Walter Reder
| Walter Reder | |
|---|---|
 SS-Hauptsturmführer Walter Reder in 1943 | |
| Born |
4 February 1915 Freiwaldau, Sudetenland, Austria-Hungary |
| Died |
26 April 1991 (aged 76) Wien, Austria |
| Allegiance |
.svg.png){kind=small} Nazi Germany |
| Service/branch |
 Waffen-SS |
| Years of service | 1934 - 1945 |
| Rank | Sturmbannführer (Major) |
| Unit | 3. SS-Division Totenkopf, 16.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Reichsführer-SS |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes |
Walter Reder (4 February 1915 - 26 April 1991) was a German Waffen-SS officer who served with the 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf and the 16.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Reichsführer-SS. He was a Knight's Cross and German Cross in Gold recipient. He is best known for leading his unit in killing civilians during in the Marzabotto massacre. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy .
Early life and career
Walter Reder was born in Freiwaldau, Silesia, Austria-Hungary, in the today's Czech Republic. He joined the SS on February 9, 1933 as a former member of the Hitler Youth. He graduated 60th in his class from the SS-Führerschule Braunschweig in 1936 and went on to command various elements of the 3rd Waffen-SS Totenkopf Division during World War II. He lost his left arm during the Third Battle of Kharkov, in March 1943.
Marzabotto massacre
In 1943, Reder became the commander of the SS-Panzer-Aufklärungsabteilung 16 of the 16.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Reichsführer-SS which committed war crimes in the Marzabotto area of Italy in September 1944.
Post-war
Reder was extradited to Italy in May 1948 for war crimes. He was tried by an Italian military court in Bologna and sentenced to life imprisonment at Gaeta fortress prison, on the coast north of Naples, on October 1951 for ordering the destruction of town of Marzabotto and other villages near Bologna in Aug-Sept 1944 during anti-partisan sweeps and for ordering the execution of 2,700 Italian civilians in Tuscany and Emilia during the same period.
The citizens of Marzabotto and survivors of the massacre voted 237-1 against freeing Reder. Local officials had stated that as many as 1,830 civilians died in massacres in and around Marzabatto.[1]
Years later, a group of soldiers whom Reder had commanded in 1944 were tried and convicted for their role in the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre.
He died in Vienna, Austria in 1991 and is buried in Gmünden (Oberösterreich).
Summary of SS career
Dates of rank
- SS-Anwärter: 2 February 1933
- SS-Mann: (?)
- SS-Sturmscharführer: 1934
- SS-Untersturmführer: 20 April 1936
- SS-Obersturmführer: 30 January 1939
- SS-Hauptsturmführer: 1 September 1941
- SS-Sturmbannführer: 30 January 1944
Notable decorations
- German Cross in Gold (1942)
- Eastern Front Medal (1942)
- Infantry Assault Badge in Bronze (1941)
- Iron Cross Second (1940) and First (1941) Classes
- Wound Badge in Black (1941) and Silver (1943)
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (1943)
- Sudetenland Medal (?) with Prague Castle bar (?)
- Anschluss Medal (?)
- Memel Medal (?)
- Demyansk Shield (?)
- Close Combat Clasp in Silver (?)
- SS Honour Ring (?)
Notes
Years later, a group of soldiers whom Reder had commanded in 1944 were tried and convicted for their role in the Marzabotto massacre. Their convictions and sentences, however, were in absentia.
References
- ↑ "Last Nazi war criminal held by Italy given early release". The Dallas Morning News. January 25, 1985. p. A7.
- Beschluss des Militärtribunals van Bari (Italien) vom 14. Juli 1980, translation by the court interpreter Dr. Oscar Groschup, commissioned by advocat general Dr. Robert Linke, Ministry of Justice, Austria
- Marzabotto: The Crimes of Walter Reder - SS-Sturmbannführer, by Christian Ortner (Vienna, 1985)
- Patzwall, Klaus D. and Scherzer, Veit. Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 - 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II. Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, 2001. ISBN 3-931533-45-X.
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