Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser

Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser (18 January 1890 – 10 February 1945) was a commander in the SS of Nazi Germany who was the Higher SS and Police Leader in Breslau during World War II. Later in the war, he was responsible for the death march from Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, in which upwards of 25 percent of the prisoners were killed. Schmauser was also a member of the German Reichstag representing the Nazi Party.[1]

Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser in 1939.

Early career

Schmauser was born the son of a businessman. He attended elementary school and junior high school in Hof an der Saale, then the secondary school in Bayreuth. After graduation, he pursued a military career. First, he spent a year with the 11th Bavarian Infantry Regiment "von der Tann" in Regensburg. He then joined the 9th Royal Saxon Army, 133rd Infantry Regiment in Zwickau.[2]

After training at the Military Academy in Hanover, Schmauser served in the First World War (1914-1918) as a company commander. He fought in the Western Theater with the 133rd and 183rd Infantry Regiments. He was wounded three times in battle and decorated on multiple occasions, receiving the Iron Cross (First and Second) Class, the Silver Wound Badge, and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Albert (Second Class) with Swords. On 9 November 1915, he received the Knight's Cross of the Military-St. Heinrich's Order.[3] Following Schmauser's demobilization from the Kaiser's Army in 1919, he was promoted to captain and given permission to continue wearing the uniform of the 133rd Infantry Regiment.[2]

From 1919 to 1933, Schmauser worked in banking as a cashier in Zwickau. It was a temporary career path which he considered beneath his social standing.[4] He married in 1921, and had two children by his wife.[1] As early as 1924 Schmauser belonged to the right-wing conservative voting alliance known as the Völkisch-Social Block and was head of the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Zwickau. He was sporadically active on the political scene as were many other former military officers in the wake of the collapsing Weimar economy.[5]

Member of the Nazi Party

In early March 1930, Schmauser joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party member: 215,704) and on 14 October 1930 he was awarded the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (SS number: 3,359). From mid-December 1930, he led the 7th SS-Brigade in Saxony and from August, 1932, he headed SS Section XVI (Province of Saxony).[6]

In the Reichstag elections of July 1932, Schmauser was the candidate for the 20th District (Leipzig) representing the Nazi Party, where he served until November 1932. In the Reichstag elections of November 1932, Schmauser lost his mandate. A year later, in November 1933, Schmauser returned as a member of the Nazi Party and helped govern Germany until his death in February 1945. Throughout his service in the Nazi Reichstag, he represented the 24th District of Upper Bavaria-Swabia (November 1933 to February 1936), and then he served for the 26th District of Franken (March 1936 to February 1945).

Nazi and SS career

In late July 1933, Schmauser, on request of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, took over the leadership of the SS Group South. On 1 April 1936, he was appointed SS Upper Main section leader, headquartered in Nuremberg. The purge of the SA leadership and other enemies of the state began on 30 June 1934 in an action which became known as the Night of the Long Knives. Schmauser was considered one of the few ranking members of the SS trustworthy enough to be involved in the arrests and killings (despite his past as an SA officer).[7] Earnest work garnered more attention for Schmauser, and on 10 April 1937 he was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer.[2]

During the Second World War, Schmauser was promoted again to SS-Obergruppenführer and Higher SS and Police Leader as of 20 May 1941 in Breslau. He was later named leader of the SS-Oberabschnitts South East.[8] He remained a faithful Nazi and a consummate technocrat. A telling example is witnessed in the fact that Schmauser had no qualms about using Jewish slave labor, as he reported in April 1942 to Himmler how pleased he was to have Jews working for his operation, since workers were otherwise scarcely available.[9] When the first gas chamber was tested at Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, Schmauser was present, as were Gauleiter Fritz Bracht of Upper Silesia and Reichsführer-SS Himmler.[10] Himmler appointed Schmauser General of the Waffen-SS on 1 July 1944.[2]

Role in Auschwitz death march
See also: Death marches (Holocaust) § Auschwitz to Loslau

Early in the summer of 1944, the SS began transferring the 130,000 prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau to other camps since the Red Army was moving rapidly west.[11] By 21 December 1944 the Red Army had drawn close enough that orders were issued for Auschwitz to be totally evacuated. It was Schmauser who followed Himmler's order to expedite the camp's inmates away as he was in charge in Silesia.[12] Not knowing exactly how to handle the matter, however, he telephoned SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, who told him that Himmler wanted no 'healthy' prisoners left alive in the camp.[13]

More than 56,000 prisoners were marched westwards in harsh winter conditions. In accordance with Higher Police Headquarters (HSSPF Breslau), Schmauser ensured to the best of his ability that no inmates would end up in the hands of the Soviets. Despite the fact that Schmauser instructed the guards to evacuate everyone, some inmates too sick to make the trek were just left behind.[14] Nonetheless, camp guards shot those too weak to continue or those who failed to keep pace, which amounted to upwards of 25 percent of them. A small percentage eventually made it to the Groß-Rosen concentration camp in Lower Silesia where they were transited away westwards.[15]

On 20 January 1945, Schmauser issued an order to murder the remaining inmates and destroy evidence of Operation Reinhard. An SS detachment shot 200 Jewish women and then blew up the buildings that housed crematoria I and II. Under order from Schmauser, 700 prisoners from Auschwitz-Birkenau and other sub-camps were killed by SS units. The 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army arrived on 27 January 1945 and liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. Nearly 8,000 inmates escaped death because the remaining SS units had fled as the Red Army arrived.[16]

Death

On 10 February 1945, Schmauser was driving to Breslau when he encountered some German troops near Altenrode. They pointed out that the Soviet armored spearheads had already broken through. For unknown reasons, Schmauser did not heed their warnings and drove on. He has been missing since that date. It is believed that he fell into the hands of the Red Army and was either killed immediately or executed later in captivity.[17]

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gollark: Without providing a spec or many details.
gollark: Well, he would force everyone to make macron.
gollark: Anyway, not really? I mean, "hacker" is vaguely negative amongst "normies", even if some people want it to mean/mean it as "someone who is good at using computers" or something.
gollark: LyricLy === hanson confirmed?

See also
  • List SS-Obergruppenführer

References
  1. Birn, Ruth Bettina (1986). Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer. Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten, p. 346.
  2. Eltzschig, Johannes and Michael Walter, ed. (2001). The Nuremberg Medical Trial 1946/1947: Transcripts, Material of the Prosecution and Defense, Related Documents. Guide to the Microfiche-Edition, p. 140.
  3. Richter, Georg D. (1937). Der Königlich Sächsische Militär-St. Heinrichs-Orden 1736–1918, Ein Ehrenblatt der Sächsischen Armee, p. 579.
  4. Longerich, Peter (2011). Heinrich Himmler: A Life (Google Books preview). p. 132.
  5. Campbell, Brice (2004) The SA Generals and the Rise of Nazism, pp. 66-67.
  6. Grieser, Utho (1974). Himmlers Mann in Nürnberg. Der Fall Benno Martin: Eine Studie zur Struktur des 3. Reiches in der "Stadt der Reichsparteitage", p. 311.
  7. Butler, Rupert (2004). Hitler's Death's Head Division: SS-Totenkopf Division, pp. 30-31.
  8. Długoborski, Wacław, Franciszek Piper, and Aleksander Lasik, eds. (1999). Auschwitz 1940–1945, p. 30.
  9. Cesarani, ed. (2004) Holocaust. Critical Concepts in Historical Studies, vol. II. p. 124.
  10. Hilberg, Raul (1985). The Destruction of the European Jews, vol. 3, p. 883.
  11. Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, p. 415.
  12. Blatman, Daniel (2011). The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide, pp. 79–80.
  13. Blatman, Daniel (2011). The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide, p. 80.
  14. Blatman, Daniel (2011). The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide, pp. 81–84.
  15. Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (Google Books preview). Oxford University Press. p. 415.
  16. Rees, Laurence (2005). Auschwitz. Geschichte eines Verbrechens, p. 352.
  17. Schulz, Andreas, and Dieter Zinke (2011). Deutschlands Generale und Admirale. (Teil V /Band 5). Die Generale der Waffen-SS und der Polizei, 1933-1945. (Schlake - Turner).

Bibliography
  • Birn, Ruth Bettina (1986). Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer. Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten [The Higher SS and Police Leaders. Himmler's Representatives in the Reich and in the Occupied Territories]. Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag. ISBN 3-7700-0710-7
  • Blatman, Daniel (2011). The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-67405-049-5
  • Butler, Rupert (2004). Hitler's Death's Head Division: SS-Totenkopf Division. South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-84415-205-6
  • Campbell, Brice (2004). The SA Generals and the Rise of Nazism. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-81319-098-3
  • Cesarani David, ed. (2004) Holocaust. Critical Concepts in Historical Studies, vol. II. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27511-3.
  • Długoborski, Wacław, Franciszek Piper, and Aleksander Lasik, eds. (1999). Auschwitz 1940–1945. Oswieecim, Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1999.
  • Eltzschig, Johannes and Michael Walter, ed. (2001). The Nuremberg Medical Trial 1946/1947: Transcripts, Material of the Prosecution and Defense, Related Documents. Guide to the Microfiche-Edition. Munich: Saur Verlag. ISBN 3-598-32154-6 p. 140
  • Grieser, Utho (1974). Himmlers Mann in Nürnberg. Der Fall Benno Martin: Eine Studie zur Struktur des 3. Reiches in der "Stadt der Reichsparteitage" [Himmler's Man in Nuremberg. The Case of Benno Martin: A Study on the Structure of the Third Reich in the "City of the Party Rallies"] in (Nürnberger Werkstücke zur Stadt- und Landesgeschichte, Band 13). Nürnberg: Stadtarchiv Nürnberg Verlag. ISBN 3-87432-025-1
  • Hilberg, Raul (1985). The Destruction of the European Jews, vol. 3. New York: Holmes and Meier. ISBN 0-8419-0832-X (set)
  • Klee, Ernst (2007). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich [The People Lexicon of the Third Reich]. Updated 2nd Edition. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-59616-048-8.
  • Lilla, Joachim. Staatsminister, leitende Verwaltungsbeamte und (NS)-Funktionsträger in Bayern 1918 bis 1945 [Minister of State, Senior Government Officials and National Socialist Functionaries in Bavaria from 1918 to 1945]. As found in the Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online. See: Schmauser, Ernst-Heinrich
  • Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews (Google Books preview). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19960-073-1.
  • Longerich, Peter (2011). Heinrich Himmler: A Life (Google Books preview). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19959-232-6.
  • Rees, Laurence (2005). Auschwitz. Geschichte eines Verbrechens [Auschwitz: History of a Crime]. Berlin: Satz LVD. ISBN 978-3-55007-851-4
  • Richter, Georg D. (1937). Der Königlich Sächsische Militär-St. Heinrichs-Orden 1736–1918, Ein Ehrenblatt der Sächsischen Armee[The Royal Saxon Military-St. Henry Medal 1736-1918, An Honorary Journal of the Saxon Army]. Dresden: Wilhelm und Bertha von Baensch-Stiftung.
  • Schulz, Andreas, and Dieter Zinke (2011). Deutschlands Generale und Admirale. (Teil V /Band 5). Die Generale der Waffen-SS und der Polizei, 1933-1945. (Schlake – Turner). Bissendorf: Biblio-Verlag. ASIN: B004OY0WY2
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