Help needed: NSDAP-Kreisleiter Otto de Bruyn Ouboter

[Mokumer]

Dear researchers,

I am looking for your help regarding information on NSDAP-Kreileiter Otto de Bruyn Ouboter. Since I have already collected quite some information about him, I would like to share with you what I have found out so far. I was able to recapitulate the following information from several sources. Concluding my story, I have some important questions.

Otto de Bruyn Ouboter, mentioned in documents and some post-war publications also as Otto de Bruyn, was born on the 23th of December 1907 in Hamburg. On the 1st of March 1931 Otto joined the NSDAP - membership number 483.014 -, as by that time he was living in Wismar, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In Wismar-West he was the Kreisorganisationsleiter/Kreispersonalamtsleiter/Ortsgruppenleiter as if the 27th of November 1936. He held this position until 30st of August 1940.

From the 1st of September 1940 he became Stabsamtsleiter im Arbeitsbereich im Generalgouvernement (Poland), holding this position until the 30st of April 1941. For a short time - in between his regular tasks in Wismar from 1936 to 1940 - he seemed to have worked at the Braune Haus, the Kreisparteizentrale der NSDAP for a while, most probably under direct supervision of NSDAP-Reichsleiter Martin Bormann.

Because Otto was a reliable party member, he was transferred in 1941 to the town of Hindenburg Oberschleßien (Upper Silesia), nowadays Zabrze, more of less a suburb of Krakau. There Otto held the position of Kreisleiter and Hauptabschnittsleiter, under the command of Oberreichsleiter Gerhard Pannenborg. In Hindenburg Oberschließien, also reffered to as Hindenburg O.S., he was in charge of 26 Ortsgruppen, as meant 131.000 citizens, of whom 4.523 people were a member of the NSDAP, all under the jurisdiction of the Gau Krakau.

From the 1st of May 1943, being an awarded Hoheitsträger, Otto is appointed to be leading the Gauhauptamt für Volkswohlfahrt. Two months later, on the 1st of July, Otto is officially working for the administration of Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt. NSDAP-Kreisleiter Joschke, who came back (most possibly from military duty at the front line), replaced Otto his position in Hindenburg Oberschleßien.

In Otto his opinion, since he was working for the NSV and not directly for the NSDAP any more, he was financially shortened on his income. He applied for a NSDAP salary as well. Since Otto was an old time member, the NSDAP decided to pay him for his service with the NSV as well. In one of the Bundesarchiv files, a "parteigenosse" Metzner is mentioned, having the same political background as Otto being a Kreisleiter, experiencing the same financial problems. Also a Gauleiter Fritz Bracht is mentioned, as having his registered office in Kattowitz, and a Bereichsleiter Krüger. On some occasions, the Deutsche Arbeitsfront, the DAF, is also mentioned.

While researching I found out that Otto lived in Kattowitz until 1943, although his track gets blurry afterwards. It is for sure that Otto was captured at the end of the war by the Soviet Army. It is supposed Otto was imprisoned on the Crimea in 1945. Within one year he was send back from there to Germany in 1946, because of medical health problems.

Since I am very interested in Otto his fields of activity, I have quite some questions. I hope at least some of them are to be answered. First of all I am curious what Otto his exact work as a Kreisleiter in Hindenburg Oberschleßien included. I also would like to find out where Otto got captured by the Russians, at the end of the war? Is there any information about the NSV in Poland, regarding the time and locations I am researching? Is there any more information regarding the nearby town of Gleiwitz, nowadays Gliwice regarding all of this? Are there any records on Otto besides the ones in the Bundesarchiv Berlin?

Could Otto by any chance have been involved in the Auschwitz concentration camps, or many hundred sub-camps in the area of Kattowitz and Krakau? In how far was Otto involved in the SS as a Kreisleiter? Did he possibly had SS-personal working for him at his bureaus? Can he have been given a SS rank at the end of the war, like his superior, Oberbereichsleiter Pannenborg, who was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannführer on the 20th of April (regular promotion on Führergeburtstag) 1943? I am very interested in how far Otto has been involved in the SS.

Are there any Polish and/or Russian speaking people here, that could help find documentation on Otto, his offices, his personnel, a connection with the SS? Information is most welcome.