Paul Otto Geibel (10 June 1898 – 12 November 1966) was a German SS-''

Brigadeführer ''Brigadeführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) that was used between the years of 1932 to 1945. It was mainly known for its use as an SS rank. As an SA rank, it was used after briefly being known as ''Untergruppenf� ...

'' and ''

Generalmajor is the Germanic variant of major general, used in a number of Central and Northern European countries. Austria Belgium Denmark is the second lowest general officer rank in the Royal Danish Army and Royal Danish Air Force. As a two-star ...

'' of police who served as the last SS and Police Leader (SSPF) "

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

" during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He was involved in suppressing the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

and in the subsequent destruction of the city. At the end of the war, he was convicted of war crimes and committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

while serving a life sentence in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Early life

Geibel was born in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

, the son of a school director. On the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he left school and joined the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

. He served at sea and in the

coastal artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of c ...

, finishing his service aboard the

battlecruiser The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of attr ...

SMS Hindenburg SMS was a battlecruiser of the German (Imperial Navy), the third ship of the , built to a slightly modified design. She carried the same battery of eight guns, but in improved turrets that allowed them to fire further. The ship was also slig ...

'', and rising to the rank of ''

Leutnant zur see ''Leutnant zur See'' (''Lt zS'' or ''LZS'') is the lowest officer rank in the German Navy. It is grouped as OF1 in Ranks and insignia of officers of NATO Navies, NATO, equivalent to an Ensign (rank), Ensign in the United States Navy, and an Acti ...

''. After the war, he returned to civilian life and worked as an insurance salesman from 1920 to 1933. He joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

(membership number 761,353) and its

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

wing, the SA, in December 1931. He was commissioned an SA-''

Sturmführer ''Sturmführer'' (, "storm leader") was a paramilitary Military rank, rank of the Nazi Party which began as a title used by the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) in 1925 and became an actual SA rank in 1928. Translated as "storm leader or assault leader", ...

'' in December 1933.

Peacetime police career

From the end of 1933 until March 1935, Geibel worked in the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

headquarters of the SA police corps, eventually rising in rank to an SA-''

Sturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Sturmbannführer'' (; ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank equivalent to major that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the SA, SS, and the NSFK. The rank originated from German shock troop units of the First World War ...

''. In April 1935, he joined the ''Gendarmerie'', or rural police force, a branch of the ''

Ordnungspolizei The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (), abbreviated ''Orpo'', meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction w ...

'' (Order Police) reporting to the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

. From April 1935 to October 1942, he was assigned to the Interior Ministry, administering the force's motorized components with the rank of ''

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

''. In addition, he was admitted to the SS (SS number 313,910) in December 1938 as an SS-''Sturmbannführer''. From October 1942 to the end of March 1944, he headed "Group Command Office II" in the ''Hauptamt'' (Main Office) of the ''Ordnungspolizei''.

Second World War

Destroyed Warsaw, capital of Poland, January 1945 - version 2

On 31 March 1944, Geibel was transferred to the

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

and named the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in

, as the permanent replacement to SS-''Brigadeführer''

Franz Kutschera Franz Kutschera (22 February 1904 – 1 February 1944) was an Austrian Nazi Party politician and '' SS-Brigadeführer''. He was a member of the '' Großdeutscher Reichstag'' and served as the Acting ''Gauleiter'' of Carinthia from 1939 to 19 ...

who had been

assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

on 1 February. Geibel would be the last person to hold this position. On 1 August 1944, the

Warsaw uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

was launched by the

Polish Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

. As the commander of all the SS and police forces in the city, Geibel was one of the chief participants in the suppression of the uprising, and was involved in the

massacre in the Mokotów prison The Massacre in the Mokotów prison - mass murder of residents of the Mokotów prison in Warsaw by the Germans on the second day of the Warsaw Uprising. On August 2, 1944, soldiers of the Waffen- SS - SS-Pz. Gren. Ausb.-und Ers. Btl. 3 (of SS-Panz ...

that resulted in the murder of approximately 600 inmates. Following the defeat of the Polish forces, Geibel played a key role in the retaliatory

destruction of Warsaw The destruction of Warsaw was Nazi Germany's substantially effected razing of the city in late 1944, after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising of the Polish resistance. The uprising infuriated German leaders, who decided to destroy the city as retaliation. ...

ordered by ''

Reichsführer-SS (, ) was a special title and rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945 for the commander of the (SS). ''Reichsführer-SS'' was a title from 1925 to 1933, and from 1934 to 1945 it was the highest rank of the SS. The longest-servi ...

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

. On 12 October 1944, Himmler appointed Geibel to oversee the operation. He was granted full powers to expel the population and to obliterate the Polish capital, which was largely razed to the ground. Geibel was promoted to his final rank of SS-''Brigadeführer'' and ''Generalmajor'' of police on 26 October 1944. He left his post as SSPF in Warsaw on 1 February 1945 and was appointed commander of the ''Ordnungspolizei'' forces in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia where he remained until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May 1945.

Postwar prosecutions

Geibel was arrested in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, tried and sentenced to five years at hard labor. After serving this prison sentence, he was

extradited Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...

. There he was tried by the Warsaw Provincial Court and sentenced to life imprisonment on 31 May 1954 for his activities as SSPF in suppressing the Warsaw uprising. Briefly released from custody in 1956 on grounds of good conduct, he was soon re-incarcerated following an outcry by Polish survivors of the uprising. Geibel took his own life in Warsaw's

Mokotów Prison Mokotów Prison ( pl, Więzienie mokotowskie, also known as ''Rakowiecka Prison'') is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was built by the Russians in the final years of the foreign Partitions of P ...

while still in custody there.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Geibel, Paul Otto 1898 births 1966 suicides German people imprisoned abroad German police officers German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Imperial German Navy personnel of World War I Nazis convicted of war crimes Nazis who died by suicide in prison custody People from Dortmund Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 1st class Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 2nd class Recipients of the War Merit Cross SS and Police Leaders SS-Brigadeführer Sturmabteilung officers Prisoners and detainees of Czechoslovakia Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Poland Prisoners who died in Polish People's Republic detention Suicides in Poland