Julius Denzer, who along with Alfred Zeidler and Hellmuth Reinhard, were the three primary commanders who oversaw the Grini concentration camp. Denzer was transferred from Grini to another camp, Tromsdalen, in August 1944. 

Another name Walter mentions is “Heilmann.” This corresponds to Eugen Wilhelm Heilmann, who was a guard at the Grini detention center. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment after the war, but, like Alfred Zeidler, was released early on the 7th of September 1951. On page 62 of Odd Bergfald’s book entitled “Hellmuth Reinhard, soldat eller morder?,”the author details the evidence Walter provided in Heilmann’s trial. During his trial, when Heilmann pretended he knew nothing about Auschwitz and the open mass grave he’d boasted having seen during a wartime visit there implying this was the fate that awaited Norwegian Jews, Walter Rothholz was called to testify to the contrary that Heilmann knew precisely what would happen to deportees. 

As Walter Rothholz testifies, as a Jew married to a non-Jewish Norwegian woman, he was not deported to a German concentration camp when most other Jews were sent from Grini to Germany on the 1st of February 1943. In 1936, Walter had married Else Marie “Elsemai” Bølling, a move that permitted him to emigrate to Norway in 1939, seemingly escaping the Nazi scourge. However, after the Nazis invaded Norway on April 9, 1940, as part of “Operation Weserübung,” Walter was eventually arrested on October 26, 1942 (Bergfald: p. 62). Regardless, the Nazis offered “privileged” status to “mixed marriages” such as Walter’s. Compared to other Norwegian Jews, many such couples survived. Walter was later granted Norwegian citizenship. 

As previously noted, Walter was transported to Sweden with six women. He mentions that upon his arrival at Grini there were 25 or 26 Jews there. Since Walter makes no further mention of them after they were beaten, one can assume that unlike him they were deported to German concentration camps and murdered. 

In closing, I would only say that reading firsthand accounts of historical events is perhaps as close as we’ll come to knowing what happened at the time. What makes Walter’s testimony very believable is how dispassionate he is about describing his experiences and what he witnessed. 

REFERENCE 

Bergfald, O. (1967). Hellmuth Reinhard, soldat eller morder? Unknown binding.

POST 164: THE NAZI SS & WEHRMACHT SOLDIER, PRINZ WILHELM VON HESSEN-PHILIPPSTHAL-BARCHFELD

Note: In this lengthy and involved post, I continue to discuss recently obtained documents related to the Nazi SS and Wehrmacht soldier Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld. As with other individuals discussed in my blog, notably one of my father’s first cousins, Heinz Löwenstein, my knowledge about them is not obtained linearly but rather comes in spurts and episodically. Inevitably, my Jewish family came into contact and had their lives convulsed by the Nazis so for this reason I will occasionally discuss the fate of some of these individuals.

Related Posts:

POST 46:  WARTIME MEMORIES OF MY HALF-JEWISH COUSIN, AGNES STIEDA NÉE VOGEL

POST 133: “THE BUTCHER OF PRAGUE,” THE STORY BEHIND A UNIQUE PHOTO OF REINHARD HEYDRICH (PART I)

POST 133: “THE BUTCHER OF PRAGUE,” THE STORY BEHIND A UNIQUE PHOTO OF REINHARD HEYDRICH (PART II)

POST 157: USING AI TO CONFIRM THE MISIDENTIFICATION OF REINHARD HEYDRICH, “THE BUTCHER OF PRAGUE” IN POSTS 133, PARTS I & II

POST 157, POSTSCRIPT: USING AI TO CONFIRM THE MISIDENTIFICATION OF REINHARD HEYDRICH, “THE BUTCHER OF PRAGUE” IN POSTS 133, PARTS I & II

 

My continued interest in the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) and Wehrmacht soldier Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld stems from the fact that in Posts 133, Parts I & II, I misidentified him as Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious “Butcher of Prague.” The picture in which the putative Heydrich appeared was a group photo taken at Castle Kamenz (Figures 1a-b) in Lower Silesia [today: Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Poland], purportedly in 1936 or 1937.

 

Figure 1a. The photograph from ca. 1935 taken at Castle Kamenz, Germany [today: Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Poland] when several high-level Nazis visited, including Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen, originally misidentified as Reinhard Heydrich (photo courtesy of Peter Albrecht von Preußen)
Figure 1b. Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen dressed in an SS uniform

 

To remind readers Reinhard Heydrich was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. Heydrich was chief of the SS’s Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RHSA), the Reich Security Main Office, and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor, Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. The resemblance of the individual in the group photo to Heydrich, and the fact the person was clearly dressed in a SS uniform convinced me he was indeed Heydrich. I further explained in Posts 133, Parts I & II how and why Heydrich might have been at Castle Kamenz at the time the picture was taken. For these reasons I had no reason to question the identification.

My misidentification might well have gone unnoticed save for the fact that an astute German physics teacher with an avid interest in German military history pointed out my mistake. He told me the Nazi in the SS uniform at Castle Kamenz was Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen, a relative of Prinz Friedrich Heinrich Albrecht von Preussen (Figure 2), the then-owner of the castle. While initially hesitant to believe I’d made such a blatant error, I realized further investigation was necessary given the high standard of accuracy to which I strive. I used an artificial intelligence application to confirm that Wilhelm was indeed Heydrich’s doppelganger. This was the subject of Post 157 & Post 157, Postscript.

 

Figure 2. Prinz Friedrich Heinrich Albrecht von Preussen in the front row of the ca. 1935 group photo at Castle Kamenz

 

Some brief background on the group photo. It was furnished to me by a reader who stumbled upon Post 46 where I discussed Prinz Friedrich Heinrich Albrecht von Preussen. This reader, related to both Prinz Friedrich and Prinz Wilhelm, originally estimated the picture was taken in 1936 or 1937, though the evidence now suggests it was probably taken in 1935; more on this below. While the reader who sent me the photo was initially reluctant to believe Heydrich was Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen, additional research he’s undertaken proves this is the case.

Below I discuss recently uncovered evidence of Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen’s time and place of death and review the earlier documents related to Wilhelm von Hessen’s Nazi Party membership and military service discussed in Post 157, Postscript. This data helps explain why in the ca. 1935 picture Wilhelm von Hessen is wearing a SS uniform while in subsequent images he is dressed as a Wehrmacht soldier. The recent records confirm Wilhelm von Hessen’s fate in the Soviet Union following Germany’s defeat at the Battle of Moscow and its subsequent retreat.

As I explained in Post 157, Postscript, the Berlin State Archives retains a list of members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei  or NSDAP), the Nazi Party, who were members of the royal houses. Wilhelm Prinz von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld’s name is included in this roster. (Figure 3)

 

Figure 3. “Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen’s” name among a list of members of the royal houses who belonged to the Nazi Party showing he joined on the 1st of May 1932 and that his Nazi Party number was “1187621”

 

The unseen column headings from this list of aristocrats who were members of the Nazi Party and the information specific to Wilhelm von Hessen reads as follows:

“Region” (Kurhessen)

“Name” (Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen)

“Date of Birth” (1st of March 1905)

“Member Number” (of the Nazi Party) (1187621)

“Date of Admission” (to the Nazi Party) 1st of May 1932)

“Remarks” (in Prinz Wilhelm’s case, it shows that he died on the 1st of May 1942).

The roster indicates Wilhelm died on the 1st of May 1942, but elsewhere his death is recorded as the 30th of April 1942. I reckon Wilhelm died on the 30th of April but that his death was officially recorded a day later.

Separately, some of my German contacts also found “Prinz von Hessen Wilm.,” as he’s identified, in the so-called Dienstalterliste, the SS seniority list. This is further proof that Wilhelm was indeed a member of the SS.

As discussed in Post 157, Postscript, Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen’s name appears on the Dienstalterslisten for the years 1934-1937. Below is what these lists tell us.

1934 Dienstaltersliste (Figures 4a-d)

 

Figure 4a. Cover page of the 1934 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 4b. First page of the 1934 “Dienstaltersliste” with the key to abbreviations

 

Figure 4c. Column headings from the page with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name from the 1934 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 4d. Line with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name and information

 

 

The column headings are as follows:

“Consecutive number”

“Surname & first name”

“Service”

“Nazi Party Number 1-500,000”

“Nazi Party Number 500,001-1,800,000”

“Nazi Party Number over 1,800,000”

“SS Number”

Sturmführer” (Date rank obtained)

Obersturmführer” (Date rank obtained)

Prinz von Hessen Wilhelm’s party number “1 187 621” is again shown on the SS seniority list, but in a separate column his SS member number, “52 711,” is now indicated. Wilhelm von Hessen joined the SS as a SS-Sturmführer on the 20th of April 1934. Sturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party which began as a title used by the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1925 and became an actual SA rank in 1928. Translated as “storm leader or assault leader,” the origins of the rank dated to the World War I when the title of Sturmführer came to be used.

In 1934 Prinz von Hessen Wilhelm was a member of the service unit abbreviated as “F. Mo. II/27.” “F.” is short for Führer, while “Mo. Sta.” stands for “Motorstaffel,” or motorized squadron. Thus, it appears that in 1934 he was head of the motor assault team of II Sturmbann of the Standarte 27. Let me try and explain what this means. Bear in mind I know little about the organization of the SS so my explanation may be imprecise. I invite knowledgeable readers to correct and/or amplify my characterization.

The number of soldiers in a motorized squadron is unknown but was possibly only a few men. Standarte was a regimental sized unit of the SS; more on this below. Sturmbann refers to an “assault unit,” and was a paramilitary unit within the Nazi Party. As previously mentioned, the term originated from German shock troop units used during World War I who were characterized by their aggressive tactics and were often at the forefront of assaults. Putting this together suggests Wilhelm von Hessen was the motorized squadron leader of the assault unit of a particular regiment.

1935 Dienstaltersliste (Figures 5a-d)

 

Figure 5a. Cover page of the 1935 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 5b. First page of the 1935 “Dienstaltersliste” with the key to abbreviations

 

Figure 5c. Column headings from the page with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name from the 1935 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 5d. Line with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name and information

 

The number of column headings in the 1935 Dienstaltersliste was expanded to two side-by-side pages. Wilhelm’s previous rank of Sturmführer was now referred to as an Untersturmführer. A SS-Untersturmführer was the first commissioned SS officer rank, equivalent to a second lieutenant in other military organizations.

Translated, the left-hand page columns include the following information:

“Consecutive number”

“Surname & first name”

“Epee”

“Ring”

“SA sports badge”

“Reich sports badge”

“Service”

“Nazi Party Number 1-1,800,000”

“Nazi Party Number over 1,800,000”

“SS Number”

“Date of birth”

Several of the columns above refer to orders and decorations awarded during World War I by the German Empire, then later by the Nazis.

The right-hand page columns include the expanded list of SS paramilitary ranks, and the date, if applicable, that a soldier attained the rank:

Untersturmführer

Obersturmführer

Hauptsturmführer

Sturmbannführer

Obersturmbannführer

Standartenführer

Oberführer

Brigadeführer

Gruppenführer

Obergruppenführer

The 1935 Dienstaltersliste tells us that Wilhelm von Hessen was promoted to a SS-Obersturmführer on the 9th of November 1934. A SS-Obersturmführer was typically a junior company commander in charge of fifty to a hundred men.

Then on the 20th of April 1935 he was promoted to a SS Hauptsturmführer. This rank was a mid-level commander who had equal seniority to a captain (Hauptmann) in the Wehrmacht and the equivalency of captain in foreign armies. (Figure 6)

 

Figure 6. Circled the three SS ranks Wilhelm von Hessen attained, “SS-Untersturmführer,” “SS-Obersturmführer,” and “SS Hauptsturmführer”

 

By 1935 Wilhelm von Hessen was now attached to the “6 Mo. Sta.,” believed to mean that he was then part of the “6 Motor-Standarte.” Again, the number of soldiers in this motorized squadron is unknown. Not entirely clear to me is whether the “6 Motor-Standarte” equates to the 6th SS-Standarte, though this seems likely.

1936 & 1937 Dienstalterslisten (Figures 7a-d; 8a-d)

 

Figure 7a. Cover page of the 1936 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 7b. First page of the 1936 “Dienstaltersliste” with the key to abbreviations

 

Figure 7c. Column headings from the page with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name from the 1936 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 7d. Line with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name and information

 

Figure 8a. Cover page of the 1937 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 8b. First page of the 1937 “Dienstaltersliste” with the key to abbreviations

 

Figure 8c. Column headings from the page with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name from the 1937 “Dienstaltersliste”

 

Figure 8d. Line with “Prinz v. Hessen Wilh.’s” name and information

 

According to the Dienstalterslisten, Wilhelm von Hessen was assigned to new units in both 1936 and 1937. In 1936, he had a position in the “Stammabt. Bez. 14.” “Stammabt.” stands for “Stammabteilung,” which was a unit of the so-called Allgemeine SS (more on this below) in which men older than 45 years of age or SS members no longer fit for service were grouped together. These “Stammabteilung” were in turn divided into “Bezirke” or districts. Wilhelm von Hessen’s assignment to this organizational unit is puzzling since in 1936 he was only 31 years old and had no known physical disabilities that would have limited his fitness for service.

By 1937 Wilhelm von Hessen was no longer with the “Stammabt. Bez. 14.” but had been reassigned to the “SS Abschnitt XXVII.” This unit had originally been established in November 1933, but by October 1936 had been reorganized. SS Abschnitt XXVII was primarily an administrative and organizational unit within the Allgemeine SS. It did not directly engage in major military campaigns or operations, but instead was focused on overseeing SS activities, recruitment, and coordination within its designated area. While the unit was not involved in combat, SS Abschnitt XXVII played an essential role in supporting the Nazi regime and its ideology.

Let me quickly explain two things I mentioned above, namely, the Allgemeine SS and the Standarte.

Wilhelm was a member of the so-called “General SS,” or Allgemeine SS which was the administrative and the non-combative part of the SS. This is to be distinguished from the Waffen-SS which was the combat branch of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel organization.

As discussed in Post 157, the German physics teacher mentioned above tells me that in the group photo Wilhelm von Hessen is wearing the letter “M” on his collar tab. This is the badge of the Motor-Standarten of the SS. As previously mentioned, according to the Dienstaltersliste der SS for 1935, he was a member of the 6. Motor-Standarte, suggesting the group photo was taken at around this time. The SS-Standarte was the primary regimental-sized unit of the Allgemeine SS. There were 127 SS-Standarten although by 1945 most existed only on paper never reaching their prescribed strength.

The Standarten regiments each had their own number, but were also referred to by other names, such as location, a popular name, or an honorary title. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the 6th SS-Standarte, for example, adopted the honorary title of “Charlottenburg” and often participated in major Nazi Party rallies held in the German capitol.

In ancestry.com, I found Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen’s military personnel card (Figure 9) which provides information on the date and place of his death and confirms the Wehrmacht unit he was a member of at the time of his death including his rank. To remind readers, I erroneously concluded in Post 157, Postscript based on inaccurate information in the German Wikipedia entry for Wilhelm von Hessen that he was a soldier in the SS at the time of his death. The transcription and translation of Wilhelm’s personnel card proves otherwise:

 

Figure 9. Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen’s Wehrmacht military personnel card

 

 

[Familien- und Vorname = surname and first name]

Prinz von Hessen, Wilhelm

[geb. am = born on the]         [in]                                                        [Kreis = county]

1.3.1905 (1 March 1905)        Rotenburg = today Rotenburg on the Fulda    Kassel

[Truppenteil = unit]

Stabskomp(anie) Schütz.(en) Reg(imen)t. 2 (garrison: from 1934 in Meiningen in Thuringia, from 1938 in Austria)

[Ersatztruppenteil = substitute unit]

Schütz.(en) Ers.(atz) Bat(ail)l.(on) 2 Mähr.(isch) Weisskirchen [today: Hranice in Moravia, Czech Republic]

[Erk.(ennungs)-M.arke = identification tag]

    1. (company) Kradschtz. 2 [Krad-Schützen-Bataillon 2, Krad = motorcycle]

[Dienstgrad = rank]

Hauptm.(ann)

[Tag, Stunde, Ort und Art des Verlustes = Day, hour, place and type of loss, so of death]

30.4.42, fallen

The so-called Ersatztruppenteil, the substitute unit of which Wilhelm was at one time a member, trained soldiers to make up for the losses of the fighting regiment that fought on the front; such units were not directly involved in combat. Once the war started in 1939, the Wehrmacht started to establish these “Ersatz” substitute units for every battalion. Wilhelm’s personnel card identifies his Ersatz battalion as Schützen Ersatz Bataillon 2.

Wilhelm’s military personnel card makes two things clear. First, since Wilhelm was killed in a combat Wehrmacht regiment, he was obviously no longer involved in training soldiers in the Ersatztruppenteil. Second, since he died fighting for the Wehrmacht, clearly at some point he’d voluntarily transitioned to or been conscripted into the regular army. The question of when he transferred from the SS will now be examined in depth.

While trying to make sense of Wilhelm’s military service, including when he might have transferred from the SS to the Wehrmacht, my good friend Peter Albrecht sent me a link to a newsletter published by the so-called “Eaglehorse.org” which sheds light on this issue. This organization describes itself “. . .as a rallying point for former members of the Squadron, our German comrades in the Bundeswehr, Bundesgrenzschutz, Bayern Grenzpolizei, the people of Bad Kissingen and surrounding towns in the Squadron area of operations.” The military unit in question is the 2nd Squadron/11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ARC), once based in Bad Kissingen, Germany.

Readers might rightly ask, “How is this relevant to Wilhelm von Hessen?” Let me explain.

It turns out that officer cadets of three Wehrmacht battalions were assigned to Manteuffel Kaserne near Bad Kissingen during the Third Reich. Eaglehorse not only chronicles their history and stories but also those of U.S. regiments later stationed there. One of the Wehrmacht battalions based at Manteuffel Kaserne included the Kradschützen Bataillon 2 (also known as “2 Krad” and “K2”), a motorcycle infantry battalion which Wilhelm von Hessen was known to be a member of. According to Eaglehorse.org, records for the three battalions at Manteuffel Kaserne “are long lost or hopelessly scattered.” However, surviving sources have allowed the group to partially reconstruct the experience of officer cadets at the time using “. . .the officer accession system of the Wehrmacht Heer and the brief ‘201’ file of a cadet then lieutenant and company commander in 2 Krad named Prince Wilhelm von Hessen. . .” It appears, then, that a file related to Wilhelm survives which allows us to accurately speculate about the experiences of German soldiers who aspired to become officers when Monteuffel Kaserne initially opened in 1935.

A brief point of clarification. The Wehrmacht consisted of three branches, the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy), and the Luftwaffe (air force).

As Eaglehorse.org notes, Germany never established a national army academy in the model of Sandhurst in England; L’Ecole Speciale Militaire de Saint Cyr in France; or West Point. Instead from the 19th century onwards Germany had several private or partially supported “cadet training schools.” These academies exposed the children of the German aristocracy and the upper middle class to the study of military tactics, organization, and discipline. A graduate of these schools could enter the army as an “Officer Aspirant” or Anwärter, a German title that translates as “candidate,” “applicant,” or “recruit,” and begin a two-year probationary period on active duty. During this time, the cadet was assigned to a so-called line unit, or regiment, and trained at the junior enlisted then mid- and senior-grade NCO levels. They received specialized training monitored at the division level, attended branch specific training courses at centralized locations and were field and academically tested to either fail or progress to the next level.

In the pre-war period, a German general by the name of Heinz Wilhelm Guderian was tasked with building the Wehrmacht’s 2nd Panzer Division. It was formed on the 15th October 1935, and was one of three tank divisions created at the time. General Guderian selected the newly promoted Major Hasso von Manteuffel from Kradschützen Bataillon 2, the same battalion in which Wilhelm von Hessen had been an officer cadet, to run the aspiring officer training program for the Panzer Division. Wilhelm von Hessen’s record as a cadet, then later as a reserve officer, has surfaced that informs us of his military service.

Quoting from Eaglehorse.org:

“Von Hessen, a minor member of a German royal family from Fulda, was highly connected to the old guard of Gernany. . .Hessen entered the Army as an aspirant officer in the reserves in 1935 with the 2 Krad in Eisenach. His title of Prince may have impressed some, but progression through the pre commissioning program was based solely on merit and achievement.

Von Hessen’s record does not specify the exact dates of advancement, however, as the unit moved to Bad Kissingen, his career clearly progressed. Perhaps at Manteuffel [EDITOR’S NOTE: BAD KISSINGEN] or in Austria [EDITOR’S NOTE: EISENSTADT, 36 MILES FROM VIENNA, AUSTRIA], he successfully passed his final examination and probationary period as a lieutenant and received his commission as a lieutenant in the reserve army with active-duty status. Upon formal commissioning, he already would have been a proven platoon leader.

Once the war began, still as a platoon leader, he was wounded in Poland and again in France. In 1941, with the campaign in Greece, he was a company commander with the K2, and, the following year, moved to a staff position with the higher command 2nd Schützen Regiment. Then, some months later, he took command of the regimental headquarters company. Continuing as a first lieutenant, as the war in Russia began and the 2nd Panzer Division was committed, he took command of Rifle Company 7 in the mechanized brigade and the same week that his promotion to captain was approved, was killed in action in April 1942.”

As I noted earlier, according to Wilhelm von Hessen’s entry in German Wikipedia he was a member of the 2nd SS Panzer Division. For this reason, I erroneously concluded that he died as a member of the SS. Confusing matters, it turns out that the Wehrmacht also had a 2nd Panzer Division, and this is the unit Wilhelm was a member of. The Wikipedia entry for the Wehrmacht’s 2nd Panzer Division matches the conflicts in Poland, France, Greece, and the Soviet Union which Wilhelm participated in according to the information in his file discussed above.

Let me turn now to another issue that may confuse readers as it did me. The SS seniority lists, the Dienstalterslisten, from 1936 and 1937 continue to include Wilhelm von Preussen’s name even though he is known by 1935 to have been in the cadet training school and as noted above assigned to the Wehrmacht’s Kradschützen Bataillon 2. This suggests Wilhelm continued to hold a commission within the SS. This possibility is supported by a sentence in Wikipedia tucked into the discussion about the Allgemeine SS: “SS members could also hold reserve commissions in the regular military as well as a Nazi Party-political rank.” This means that Wilhelm von Hessen could have been a member of the non-combative Allgemeine SS and worn their uniform, but also had a commission in the Wehrmacht and separately worn their uniform. In the case of the ca. 1935 picture Wilhelm is obviously wearing a black SS uniform while in seemingly contemporaneous photos he is in a Wehrmacht outfit. (Figure 10)

 

Figure 10. November 1936 photo of Wilhelm von Hessen in his Wehrmacht uniform with his wife Princess Marianne von Preußen at her sister Princess Luise’s marriage

 

I briefly summarize Wilhelm von Hessen’s trajectory in the Nazi Party, SS, and the Wehrmacht roughly as follows. He was admitted to the Nazi Party on the 1st of May 1932; joined the SS on the 20th of April 1934; transitioned to the cadet training school and the Wehrmacht around the 15th of October 1935 when the cadet school opened in Bad Kissengen; continued to retain a commission in the SS while in the Wehrmacht until 1937; fought as a member of the 2nd Panzer Division in Poland (1939), France (1940), Greece (1941), and the Soviet Union, before eventually being killed on the 30th of April 1942 in Russia.

Before closing out this lengthy post, I want to discuss two other documents related to Wilhelm von Hessen that were found.

Peter Albrecht ordered and sent me Wilhelm’s official death certificate he obtained from the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (VDK), Germany’s War Graves Commission. (Figures 11a-b) It confirms that Wilhelm was in a Wehrmacht unit as a Hauptmann (Captain), and that he was killed-in-action on the 30th of April 1942 in a place called Wyschegory, Russia. The VDK included a map of the location of Wyschegory. (Figure 12) They stated that an official casualty report does not provide a clear grave location, and that he likely could not be buried by his comrades. They noted that Wilhelm probably rests in an unmarked grave, and that if he’s eventually found he will be moved to a war cemetery in Germany. Wilhelm’s death was reported in the New York Times. (Figures 13a-b)

 

Figure 11a. Page 1 of letter with Prinz Wilhelm’s official death information obtained by Peter Albrecht from the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (VDK), Germany’s War Graves Commission

 

Figure 11b. Page 2 of letter with Prinz Wilhelm’s official death information obtained by Peter Albrecht from the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (VDK), Germany’s War Graves Commission

 

Figure 12. Map provided by the VDK showing location of Wyschegory where Wilhelm von Hessen was killed in relation to a place called Belyi, Russia

 

Figure 13a. Cover page from June 18, 1942, New York Times article reporting Wilhelm von Hessen’s death

 

Figure 13b. June 18, 1942, New York Times article reporting Wilhelm von Hessen’s death

 

  1. By way of historic context, Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, known as Operation Barbarossa, started on Sunday, the 22nd of June 1941. The failure of Operation Barbarossa reversed the fortunes of Nazi Germany. The German offensive came to an end during the Battle of Moscow near the end of 1941 and resulted in the Wehrmacht’s defeat and the eventual collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Possibly, Wilhelm’s unit was retreating westward following the Battles of Rzhev (Tver Oblast, Russia) when he was killed near Belyi (Tver Oblast, Russia). Belyi is about 74 miles west-southwest of Rzhev. (Figure 14) The likelihood that Wilhelm was involved in the Battles of Rzhev is conjecture.

 

Figure 14. Map showing the relation of Rzhev where battles were fought to Belyi, near where Wilhelm von Hessen died

 

While I found Wilhelm’s military personnel card in ancestry, I also found his “death certificate” from Herleshausen in the German state of Hesse. (Figures 15a-b) The page is from the town’s civil registry book. This certificate was completed on the 7th of August 1942, so several months following Wilhelm’s death in Russia. Herleshausen is where Wilhelm and his wife and children lived in a castle now owned by his great-grandson.

 

 

Figure 15a. Cover page of Wilhelm von Hessen’s death certificate from Herleshausen, Hesse completed on the 7th of August 1942, more than three months after his death

 

Figure 15b. Wilhelm von Hessen’s death certificate from Herleshausen, Hesse completed on the 7th of August 1942, more than three months after his death

 

 

Below is a transcription and translation of the page:

TRANSCRIPTION:

Nr. 16   –   Herleshausen, den 7. August 1942 Der Hauptmann der Reserve Prinz und Landgraf Wilhelm von Hessen, gottgläubig, wohnhaft in Herleshausen Schloss Augustenau ist am 30. April 1942 um — Uhr — Minuten (Todesstunde unbekannt) bei Wyschegory, östlicher Kriegsschauplatz, verstorben.

Der Verstorbene war geboren am 1. März 1905 in Rotenburg an der Fulda (Standesamt Rotenburg Nr. 21).

Vater: Landgraf Chlodwig von Hessen
Mutter: Landgräfin Karoline von Hessen geborene Prinzessin zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

Der Verstorbene war verheiratet mit der Prinzessin Marianne von Hessen geborene Prinzessin von Preußen.

Eingetragen auf schriftliche Anzeige der Wehrmachtauskunftstelle für Kriegesverluste und Kriegsgefangene.

Todesursache: gefallen

Eheschließung des Verstorbenen am 30.1.1933 in Tabarz (Standesamt Tabarz Nr. 2 / 33)

REMARK TOP LEFT:

Herleshausen, den 22. August 1962

Auf Anordnung des Amtsgerichts in Kassel vom 7. Mai 1962 ( 1 III 52/61) wird berichtigend vermerkt, dass der Name des Verstorbenen

Wilhelm Ernst Alexis Hermann Prinz und Landgraf von Hessen

(nicht Prinz und Landgraf Wilhelm von Hessen) lautet.

TRANSLATION

No. 16 – Herleshausen, the 7. August 1942

The captain of the reserve Prince and Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse (Figure 16), a believer in God, residing in Herleshausen Castle Augustenau is on 30. April 1942 at — clock — minutes (death hour unknown) at Wyschegory, eastern theater of war, died.

The deceased was born on the 1st. March 1905 in Rotenburg an der Fulda (Rotenburg Registry Office No. 21).

Father: Landgrave Chlodwig of Hesse

Mother: Landgrave Karoline of Hesse born Princess of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich

The deceased was married to Princess Marianne of Hesse, born Princess of Prussia.

Registered on written notification of the Wehrmacht information office for war losses and prisoners of war.

Cause of death: fallen

Marriage of the deceased on 30.1.1933 in Tabarz (Registry Office Tabarz No. 2 / 33)

TRANSLATION—REMARK UPPER LEFT

Herleshausen, the 22. August 1962

By order of the district court in Kassel of 7. May 1962 (III 52/61) is corrected that the name of the deceased

Wilhelm Ernst Alexis Hermann Prince and Landgrave of Hesse

(Not Prince and Landgrave Wilhelm of Hesse).

 

Figure 16. A formal photo of Lieutenant Prinz Wilhelm von Hessen while assigned to the K2

 

One final observation. After the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the termination of Germany’s monarchy following their loss in WWI, the nobility was no longer legally recognized in Germany. While noble titles and designations are still commonly used as part of family names, the 1962 remark in the upper left of Wilhelm’s death certificate is an acknowledgment of this new reality where the title “Prince” is added after his name rather than before.

REFERENCES

2nd Panzer Division (Wehrmacht).” Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, 23rd September 2024.

Allgemeine SS.” Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, 24 August 2023. Allgemeine SS – Wikipedia

Cadets: The Hidden Stories: 1970-From Starch to Permanent Press. Eaglehorse.org.

http://www.eaglehorse.org/home_station/hidden_stories/70s/cadets/cadets.htm

“Wilhelm von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (1905–1942).” Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, 20 January 2024. Wilhelm von Hessen-Philippsthal-Barchfeld (1905–1942) – Wikipedia

 

POST 110: DR. WALTER LUSTIG, DIRECTOR OF BERLIN’S “KRANKENHAUS DER JÜDISCHEN GEMEINDE” (HOSPITAL OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY) THAT SURVIVED THE NAZIS

 

Note: The Blog post is about Berlin’s Jewish Community Hospital that inexplicably outlasted the Nazis, and its wartime Director, Dr. Walter Lustig, born in Ratibor, Germany, the same town where my father was born.

Related Posts:

POST 13, POSTSCRIPT: THE FORMER JEWISH CEMETERY IN RATIBOR (RACIBÓRZ)

POST 48: DR. ERNST NEISSER’S FINAL DAYS IN 1942 IN THE WORDS OF HIS DAUGHTER

POST 49: GUIDE TO THE “LANDESARCHIV BERLIN” (BERLIN STATE ARCHIVE) CIVIL REGISTRY RECORDS

POST 107: HARRO WUNDSCH (HARRY POWELL), A “DUNERA BOY” INTERNED IN THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK

 

This post has to do with my family only insofar as Dr. Walter Lustig, the man at the center of this story, was born in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland], the town in Upper Silesia where my father and many of his family were born. From around 1942 until shortly after WWII ended in April 1945 Dr. Lustig was the Director of Berlin’s Krankenhaus der Jüdischen Gemeinde, the Hospital of the Jewish Community, a Jewish institution that miraculously withstood the Nazi onslaught.

This assault on German Jews left only between 5,000 and 6,000 Jews alive in Germany by the end of the war, compared to 500,000 Jews living there towards the end of the Weimar Republic in 1933 when the Nazis seized power. By the time WWII started in 1939 two-thirds of these Jews had emigrated, though there still remained roughly 167,000 Jews in Germany in 1941, most of whom would be murdered.

Berlin’s Jewish Hospital is 265 years old. It was originally built in 1756 on Oranienburger Strasse near the Jewish cemetery in Berlin. Then, during Berlin’s mid-nineteenth century economic expansion that was due in large measure to its entrepreneurial Jewish population, the Jewish community built the city’s first general hospital, one of the largest of its kind, on Auguststrasse; it was built primarily to serve the needs of the Jewish population. As the years passed, even this structure proved inadequate, so in 1913, the current hospital along Iranischestrasse opened on the site it occupies today (Figure 1); there were seven principal buildings, together with ancillary structures. Presently, the hospital is located in the Wedding locality in the borough of “Berlin-Mitte” (Figure 2), which prior to 2001 was a separate borough in the northwestern part of Berlin.

 

Figure 1. The main building of the “Krankenhaus Der Jüdischen Gemeinde” (Hospital of The Jewish Community) that opened in 1914 along Iranischestrasse

 

Figure 2. Map of Berlin’s 12 existing Boroughs and the neighborhoods in each, with Berlin-Mitte circled including the neighborhood of “Wedding” where Berlin’s Jewish Hospital is situated today

 

I have briefly mentioned Berlin’s Jewish Hospital in connection with three previous Blog posts. In Posts 48 and 49, I related the story of how one of my distant relatives, Dr. Ernst Neisser, was taken there on the morning of October 1, 1942, following his attempted suicide after being told to report to an “old age transport,” a euphemism for deportation to a concentration camp; fortunately, he survived only three days until October 4th before succumbing to his trauma. I say “fortunately” because the fear among Jews who attempted suicide is they would be resuscitated only to then be shipped to a concentration camp and gassed there.

According to a Jerusalem Post article by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, published on June 23, 2007, entitled “A hospital with history,” numerous Berlin Jews, like Dr. Ernst Neisser, who attempted suicide with gas or sleeping pills in the face of deportations ended up in Berlin’s Jewish Hospital for treatment, the only hospital that would still treat Jews during the Nazi era. According to this article, upwards of 7,000 Berlin Jews killed themselves before the Nazi dictatorship fell. Although Jews committed suicide in all sorts of ways, by far the most common method involved the ingestion of a poison such as potassium cyanide or an overdose of an opiate or sedative, usually Veronal.

Then, in Post 107, I mentioned an English lady named Kathy York, whose grandmother Maria Wundsch née Pauly (Figure 3), a distant relative of mine, worked at Berlin’s Jewish Hospital during WWII when Dr. Lustig was the Director there. Kathy tells me letters written about her grandmother’s fraught time working at the hospital exist, but these have yet to surface.

 

Figure 3. Dr. Maria Wundsch née Pauly with her husband Dr. Hans Helmut Wundsch as a young married couple; Maria Wundsch, a full Jew, worked at Berlin’s during the war and likely survived because she was in a mixed marriage (photo courtesy of Kathy York)

 

I previously also told readers about Daniel B. Silver’s book about the hospital, entitled, “Refuge in Hell: How Berlin’s Jewish Hospital Outlasted the Nazis.” I have relied heavily on this book in describing Dr. Lustig’s tenure as Director of the hospital and the hospital’s situation during the war. It is not my intention here to thoroughly review what interested followers can easily read for themselves, but rather to bring to light a few findings and connections I made on my own that add a little to the story. This said, some background about Dr. Walter Lustig and his wartime administration of the hospital are warranted.

After fierce street-to-street fighting against entrenched remnants of Hitler’s SS, on April 24, 1945, Russian soldiers had finally succeeded in wresting control from the Nazis of a stretch of Iranischestrasse that included the battle-scarred buildings of the “Krankenhaus Der Jüdischen Gemeinde” (Hospital of The Jewish Community). There they found hundreds of people including doctors, nurses, patients, workmen, and others who claimed to be Jewish. The Russians did not initially give credence to their assertions believing Joseph Goebbels’ 1943 declaration, chief propagandist for the Nazi party, that Berlin was “Judenrein,” or “Judenfrei,” meaning “cleansed (or free) of Jews,” according to National Socialist terminology applied in the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.” Eventually the survivors convinced their Russian liberators they were Jews who had inexplicably outlasted the Nazis.

At the time of liberation, three of the hospital’s seven main buildings were no longer a part of the hospital. In late 1942, the German Army, the Wehrmacht, had expropriated the nurses’ residence, the Schwesterheim, as well as buildings that had housed the gynecology and infectious disease departments, for use as a military hospital, the Lazarett. Then, in 1944, the Gestapo appropriated and fenced off the hospital’s pathology laboratory and an adjacent gatehouse to use as a Sammellager, a collection camp for Jewish deportees. By 1944, most of Berlin’s remaining Jews had already been deported so a single, smaller holding facility now sufficed.

According to Daniel B. Silver, several published sources report the hospital’s population at the time of liberation at around 800. However, Hilda Kahan, Dr. Lustig’s secretary throughout his tenure as Director of the Jewish Community Hospital, states in a videotaped interview that the number was closer 500. Regardless of the precise number, they represented a large proportion of Germany’s identifiable Jews as they were defined by the Nazis. Statistics a young Jewish woman was compelled to maintain for the Gestapo on a monthly basis indicate only 6,284 known Jews remained in Berlin on February 28, 1945. (Silver, 2003, p. 2)

Included in the final number of Jews found at the Hospital upon its liberation, according to Daniel Silver “. . .were patients and members of the medical, nursing, and support staff who had taken up residence in the hospital at various times, either because they had been bombed out or evicted as Jews from their former homes or because they were slave laborers assigned to work at the hospital. Also on hand were the remnants of groups of Jews who had been transferred to the hospital when the Nazis closed other Jewish institutions in Germany, such as orphanages and old age homes. Most of these unfortunates had been deported before the war ended, but some remained in April 1945. Among them were a handful of abandoned children who were suspected of being fully Jewish but whose ‘racial’ status had not been definitively determined. The Nazis had used the hospital as a kind of ghetto to which they consigned Jews who had nowhere else to live or whose status was ambiguous. These included Jews of foreign nationality and Jews who were being held there as potential bargaining chips in negotiating exchanges for German nationals captured in Palestine. The authorities also used the hospital to house Jews who had been brought to Berlin from other cities in Germany as part of a Nazi effort to separate them from their Aryan spouses. This was intended as a first step in overcoming the political and legal barriers to the deportation of Jewish men who lived in mixed marriages and whose Aryan spouses refused to divorce them despite Gestapo pressure to do so.” (2003, p. 8) As Winter further notes, “Most of the hospital population were half-Jews or spouses of Aryans. As such, they had been protected by Nazi rules that everyone knew could be changed at any time.” (2003, p. 12)

Also included among the “patients” were several Jews not receiving medical treatment who were protected from deportation by one or another prominent Nazi; this may have included Jews who had illicit affairs with well-placed Nazis, childhood friends of important Nazis who sought to protect them, Jews who had bribed high-ranking Nazis, or other cases whose reasons can only be guessed. A “lucky” group of survivors included Jews who had been incarcerated in the hospital’s auxiliary police ward, the so-called Polizeistation. These were Jews who fell ill while already in the hands of the police, Gestapo, or SS who for unknown reasons the Nazis sought to restore to health before killing them. Unbelievable!

My family’s remote association to Berlin’s Jewish Community Hospital and its miraculous survival through WWII, in addition to the hospital’s wartime Director’s connection to Ratibor, the same town in Upper Silesia where my father was born, drew my interest in writing this Blog post. Hoping I might be able to add a little to what has already been written and is known about Dr. Walter Lustig, I contacted Mr. Paul Newerla (Figure 4), my retired lawyer friend from Racibórz who now researches and writes about the history of the town and Silesia and asked whether he could track down a copy of Dr. Walter Lustig’s birth certificate at the archive. Paul graciously agreed to help. He not only was able to locate Dr. Lustig’s birth certificate, but the Racibórz archives also provided a legal document related to Dr. Walter Lustig’s father, Bernhard Lustig, dated the 22nd of March 1939. I will discuss this in further detail below.

 

Figure 4. With my friend Paul Newerla, retired lawyer and Silesian historian, standing by the statue of John of Nepomuk, located in middle of a parking lot in Racibórz

 

First, let me tell readers a little about Walter Lustig. He was born as Walter Simon Lustig on the 10th of August 1891 in Ratibor, the son of the merchant Bernhard Lustig and his wife Regina Lustig née Besser. He graduated from the local gymnasium in March 1910 and enrolled at the University of Breslau in October of the same year. He studied medicine, specializing in surgery, and received his medical degree and license in the spring of 1915. He was drafted during WWI and served as a military doctor. During his wartime stint, he obtained a Ph.D., also in medicine. His military service was performed in Breslau, where he treated casualties from the eastern front. After the war he worked in public administration while maintaining a private medical practice; he spent most of his career as a medical administrator. He wrote prolifically on medical subjects.

Clearly driven to advance professionally, in 1927 he relocated to Berlin. His move there coincided with two changes that had far-reaching consequences. He married a non-Jewish physician, Dr. Annemarie Preuss, and took a job with the Berlin police department where he became acquainted with Fritz Wöhrn and Rolf Günther who eventually became Adolf Eichmann’s key aides in overseeing the hospital. It was Adolf Eichmann’s department in the Reichssicherbeitshauptamt (RSHA), the Reich Security Main Office, that had formal jurisdiction over the Jewish hospital.

According to Daniel Silver, Lustig “. . .advanced within the police hierarchy until in 1929 he was appointed to the position of director of the Police Presidium’s medical affairs department. He held the prestigious bureaucratic titles of Oberregierungsrat (chief administrative counselor) and Obermedizinalrat (chief medical counselor).” (2003, p. 24-25) The police department had broad administrative responsibilities that extended beyond criminal matters, and included overseeing health matters in schools, institutions, and group care facilities, and conducting occupational training for medical personnel; suffice it to say, this brought Lustig into contact with many senior government officials and leaders in the medical community.

In October 1933, Lustig lost his job because of the issuance of the Nazis’ Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (“Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums”). This law initially exempted veterans of WWI such as Lustig but because he had been stationed in Breslau and not on the eastern front, the exemption did not apply to him, and he lost his position. At some time, between 1933 and 1935 Lustig was employed by the health department of the Berlin Jewish Gemeinde, or community (more on this below). According to Daniel Silver, when exactly Lustig was employed by the Gemeinde, and what his exact duties were are unknown, though he apparently became active in matters relating to the Jewish hospital around this time. Regardless, Lustig proved as adept at rising in the official Jewish bureaucracy at the Gemeinde as he had rising through the ranks of the Berlin police department.

Without overwhelming readers with the tangled structure of the Jewish community, it is still worth reviewing the hospital’s situation following the events of Kristallnacht that took place on the 9-10 November 1938 to provide context for Dr. Lustig’s powerful administrative position during the war. In a structure that prevailed before the Nazis came to power and still exists today, every religious denomination was organized into a Gemeinde, depending on context, roughly translated as community, municipality, congregation, or parish. Prior to the Nazis seizing power in 1933, the Gemeinde in smaller cities resisted the formation of a central Jewish organization fearing it would be dominated by the Berlin Gemende. Eventually the reality of the Nazi takeover overtook regional concerns, and a central organization called the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden, or Central Representation of German Jews, was formed. It was renamed after 1935 to “Jews in Germany,” a significant distinction meant to signal that Jews were no longer to be considered Germans.

As the remaining German Jews became more concentrated in Berlin over time, the distinction between the Berlin Gemeinde and the Reichsvertretung became blurrier with many officials holding parallel positions in both organizations. After Kristallnacht, the Reichsvertretung was dissolved by the Nazis, only to be resurrected when the Nazis realized this organization facilitated emigration, which at the time the Nazis were encouraging. Consequently, a new Jewish central organization was organized, substituting the word Reichsvereinigung (central organization) for Reichsvertretung (central representation). Membership in this organization was compulsory for every Jew, which was created to better discriminate against and control the Jewish population. It was under tight Gestapo supervision.

Daniel Silver summarizes the hospital’s situation by 1941: “So it was that by 1941 the hospital functioned under the organization umbrella of the Reichsvereiningung, although, through the Gemeinde health department, it still maintained a formal relationship to the Berlin Gemeinde. The most important aspect of the new arrangements that began in 1938 was that, through the Reichsvereiningung, the hospital was placed under the direct supervision of Department IV B 4 of the RSHA. Originally this had been the department in charge of ‘Jewish emigration and evacuation.’ By 1941 it had become the department for ‘Jewish affairs and evacuation,’ emigration having been largely abandoned as a Nazi objective. Its head was Adolf Eichmann, the bureaucratic mastermind of the Final Solution.” (2003, p. 40)

Measures taken against Jewish professionals which began in 1933 with passage of the Nuremberg racial laws that pushed Jewish doctors out of jobs in non-Jewish clinics had a profound effect on the makeup of the Jewish hospital’s professional staff as it stood in 1941. Things came to a head with the decree of July 25, 1938, when all Jewish physicians, of which there were about 3,000 at the time in the Reich, were stripped of their medical licenses. By September, a limit of 700 Jewish physicians, referred to by the degrading title of Krankenbehandler, or “carer for the sick,” were restricted to treating Jewish patients or working in Jewish institutions.

Ironically, one of the beneficiaries of this provision was Walter Lustig. While many of Lustig’s contemporaries had by 1938 decided to emigrate, he consciously decided not to do so. Whether this was hubris or his marriage to an Aryan that he thought afforded him some protection or his previous relationship with Nazis during his days in the Berlin police department, Lustig benefited from others’ departures to rise in the Jewish hierarchy. Daniel Silver describes it as follows: “When his boss in the Gemeinde/Reichsvereinigung health department, Erich Seligmann, left Germany for the United States in 1939, Lustig took over his position. In July 1939, the Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt (Jewish chronicle) described him as the person who henceforth would be responsible for health matters within the Reichsvereinigung. In that capacity, he played a key role in filling vacancies that opened up at the hospital because of the emigration of members of the medical staff. At some point in 1940 or 1941 (exactly when is unclear), he was appointed as the Gesundheitsdesernent, or chief of the health department (of the Gemeinde), and thus became a member of the governing board of the Reichsvereinigung.” (2003, p. 43)

Eventually in around October 1942, Walter Lustig became the hospital’s director after the previous director Dr. Schoenfeld and his wife killed themselves; they had been among 100 Gemeinde and Reichsvereinigung officials handpicked in the second major deportation of communal officials, a selection Lustig was compelled to participate in after initially demurring. From 1942 onward, he was repeatedly forced to aid in the selection of hospital staff for deportation, and according to Daniel Silver was “. . .arguably the most powerful figure of German Jewry and the absolute master of the hospital.”

Again, quoting Daniel Silver, “For many, Lustig’s name evokes predominantly negative feelings. According to one source, ‘The name Walter Lustig awakens even today vigorous aversion among Jewish witnesses of the events.’ Yet even his detractors give grudging credit to his talents and to his accomplishment in keeping the hospital open through the final years of the Nazi regime. His contemporaries describe him in wildly differing terms—turncoat and Gestapo collaborator; savior of the hospital; the man who sent hundreds of Jews to their death; the man who saved hundreds of Jews from the camps; a protector of children; a lecher.” (2003, p. 26) Further complicating how Lustig is viewed in hindsight is the criticism that he was unsympathetic to the plight of his fellow Jews and that he was a Jewish anti-Semite, and that his mistresses may have influenced the people he selected for deportation. More on his purported anti-Semitism below.

At the time Mr. Winter published his book in 2003, he stated there were no known pictures of Walter Lustig. (2003, p. 26) While writing this Blog post, I was able to establish email contact with Daniel Winter, who formerly served as the general counsel to the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Service. He mentioned that following the publication of his book students from the University of Potsdam, outside Berlin, found a picture of Walter Lustig while developing a traveling exhibit about Berlin’s Jewish Hospital. Unable to locate his copy of this image, I have separately contacted the University of Potsdam hoping they might find and send me one. I’m optimistic about sharing it with readers in the future.

Figure 5. Mr. Roger Lustig, expert on Jewish families of Prussian Poland, whose father Ernst Lustig was a distant cousin of Dr. Walter Lustig, the wartime Director of Berlin’s Jewish Hospital

Relatedly, about ten years ago, I attended a talk sponsored by the Los Angeles Jewish Genealogical Society given by a Mr. Roger Lustig (Figure 5), who specializes in research on Jewish families of Prussian Poland, and is a top expert on general German Jewish research. This talk was given just before my planned 13-week trip to Europe to follow in the footsteps of my Jewish family’s diaspora. I contacted Roger asking whether he might be able to refer me to someone in Racibórz who could help me. Because Roger also has ancestors from there, he was happy to assist. Over the years, we’ve periodically stayed in touch. Naturally assuming that Roger might in some way be related to Walter Lustig because of the common surname and their respective connections to Ratibor, while writing this Blog post, I asked him whether he might have Walter’s photograph. He was unable to help explaining that because Dr. Lustig was a short man, about 5’2”, he was self-conscious about being photographed. This comports with how informants described Lustig to Daniel Silver, namely, that he was small. (2003, p. 26) Others added that he was a “small, delicate person” and that he had “cold stabbing eyes—terrible eyes.” Another informant reported that Lustig was very Germanic in appearance, a man who “‘looked like a major from the First World War,’ with spectacles and a big moustache.” (2003, p. 26)

Roger Lustig pointed out something interesting to me during our recent exchange that speaks to whether Walter was anti-Semite. While writing his book, Silver coincidentally interviewed Roger Lustig’s father, Ernst Lustig, who addressed this question (i.e., Ernst Lustig’s great-great-grandfather was the brother of Walter Lustig’s great-grandfather (2003, p. 176)): “The characterization of Lustig as a Jewish anti-Semite is at odds with the reaction of his distant cousin Ernst Lustig. In a brief and anguished commentary on the judgment in the Wöhrn trial, Ernst Lustig expresses surprise and shock at the unfavorable way Walter Lustig is described. ‘What is difficult for me to comprehend,’ he writes, ‘is how this man could develop such a horrible attitude toward Jews when he himself was a flawless Jew.’ He remembers his cousin as a man who maintained friendly relations with his Jewish relatives, a man whom he knew as ‘Uncle Walter,’ and a man who once provided Ernst’s father with a genealogical sketch of the family that descended from Dr. Lustig’s great-grandfather Abraham, who had lived in the town of Adamowitz. This seems out of character with the picture of Walter Lustig as a man who took no interest in his Jewish roots, although it is true that the time in question, 1937-38, was already after the date when Walter Lustig decided to throw his lot in with the Jewish community to which the Nazis in any event had irrevocably assigned him.” (2003, p. 215)

It is difficult to reconcile the differing judgements of Walter Lustig. On the one hand, there is the man who selected colleagues and fellow employees for deportation, while on the other was a man who occasionally came to the rescue of assistants who’d been arrested by the Nazis. Then, in March 1943, the Gestapo showed up with trucks in front of the administrative building prepared to deport the entire establishment, patients, doctors, nurses, and all other employees; it was only Lustig’s call to Adolf Eichmann that forced the Gestapo to stand down, though it resulted in fully half of Lustig’s workmates being arrested. As Silver asks, “Did Lustig originate this Faustian bargain, offering up fully half of the total number of his professional colleagues and employees as the price for saving the hospital, and thereby himself and his job? Or was this decision imposed on him in circumstances over he which he had no control whatsoever? It is unlikely that anyone will ever know.” (2003, p. 143)

It is worth noting that while the RSHA and the Gestapo were technically part of the same organization and under the authority of the same leader, SS Führer Heinrich Himmler, the German bureaucracy was teeming with internal rivalries and tensions (2003, p. 141), a situation which may partially explain why the Jewish hospital survived the war. For all of Lustig’s purported influence with the Gestapo, he was unable to save his own father from being deported to Theresienstadt in 1943. (2003, p. 173 & p. 221)

Longtime followers of my Blog may recall the postscript to Post 13 about the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor. In that post, I explained the role a Polish gentleman named Mr. Kazimierz Świetliński played in photographing all the headstones of the graves before the cemetery was demolished during Poland’s Communist Era. At a time when purchasing film and processing black-and-white negatives cost a lot, Kazimierz photographed, developed, created a portfolio with a site plan, and donated all his work to the Muzeum Raciborzu to be archived. After learning about these images, I arranged to photograph all the images in 2015. Recalling these and the accompanying Excel database, I scrolled through them and discovered they include a photo of Walter Lustig’s mother’s headstone, Regina Lustig née Besser. (Figure 6) As mentioned above, Walter’s father, Bernhard Lustig, was deported to Theresienstadt where he died, so obviously no picture of his gravestone exists.

 

Figure 6. The headstone of Dr. Walter Lustig’s mother, Regina Lustig née Besser (1866-1914), interred in the former Jewish Cemetery in Racibórz (photo courtesy of Kazimierz Świetliński)

 

Walter’s birth certificate, which my dear friend Mr. Paul Newerla was able to obtain from the Racibórz archives confirmed Walter’s date of birth, the 10th of August 1891, and his parentage. (Figures 7a-b) As I mentioned above, while Paul was searching for Walter Lustig’s birth certificate, the archives stumbled upon a legal document related to Bernhard Lustig dated the 22nd of March 1939. (Figures 8a-g) At the time Bernhard was 82 years of age indicating he’d been born in 1857; I would later learn he was born on the 6th of February 1857. Because he was in frail health at the time, Bernhard Lustig had requested that a Mr. Arthur “Israel” Stein be appointed as his guardian, which the courts granted. Despite his failing health, four years later the Nazis deported him to Theresienstadt, where he perished. One can only imagine the cruel circumstances under which Bernhard died.

 

Figure 7a. Copy of Walter Simon Lustig’s Ratibor birth certificate, Certificate No. 391, showing he was born on the 10th of August 1891 to Bernhard Lustig and Regina Besser née Besser, and that he was given the added name “Israel” on the 1st of January 1939

 

Figure 7b. Transcription & translation of Walter Lustig’s birth certificate

 

Figure 8a. Page 1 of a legal document dated the 22nd of March 1939 regarding Dr. Walter Lustig’s father, the merchant Bernhard Lustig

 

Figure 8b. Page 2 of the legal document related to Bernhard Lustig

 

Figure 8c. Page 3 of the legal document related to Bernhard Lustig

 

Figure 8d. Page 4 of the legal document related to Bernhard Lustig

 

Figure 8e. Page 5 of the legal document related to Bernhard Lustig

 

Figure 8f. Transcription of the first two pages of the legal document regarding Bernhard Lustig

 

Figure 8g. Translation of the first two pages of the legal document regarding Bernhard Lustig

 

Interestingly, the legal document Bernhard submitted to the court also requested that he be allowed to submit a corrected declaration of value for assets he’d mistakenly overvalued; this resulted in overpayment of the “Jewish expiation tax,” for which he sought reimbursement. It seems unlikely the courts ever acted upon this request.

From 1945 to the present, most people have expressed incredulity that the Nazis permitted an identifiable Jewish institution to continue to exist in Berlin, a city Goebbels had declared in 1943 “cleansed of Jews.” Mr. Silver offers possible explanations: 1) the Nazis saw the hospital as playing a useful role in the large-scale deportations during a time when all other Jewish organizations and institutions had been eliminated (2003, p. 62); 2) earlier in the war, before the large-scale deportation of most Jews, it is possible the Nazis allowed the hospital to survive to provide for the treatment of Jews who could spread epidemics to the general Aryan population (2003, p. 235-6); 3) for bureaucratic convenience, that’s to say, as a place in which the Gestapo could establish a kind of ghetto (2003, p. 237); and 4) for reasons of ambition, Adolf Eichmann may have stage-managed the transfer of the land and buildings the hospital occupied to a small powerless agency, the Academy of Youth Medicine, which he could easily control and thereby preserve the hospital and the site he coveted. (2003, p. 238)

Let me end this lengthy post by briefly discussing what is known about Walter Lustig’s fate. Following the war, the hospital fell into the Soviet-administered zone of Berlin. By then, Lustig had been appointed by the occupation-controlled local government as the director of health services for the Wedding district and had turned over the administration of the hospital to his aide Ehrich Zwilsky. Incredibly, Lustig had remained head of the Reichsvereinigung and had even petitioned the Soviet authorities to have it converted to the new Jewish Gemeinde, with himself as the head. His ambition clearly clouded his judgement; a more prudent course might have compelled him to flee, given the overall negative verdict by many who worked with him and thought he was a turncoat and Gestapo collaborator. Regardless, in June 1945, according to Ruth Bileski, a young Jewish woman sent in 1943 as a forced laborer to work in Lustig’s office, he was taken away accompanied by two uniformed Soviet officers, never to be seen again. Some claim he may have stage-managed his own disappearance to avoid being tried, although the likelier outcome is that he was killed by the Soviets.

REFERENCES

Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy. “A hospital with history.” Jerusalem Post, June 23, 2007, https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=Siegel-Itzkovich%2c+Judy.+%e2%80%9cA+hospital+with+history&d=4898311699633967&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=KvOBC3e8wZezfu1SQux0Q8WOOLP6t1uU

Silver, Daniel B. Refuge in Hell: How Berlin’s Jewish Hospital Outlasted the Nazis. Houghton Mifflin, 2003.