War Crime Trials Poland

[ansata1976]

I believe that you already have all of them:

Jopke, Nowack, Otto, Naporra, Heller, probably Milke (all from Gestapo Warszawa), Pereutka, Laubner (Częstochowa and Radom), Kwast, Blaude, Mazurkiewicz (Kraków and Zakopane), Lell, Grodek, Grajewski, Häle, Wilupski or Wylupski (Lublin), Wilhelm, Stieff, Gampe (Radom), Drzyzga (Jasło), Winkler, Fikus, Szabelski, Press (Częstochowa), Schmatzler (Krosno), Kastura (Tarnów), Stielau (Jarocin and Poznań), Günzschel (Katowice and Bielsko), Fink (Poznań), Zukriegel (Łódź). I’m pretty sure that this list may be not complete.

Rudolf Otto Bröse (03.05.1897 in Silno) sentenced to death 14.07.1949 in Torun (commuted to 15 years imprisonment) accused of contributing to the arrest of Wacław Araczewski, Helena Araczewski and Jan Araczewski in 1940 in Toruń and Warsaw, as well as the fact that in 1939-1942 he belonged to the SS and Gestapo in Thorn

Hubert Scholz (28.05.1899 in ?) sentenced to death 1948 in Torun, member Gestapo Torun

Jakob Pohl (22.02.1904) sentenced to death 30.09.1953 in Warsaw (died 31.01.1964 in prison),member SS and Gestapo in Gostynin


George

[ansata1976]

I believe that you already have all of them:

Jopke, Nowack, Otto, Naporra, Heller, probably Milke (all from Gestapo Warszawa), Pereutka, Laubner (Częstochowa and Radom), Kwast, Blaude, Mazurkiewicz (Kraków and Zakopane), Lell, Grodek, Grajewski, Häle, Wilupski or Wylupski (Lublin), Wilhelm, Stieff, Gampe (Radom), Drzyzga (Jasło), Winkler, Fikus, Szabelski, Press (Częstochowa), Schmatzler (Krosno), Kastura (Tarnów), Stielau (Jarocin and Poznań), Günzschel (Katowice and Bielsko), Fink (Poznań), Zukriegel (Łódź). I’m pretty sure that this list may be not complete.

George

Rudolf Otto Bröse (03.05.1897 in Silno) sentenced to death 14.07.1949 in Torun (commuted to 15 years imprisonment) accused of contributing to the arrest of Wacław Araczewski, Helena Araczewski and Jan Araczewski in 1940 in Toruń and Warsaw, as well as the fact that in 1939-1942 he belonged to the SS and Gestapo in Thorn

Hubert Scholz (28.05.1899 in ?) sentenced to death 1948 in Torun, member Gestapo Thorn

Jakob Pohl (22.02.1904) sentenced to death 30.09.1953 in Warsaw (died 31.01.1964 in prison),member SS and Gestapo in Gostynin

[ansata1976]

Gustav Ehrenberg (16.07.1885 in Gebhardsdorf) acquitted 12.03.1948 in Jelenia Gora
member of the Gendarmerie in the Zwangsarbeitslager Gross Walden (Zalesie Śląskie) and the Zwangsarbeitslager Kamnitz (Kamienica)

[Puck]

Friedrich Wilhelm Preusse, born 04/11/1904, extradited from US zone to Poland on 28/05/1946, member of the SS in Poznań. Sentenced to 2 years on 27/11/1947 in Poznań, released 14/11/1949. Charges unknown to me.

in 02.1946 in PWE Dachau (SS-Rottenführer, guard in Ghetto Warschau)

Preusse, Wilhelm.jpg

Regards Puck

[hujber.mate]

More informations about Johann Hujber (born 12.01.1911) with his photo taken by the Polish authorities before the trial:
https://truthaboutcamps.eu/th/form/r105 ... UJBER.html

He was the Maurer (bricklayer) by profession, son of Stefan and Katharina Kerner (according to the judgement).

Extradited to Poland by the British authorities from Germany on 03.05.1947.

The other Johann Hujber (born 01.08.1921) was different man.

George

Thank you very much!

[Puck]

Eugen Faulhaber
Born 03.09.1913 Brühl
SS-Oberscharführer in Vilnius and Kaunas.
Extradited by the US authotrities on 16.01.1948, sentenced to death in Warsaw on 15.12.1949, committed suicide before the execution on 07.12.1950.

Eugen Faulhaber, Polizeiassistent from Stapoleitstelle Karlsruhe

Regards Puck

[jh1966]

Thank you, Steve, for the additional information. I thought Hermann Altmann went from Poland/Piotrków to Slovakia and then to Italy. I didn't know he was in Ardenne, too. According to my mother, he came back from Italy after the end of the war. He was not arrested before he returned to Hamburg and reported back at his police department where he used to work before the war. Given the severe crimes he was accused for, I find it interesting that he chose not to hide, but went straight back to work, obviously convinced that he was "innocent" (or just determined to take the consequences?). Also, given the fact that he was sentenced to death for his crimes, I find it interesting that he claimed that he never had killed any person himself. But I guess many/most SS claimed they were not like the others... He also said that there was another Altmann that he was confused with. But I guess this must be related to the hearing in 1966 you mentioned, after he came back from prison. Furthermore, he said there was a false witness in court in Lodz, and he said that he was offered to go free if he decided to work for the Polish police and brought his family over to Poland, which he refused. If this is true, it might explain why it took so long before the official trial. According to my mother and my aunt, my grandfather was very "popular" in Piotrków. But I guess that must have been with the pro-German citizens (and obviously not with the Jewish citizens). In 1943 they told him he and his family should leave to save themselves, but my grandfather only sent my grandmother and his two daughters away. However, because of the bombing in Hamburg, they were not allowed to return for some time and had to stay in Opole and Dresden. According to my aunt, my grandfather tried to help the Polish citizens. She remembers there was a Polish man who came with apples to his office, but my grandfather refused to accept them and gave them back to the man and told him that he needed them more. I am not trying to make my grandfather a better man than he was. I am just trying to understand the situation. I am sure we was a convinced Nazi and that he shared the indoctrinated view of the Jews so he was capable of executing the orders he got in that respect. I just can't understand how he could claim that he had not killed anyone during the war...

jh1966 - here's something you may find interesting:

Pilecki Institute in Warsaw (https://instytutpileckiego.pl/en) runs a database „Chronicles of Terror” (zapisyterroru.pl). It's aim is to collect testimonies of Polish witnessess of two totalitarian regimes – Nazi German and Soviet. There are some accounts concerning the fates of Jews and German occupaion of Piotrków (WWII name - Petrikau).

Accounts are originally in Polish, but they’re translated into English.
Here are the examples:

Eliasz Gelade
https://www.zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra/sho ... ormat_id=6

Stefan Sewerski
https://www.zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra/sho ... ormat_id=6

Aron Horawia
https://www.zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra/sho ... ormat_id=6

Dawid Koniecpoler (from Częstochowa, but tells something about Jews in Piotrków)
https://www.zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra/sho ... ormat_id=5

Karol Cugowski (survivor of Warsaw Uprising ’44, briefly interrogated by Gestapo in Piotrków in autumn 1944)
https://www.zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra/sho ... ormat_id=6

Mieczysław Nawrocki (also survivor of Warsaaw Uprising ’44)
https://www.zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra/pub ... DRtZDs0bGc

Hermann Altmann is also mentioned in the USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos in the article „Stalag 237”:
https://books.google.pl/books?id=rsRLEA ... 37&f=false

When it comes to being a witness in Poland after WWII, he’s mentioned in a propagandist article about the show trial of Piotr Bańczyk (brother of Stanisław Bańczyk, one of the leaders of the non-communist opposition party PSL after WWII) in 1951 („Trybuna Ludu” 3 Dec 1951, p. 4):
https://pbc.gda.pl/dlibra/publication/1 ... 07/content
Trybuna Ludu Altmann 1.1.png
Trybuna Ludu Altmann 1.2.png

Some Jewish newspapers also mentioned that Altmann was sentenced to death penalty by Polish court in 1955:
https://www.jta.org/archive/ex-nazi-sen ... ds-of-jews

It doesn’t directly concern your grandfather, but some photos of Piotrków under German occupation are available here:
http://www.dawnypiotrkow.pl/index.php?/category/86
and here:
http://www.dawnypiotrkow.pl/index.php?/tags/4-okupacja

Thank you for the effort and the links!

[jh1966]

By the way, I just noted that there was false information in one book / post about Hermann Altmann:
https://books.google.pl/books?id=rsRLEA ... 37&f=false
Here it is said that Hermann Altmann was captured by the Russians at the end of the war and that he was sentenced to death for the execution of Soviets. Hermann Altmann was not captured during the war. He came back by himself to Hamburg from Italy after the war ended and reported at the police office in Hamburg where he was imprisoned by the British who sent him to Poland years later on request from Poland, not from the Russians. And as far as I know, he was sentenced to death because of this role connected to deporting people (first of all Jews) to Treblinka, not for killing Russians. Correct me if I am wrong. I was a little surprised when I read this paragraph.

[Strawer]

Yes, authors of the USHMM Encylopedia of Camps and Ghettos made a mistake. British arrested Altmann in July 1945 and kept him for 3 years at the internment camp in Neuengamme. Then they extradited him to Poland on request from Poles.

[ansata1976]

What is the rank and place of birth of

Gustav Helmschen (27.08.1901) sentenced to 6 years imprisonment 29.04.1949 in Warsaw (died 10.03.1951 in prison)

[George_W]

According to my source he was SS-Rottenführer. Place of birth is unknown to me.

George

[ansata1976]

Thank you George

[moykopf]

George_W,

Your information about Hellmuth Altmann, that he headed the Grenzpolizeiposten in Hrubieczow, can you provide a source? I am researching the deportations from this city, including the death marches and would be thankful for any information about the police forces involved.

[George_W]

The sources:
"Hitlerowskie Więzienie na Zamku w Lublinie 1939-1944", page 35
"Władze Policyjne Dystryktu Lubelskiego w latach 1939-1944" by W.Zyśko in "Zeszyty Majdanka" Vol. 3, page 136

I believe that aboved information based on German document concerning the organisation of KdS Lublin from August 1940 in which Altmann was listed as Leiter Grenzpolizeiposten Hrubieszów.

George

[steve248]

another source:
SS-Hstuf KS Altmann: “From 1940 to 1941 chief of an Aussendienst-stelle in the vicinity of Lublin [possibly Greko Hrubieszow]. In 1941 transferred to KdS Lemberg where he worked until 1943. Later transferred to a Stapostelle in Schlesien. Member of the Allgemeine SS.”
described as 40 years old; 1,75m tall; slim build; black hair; military posture
source: US NARA, RG 498 Box 69, Third US Army, Interrogation Report No 29, 6 Aug 1945; Section 1: Personalities in the KdS Lwow and the BdS Krakow, by Oswald Müller

Altmann was one of those SS officers who attained SS-Hstuf before 1939 (on 9 Nov 1936) whose civil service (police) rank did not fit. He was KOA in 1941 and KS at the end of the war. SS-Hstuf's were usually Kriminalrat. No doubt the SS-Hstuf KRs he met looked down their nose at him.