Hellmuth Reinhard

Hellmuth Reinhard (July 24, 1911 - 2002) was head of the Gestapo in Norway (1942–1945), and was partly responsible for the deportation of at least 532 Norwegian Jews and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in 1967 as an accessory to murder.[1]

Early years

Reinhard was born Hermann Gustav Hellmuth Patzschke on July 24, 1911 in Unterwerschen, Weissenfels (now part of Burgenlandkreis), Bezirk Halle in Saxony. In 1913 his family moved to Leipzig. From 1929 he was member of the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend). He then studied in Vienna, Leipzig and Berlin.[1]

Nazi official

He became a member of the SS in March 1933 (121174) and a member of the NSDAP in May of the same year (2.382.157).[2] The SS was at that time an organisation which recruited younger men distancing themselves from the "hoodlum character of the SA and the party and who looked upon the SS as an elite order, spiritually and politically"[3]

In 1934 he became a member of the SD, the intelligence service of the SS and the NSDAP. He became leader of the SD Hauptamt, Partei und Staat in 1938. Appointed "Regierungsassesor" in the same year. On 25 April 1939 he changed his last name to Reinhard. During the war he was stationed in Prague, then later on, in August 1941, he became leader of the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung in the Netherlands. For approximately three months during 1941/42 he was in the Einsatzgruppe C, whereupon he went to Norway in order to become head of the Gestapo, Abteilung IV, from 28 January 1942, working under the leader of the Sicherheitspolizei in Norway, Heinrich Fehlis. He remained in this position until 1 February 1945.

In November 1943, he was awarded the War Merit Cross, 1st class with Swords.

Post-war years

After the war he changed his name back to his original one, which enabled him to avoid further scrutiny from authorities regarding his activities at the time in question. Only in 1964, his true identity became known to the West German police and he was prosecuted in 1967. Released in 1970.

References

  1. 1 2 Reinhard - CAPLEX
  2. ↑ Bundesarchiv, SS-file
  3. ↑ Herbert, Ulrich: Best: Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft, 1903-1989, Bonn, Dietz, 1989, p. 119, translated from the German

Source


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