DOCSLIB.ORG

International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION Vol

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION Vol International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION Vol. XXIII No 2 2017 THE STRUCTURE AND METHODS OF GRUPPE 6 E FROM GERMAN SECRET SERVICE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR Marian ZIDARU ”Andrei Saguna” University, Constanta, Romania [email protected] Abstract: In this paper I present the general background picture of the development of Gruppe (group) 6 E from German Secret Service. As a result, for the personal interest of Ernst Kaltenbrunner in the work of the Gruppe, 6E developed a working basis which differs from the normal functioning of the other Laendergruppen (groups of countries), a tendency which became more marked after the transfer of the central office from Berlin to Vienna in 1943. A liaison officer only remained in Berlin. This paper presents the final structure of the Gruppe and the leading personnel, and it is under this final organization that the work of the Gruppe in the Balkan States. The Gruppe maintained liaison officers with the Herman Neubacher and Altenberg Dienststellen (Altenberg offices), these liaison officers being directly subordinated to the Gruppenleiter (Group leader). In common with the outside offices, with which he kept in personal contact, and an Auswerter (analyst) responsible for the evaluation and dissemination of information. The Referate (Abstrat) conducted their operation through the Hauptbeauftragte (Chief Comissioner) working in the various countries under suitable cover. Keywords: Referate, Kaltenbrunner, Balkan states, Gruppe 6 E 1. The Origins was concerned solely with the security of The Sicherheitsdienst (SD-Security German industry. In this capacity it worked Service) was created in 1933 by Reinhard in close collaboration with Abteilung Heydrich as the intelligence service of the (Department) III of the Abwehr (German NSDAP (Nazi Party). In the early stage the Military Intelligence) and with the SD did not operate completely Gestapoamt (Gestapo Office). The independently of the party as its early Abteilung developed gradually, and by functions tended to overlap with those of 1937 became, in the reorganization of the other sections in the party, which did not SD-Hauptamt (main office from SD), Amt welcome its creation. The following (Office) III. The new Amt III was itself account therefore of the development of SD subdivided into three section of which activities tends to be misleadingly Abteilung (Department) III/3 contained the simplified, and this factor should be borne germ of the subsequent Amt (office) VI of in mind. It is only at a much later date that the RSHA (Reich Main Security Office). the SD as an Intelligence service became clearly defined and separated from the other 2. The Development of the Work activities of the Nazis parties. By 1934 of Abteilung III/3 Heinz Jost, later to become Amstchef (chief Amt III functioned in its early stages of office) VI, had been given the task of through the then existing SD organization setting up what became Abteilung of Oberabschnitte and its subordinate (Department) VI of the SD-Haupamtan- formations throughout Germany. The Abteilung (Haupamtan Department) whose development of its work was most marked function was essentially a security one and in Eastern Europe where it gradually DOI: 10.1515/kbo-2017-0147 © 2017. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License. 388 assumed a more positive role in German of the Anschluss to the future of the SD was industry acting latterly as a positive that it represented the first offensive espionage service as against security operation undertaken by it, and the Service, and was able to provide the SD- significance of this success was not lost on Hauptamt (SD-main Office) with a fairly Reinhard Heydrich. Equally important, picture of the German industry and its though the importance was not immediately productive capacity. This development of apparent, was the effect of the Anchluss Amt (office) III work was a general one (Austria Annexation) on the subsequent throughout Germany but in the East a history of Gruppe (group) VI E. Prominent further line of development was taking among the figures who had played a leading place as early as 1937. The Oberabschnitte part in the underground movement in (Upper sections), in Eastern Germany Austria prior to the Anschluss were Ernst began to act as collecting centers of Kaltenbrunner and Hermman Neubacher, information on political trends in those both of whom were to be closely identified countries sharing a common frontier in with the work of VI E subsequent to Germany but in the East, especially Heydrich late in 1942. In addition, the SD- Czechoslovakia and Austria, where the Leitabschnitt (SD-guide section) which was large pro-German minority groups served set up in Vienna immediately after the as a source of information the constant Anschluss had among its personnel some passage backwards and forwards across the offices who were to become leading frontiers. members of VIE. It was in fact the It was these two tendencies in the work of Anschluss which gave birth to the ‘Austrian Abteilung (Department) III/3, its ability to Group’ which was to play an important part act as an espionage rather than a security in the subsequent history not only of service, and the readiness with which it Gruppe (group) VI E, but in the could extend its could extend its interest development and dissolution of Amt from Heydrich to the extent of instructed (office) VI. Jost to prepare the foundation Abteilung The fundamental change of policy which III/3. In this Jost was merely given his this new departure involved was that the general conception being that Jost should new service should work quite exploit to establish good contacts in independently of the existing business circles and to develop the facilities Oberabschnitte (Upper sections), which which the Oberabschnitte near the German would confine themselves to their normal frontier provided for espionage activities SD functions. In their place it was proposed outsides the Reich. to set up the so-called Blockstollen (block The factor however which had been chiefly tunnel) to act as the focal points from which instrumental in influencing Heydrich’s the envisaged espionage activities could be decision to attempt directed. In point of fact only three such Auslandsnachrichtendienst (Foreign Blockstollen were created-at Hof under intelligence service) was the part played by Hans Christian Daufeldt (later to become the SD in the Anscluss (annexation) with Gruppenleiter (group leader) VID), at Tilsit Austria in March 1938. The role of the SD under Heinz Graefe (later Gruppenleiter was a prominent one, though the direction VIC), and at Vienna under Hastuf (captain) of its activities had be from a very much Groebl (later employed by Amt (Office) VI higher level than Jost as Leiter (leader) of as its representative in Switzerland and Abteilung III/3. The SD had functioned as subsequently in Rome). But even these the liaison between the underground Nazi three Blockstellen had been set up only in Party in Austria and the governmental the face of considerable opposition from the authorities in Germany, but the importance Leiter of the SD- Oberabschnitte, who 389 regarded themselves as the proper channel intelligence services) based on Jost’s for SD reports, irrespective of the extended Abteilung III/3, the new service becoming scope of the, new stations. The Blockstellen Amt (Office) VI. The creation of Amt VI were not destined by the subsequent course was in fact a recognition of the work of of events to have a long history, but they Amt III in the preceding year; the security played an important part in the events functions of Amt III in the new Amt TV leading up to the creation of Amt (Office) and Amt VI became an offensive and not a VI. defensive service. It was Werner Goettsch who acted as the The General Position in the Early Stages: It intermediary between the Foreign Office will be appreciated from the account given and Jozef Tiso in accordance with the plan in Part 1 that of the new Grupped formed previously conceived by Ribbentrop for the under Amt VI that dealing with South- political crisis. The information received Eastern Europe was in the most favorable through the Blockatlle (Bloc cat) at Hof, position for beginning the new tasks where Daufeldt had been working in anointed to: the Landergruppen dealing collaboration with Sturbanfü hrer (major) with the far East ,the Near East, Western Hermann Rossner a special assignment, Europe, and the western Hemisphere, had showed that by February 1936 a more virtually to begin from scratch, while the active participation by the Germans was Gruppe responsible for the Balkan had the possible. Werner Goettsch and Oswald advantage of experience in the type or a Kraus operated under the orders of the certain amount of experience in the work, Foreign Office, while and whole enterprise and, probably most important of all, the was directed form Vienna where Walter territory which it had to exploit lent itself to Stahlecker had become Leiter. Goetsch and exploitation in view of the active SS-Standartenführer (colonel) Dr. Edmund subversive groups already in existence in Veesenmayer now established contact with the Balkan States. The General effect of this the Slovaks themselves, and it was Goettsch position was that while the other to whom Tiso send his letter addressed to Laendergruppen of Amt v1 in the early Hitler requesting German intervention in stages spent the first months of their order to maintain Slovak independence. existence in efforts to estabilish a suitable Apart from the SD, the incident is of note working basis, work in the Balkans as it represents one of the very few occasion continued under the original impetus of on which Ribbentrop not only asked for the previous SD-Leitabschnitt (leading section) help of the SD, but took the advice it Vienna.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jewish Genocide in Galicia
    Jewish Genocide in Galicia Jewish Genocide in Galicia 2nd Edition With Appendix: Vernichtungslager ‘Bełżec’ Robin O’Neil Published by © Copyright Robin O’Neil 2015 JEWISH GENOCIDE IN GALICIA All rights reserved. The right of Robin O’Nei to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, nor translated into a machine language, without the written permission of the publisher. Condition of sale This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. ISBN Frontispiece: The Rabka 4 + 1 - incorporating the original book cover of Rudolf Reder’s ‘Bełżec’, 1946. 2nd Edition Part 1 2016: The Rabka Four + 1. First published 2011 under the title ‘The Rabka Four’. Contents Academic Excellence In Murder......................................i Dedication....................................................................... ii Lives Remembered .........................................................iv Note on Language...........................................................vi The Hunting Grounds for the Rabka 4 + 1 (zbV) 1941-1944 .........................................................................x
    [Show full text]
  • Begin Block Quote
    8 April-M-IL-1 & 2 -1- Arminger (Int. Lea) Court II Case IX [Begin block quote] Official Transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America, against Otto Ohlendorf, et al, defendants, sitting at Nuernberg, Germany, on 8 April 1948, 0930-1630, Justice Musmanno presiding. [end block quote] THE MARSHAL: The Honorables, the Judges of Military Tribunal II. Military Tribunal is now in session. God save the United States of America and this Honorable Tribunal. There will be order in the court. THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal hands to the Secretary General the Opinion and Judgment in Case No. 9. This document shall be the official opinion and judgment in the case. Any questions regarding translation and transcripts shall be resolved by consultation with this document. In the reading of the judgment any omissions for time-saving [sic] or for any other reason will not affect the authenticity and authority of the official copy of the opinion and judgment filed with the Secretary General. Mr. Secretary General. (The President handed to the Secretary General the Official Opinion and Judgment.) 6646 8 April-M-IL-1 & 2 -2- Arminger (Int. Lea) Court II Case IX [begin block quote] THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - VS - OTTO OHLENDORF, HEINZ JOST, ERICH NAUMAN [sic],: OTTO RASCH, cancelled, ERWIN SCHULZ, FRANZ SIX, PAUL: BLOBEL, WALTER BLUME, MARTIN SANDBERG [sic],: OPINION AND JUDGMENT WILLY SEIBERT, EUGEN STEIMLE, ERNST BIBER-: STEIN, WERNER BRAUNE, WALTER HAENSCH, : GUSTAV NOSSKE, ADOLF OTT, EDUARD STRAUCH : WOLDEMAR KLINGELHOEFER, LOTHAR FENDLER : Case No. 9 WALDEMAR VON RADETSKY, FELIZ RUEHL, HEINZ : SCHUBERT, and MATHIAS GRAF, Defendants : [end block quote] The indictment filed in this case on July 25, 1947, charged the twenty-four defendants enumerated therein with crimes against humanity, war crimes and membership in criminal organizations.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing Emotions
    Ingeborg Jandl, Susanne Knaller, Sabine Schönfellner, Gudrun Tockner (eds.) Writing Emotions Lettre 2017-05-15 15-01-57 --- Projekt: transcript.titeleien / Dokument: FAX ID 0247461218271772|(S. 1- 4) TIT3793_KU.p 461218271780 2017-05-15 15-01-57 --- Projekt: transcript.titeleien / Dokument: FAX ID 0247461218271772|(S. 1- 4) TIT3793_KU.p 461218271780 Ingeborg Jandl, Susanne Knaller, Sabine Schönfellner, Gudrun Tockner (eds.) Writing Emotions Theoretical Concepts and Selected Case Studies in Literature 2017-05-15 15-01-57 --- Projekt: transcript.titeleien / Dokument: FAX ID 0247461218271772|(S. 1- 4) TIT3793_KU.p 461218271780 Printed with the support of the State of Styria (Department for Health, Care and Science/Department Science and Research), the University of Graz, and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Graz. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-3-8394-3793-3. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No- Derivs 4.0 (BY-NC-ND) which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To create an adaptation, translation, or derivative
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of an SS Killer: Case Study of a Perpetrator 1
    The Making of an SS Killer: Case Study of a Perpetrator 1 Alex J. Kay Thank you for the invitation to present to you today, here in Oświęcim. I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk to you in the framework of this workshop on the subject of my forthcoming book, a biography of a mid-level, front-line Holocaust perpetrator; an SS officer who led an Einsatzkommando – a mobile task force – deployed behind the advancing German Army in the Soviet Union between June and October 1941, and was responsible during this four-month period for the deaths of more than 18,000 Soviet citizens, mostly Lithuanian and Belarusian Jews. The title of my paper is ‘The Making of an SS Killer: Case Study of a Perpetrator’, and the subject is Dr Alfred Filbert, an Obersturmbannführer – or lieutenant colonel – in the SS. For the first two-thirds of my paper I’d like to give you an overview of the key moments in Filbert’s life and career, punctuated by analysis of pivotal moments. I’d then like to discuss his motivations and what we can learn from this particular case study. *** Filbert was typical in many ways for the young elites in the SS and police apparatus who orchestrated and, in many cases, implemented a campaign of terror and mass murder against racial and political opponents across German-occupied Europe in the years 1939 to 1945. He was born in 1905, in Darmstadt, a member of the so-called ‘war youth generation’ (E. Günther Gründel). The members of this generation were too young to have personally experienced the First World War at the front, but the childhood and teenage years of the 1 Manuscript of a paper given on 28 October 2015 at the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim, Poland, at the invitation of the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation ( Maximilian-Kolbe-Stiftung ) and zebis – Centre of Ethical Education in the Armed Forces ( zebis – Zentrum für ethische Bildung in den Streitkräften ) as part of the ‘Fourth International Workshop for Professional Officers on Dealing with the Past of Auschwitz Burdened by Violence’, 26 – 30 October 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Reichskommissariat Ostland from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Reichskommissariat Ostland From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Ostland" redirects here. For the province of the Empire in Warhammer 40,000, see Ostland (Warhammer). Navigation Reichskommissariat Ostland (RKO) was the civilian occupation regime established by Main page Germany in the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), the north-eastern part of Reichskommissariat Ostland Contents Poland and the west part of the Belarusian SSR during World War II. It was also known Reichskommissariat of Germany Featured content [1] initially as Reichskommissariat Baltenland ("Baltic Land"). The political organization Current events ← → for this territory—after an initial period of military administration before its establishment— 1941–1945 Random article was that of a German civilian administration, nominally under the authority of the Reich Donate to Wikipedia Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (German: Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete) led by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, but was in reality Interaction controlled by the Nazi official Hinrich Lohse, its appointed Reichskommissar. Help The main political objective, which the ministry laid out in the framework of National Flag Emblem About Wikipedia Socialist policies for the east established by Adolf Hitler, were the complete annihilation Community portal of the Jewish population and the settlement of ethnic Germans along with the expulsion or Recent changes Germanization of parts of the native population
    [Show full text]
  • From Weimar to Nuremberg: a Historical Case Study of Twenty-Two Einsatzgruppen Officers
    FROM WEIMAR TO NUREMBERG: A HISTORICAL CASE STUDY OF TWENTY-TWO EINSATZGRUPPEN OFFICERS A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts James L. Taylor November 2006 This thesis entitled FROM WEIMAR TO NUREMBERG: A HISTORICAL CASE STUDY OF TWENTY-TWO EINSATZGRUPPEN OFFICERS by JAMES L. TAYLOR has been approved for the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences by Norman J. W. Goda Professor of History Benjamin M. Ogles Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Abstract TAYLOR, JAMES L., M.A., November 2006, Modern European History FROM WEIMAR TO NUREMBERG: A HISTORICAL CASE STUDY OF TWENTY- TWO EINSATZGRUPPEN OFFICERS (134 pp.) Director of Thesis: Norman J. W. Goda This is an examination of the motives of twenty-two perpetrators of the Jewish Holocaust. Each served as an officer of the Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing units which beginning in June 1941, carried out mass executions of Jews in the German-occupied portion of the Soviet Union. Following World War II the subjects of this study were tried before a U.S. Military Tribunal as part of the thirteen Nuremberg Trials, and this study is based on the records of their trial, known as Case IX or more commonly as the Einsatzgruppen Trial. From these records the thesis concludes that the twenty-two men were shaped politically by their experiences during the Weimar Era (1919-1932), and that as perpetrators of the Holocaust their actions were informed primarily by the tenets of Nazism, particularly anti-Semitism.
    [Show full text]
  • Schutzstaffel from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Schutzstaffel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "SS" redirects here. For other uses, see SS (disambiguation). Navigation The Schutzstaffel (German pronunciation: [ˈʃʊtsˌʃtafәl] ( listen), translated to Protection Main page Protection Squadron Squadron or defence corps, abbreviated SS—or with stylized "Armanen" sig runes) Contents Schutzstaffel was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). It Featured content began at the end of 1920 as a small, permanent guard unit known as the "Saal- Current events Schutz" (Hall-Protection)[1] made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for Nazi Random article Party meetings in Munich. Later in 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit which had by Donate to Wikipedia then been reformed and renamed the "Schutz-Staffel". Under Himmler's leadership (1929–45), it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the largest and most [2] Interaction powerful organizations in the Third Reich. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under SS insignia (sig runes) Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during Help World War II (1939–45). The SS, along with the Nazi Party, was declared a criminal About Wikipedia organization by the International Military Tribunal, and banned in Germany after 1945. Community portal Recent changes Contents Contact page 1 Background SS flag 1.1 Special ranks and uniforms Toolbox 1.2 Ideology 1.3 Merger with police forces What links here 1.4 Personal control by Himmler Related changes 2 History Upload file 2.1 Origins Special pages 2.2 Development Permanent link 2.3 Early SS disunity Page information 3 Before 1933 Data item 3.1 1925–28 Cite this page 3.2 1929–31 3.3 1931–33 Print/export 4 After the Nazi seizure of power Adolf Hitler inspects the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler on 4.1 1934–36 Create a book arrival at Klagenfurt in April 1938.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-45608-1 - The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History Hilary Earl Excerpt More information Introduction Just after midnight on the night of June 7, 1951, five men – Otto Ohlendorf, Paul Blobel, Werner Braune, Erich Naumann, and Oswald Pohl – were exe- cuted for crimes against humanity at Landsberg war crimes prison in Landsberg-am-Lech, Bavaria, southern Germany. The five executions took a little less than two hours and marked the conclusion of an international legal process begun by the Americans in the summer of 1945.Inthe6 years since the end of the war, the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg had housed a number of high-profile war crimes trials; the most renowned was the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in which twenty-two major Nazi war criminals, including Hermann Goring¨ and Albert Speer, were tried by the Allies in the first international court.1 Albeit the most well-known, the IMT was but the first of thirteen so-called Nuremberg war crimes trials that cov- ered an array of crimes not limited to either soldiers or the conduct of the war. Following the IMT, between 1946 and 1949, there were 12 additional Nuremberg trials or NMT, prosecuted by the Americans alone. The subject of this book is one of these trials, Case 9 against Otto Ohlendorf and the SS-Einsatzgruppen leaders, officially titled: “The United States of America v. Otto Ohlendorf et al.,” more commonly known as the Einsatzgruppen case.2 The reference to “military” is confusing and somewhat of a misnomer 1 Important works on the IMT include: Whitney Harris, Tyranny on Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg (New York, 1954); Wilbourn E.
    [Show full text]
  • Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority Experiments
    Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority Experiments: Towards an Understanding of their Relevance in Explaining Aspects of the Nazi Holocaust By Nestar John Charles Russell A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy. Victoria University of Wellington 2009 Although the most common interpretation of Milgram’s findings is that participants did not wish to harm the learner, the motives generated in this paradigm may well have been more mixed or ambivalent in many participants. Unfortunately, the manner in which people actually regard the act of punishing others when they make mistakes . has been virtually ignored in discussions of the obedience research. However . harming is a widely accepted form of child discipline . Most people are hardly unequivocally opposed to the use of physical punishment under absolutely any circumstances. That a majority approve the use of capital punishment in this country [the United States] might serve as another illustration —Miller (2004, pp. 198-199). if humanity can survive the violence of our age, [our descendants] might consider us as late barbarians —Elias (1991, pp. 146-147). ii Abstract Two leading Holocaust historians, Yehuda Bauer and Christopher Browning, have in recent years independently asked how so many ordinary Germans (most of whom in the 1930s had been moderately anti-Semitic) could become by the early 1940s willing murderers of Jews. Social psychologist, Stanley Milgram, had years before been interested in finding answers to similar questions, and to that end in the early 1960s carried out his widely debated “Obedience to Authority” (OTA) experiments at Yale University.
    [Show full text]
  • Akcja „Tannenberg” W Powiecie Gostyńskim
    VARIA Robert Czub AKCJA „TANNENBERG” W POWIECIE GOSTYŃSKIM Uzupełnieniem planu zajęcia Polski we wrześniu 1939 roku była ak- cja masowej eksterminacji czołowych przedstawicieli polskiej inteligencji oraz działaczy politycznych, społecznych i kulturalnych. Już wiosną tego roku rozpoczęto sporządzanie centralnej kartoteki i zestawianie list proskryp- cyjnych, które później na zajętych przez Wehrmacht terenach były podstawą aresztowań, a potem masowych egzekucji. Pierwsze listy przygotowano, wy- korzystując między innymi przeanalizowane informacje prasowe oraz raporty niemieckich placówek dyplomatycznych, np. konsulatu w Poznaniu. Zbiera- no meldunki o wrogim nastawieniu Polaków do Niemców, korzystając też z danych przekazywanych przez mieszkających na terenie Rzeczypospolitej obywateli polskich narodowości niemieckiej. 18 maja 1939 roku Reinhard Heydrich przedłożył pierwsze wskazów- ki w sprawie wykorzystania policji bezpieczeństwa policji bezpieczeństwa (Sicherheitspolizei – Sipo) i służby bezpieczeństwa (Sicherheitsdienst – SD) w Polsce. Cztery dni później w Głównym Urzędzie SD została utworzona Zentralstelle II P (Polska), która miała zbadać wszystkie wydarzenia doty- czące Niemców w Polsce, a powstałe wówczas zestawienia przekazać do dyspozycji grup operacyjnych. Pod koniec maja przygotowania objęły już nie tylko sporządzanie list „osób przewidzianych do ujęcia w Polsce”, ale i wskazanie bezpośrednich realizatorów tych zadań, a także formę tych ope- racji. 14 października 1939 roku w Berlinie odbyła się konferencja szefów departamentów Głównego Urzędu Bezpieczeństwa Rzeszy (RSHA) i dowód- 167 ROCZNIK GOSTYŃSKI 6 2019 ców grup operacyjnych. Szef RSHA Heydrich wydał rozkaz: „Likwidacja polskiej warstwy kierowniczej musi być zakończona do 1 listopada!”. Akcji nadano kryptonim „Unternehmen Tannenberg” („Akcja Tannenberg”). Wszystkie prace prowadzone były cały czas pod bezpośrednim nadzorem Heydricha – szefa Sipo i SD. Główny udział w fizycznym unicestwianiu lud- ności polskiej wyznaczono specjalnym grupom operacyjnym.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics of Espionage: Nazi Diplomats and Spies in Argentina, 1933-1945
    The Politics of Espionage: Nazi Diplomats and Spies in Argentina, 1933-1945 A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Richard L. McGaha November 2009 © 2009 Richard L. McGaha. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled The Politics of Espionage: Nazi Diplomats and Spies in Argentina, 1933-1945 by RICHARD L. MCGAHA has been approved for the History Department and the College of Arts and Sciences by Norman J.W. Goda Professor of History Benjamin M. Ogles Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT MCGAHA, RICHARD L., Ph.D, November 2009, History The Politics of Espionage: Nazi Diplomats and Spies in Argentina, 1933-1945 (415 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Norman J.W. Goda This dissertation investigates Nazi Germany’s diplomacy and intelligence- gathering in Argentina from 1933-1945. It does so from three perspectives. This study first explores the rivalries that characterized the bureaucracy in the Third Reich. It argues that those rivalries negatively affected Germany’s diplomatic position in Argentina. The actions of the AO in Argentina in the 1930s were indicative of this trend. This created a fear of fifth-column activity among Latin American governments with large German populations. Second, this study explores the rivalry between the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, SD) of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office, RSHA) and Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Ministry, AA). It argues that the rivalry between these two organizations in Argentina was part of a larger plan on the part of Amt VI, SS Foreign Intelligence to usurp the functions of the AA.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of an SS Killer: Case Study of a Perpetrator 1
    The Making of an SS Killer: Case Study of a Perpetrator 1 Alex J. Kay Thank you for the invitation to present to you today, here in Oświęcim. I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk to you in the framework of this workshop on the subject of my forthcoming book, a biography of a mid-level, front-line Holocaust perpetrator; an SS officer who led an Einsatzkommando – a mobile task force – deployed behind the advancing German Army in the Soviet Union between June and October 1941, and was responsible during this four-month period for the deaths of more than 18,000 Soviet citizens, mostly Lithuanian and Belarusian Jews. The title of my paper is ‘The Making of an SS Killer: Case Study of a Perpetrator’, and the subject is Dr Alfred Filbert, an Obersturmbannführer – or lieutenant colonel – in the SS. For the first two-thirds of my paper I’d like to give you an overview of the key moments in Filbert’s life and career, punctuated by analysis of pivotal moments. I’d then like to discuss his motivations and what we can learn from this particular case study. *** Filbert was typical in many ways for the young elites in the SS and police apparatus who orchestrated and, in many cases, implemented a campaign of terror and mass murder against racial and political opponents across German-occupied Europe in the years 1939 to 1945. He was born in 1905, in Darmstadt, a member of the so-called ‘war youth generation’ (E. Günther Gründel). The members of this generation were too young to have personally experienced the First World War at the front, but the childhood and teenage years of the 1 Manuscript of a paper given on 28 October 2015 at the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Oświęcim, Poland, at the invitation of the Maximilian Kolbe Foundation ( Maximilian-Kolbe-Stiftung ) and zebis – Centre of Ethical Education in the Armed Forces ( zebis – Zentrum für ethische Bildung in den Streitkräften ) as part of the ‘Fourth International Workshop for Professional Officers on Dealing with the Past of Auschwitz Burdened by Violence’, 26 – 30 October 2015.
    [Show full text]