Philipp Johann Adolf Schmitt (20 November 1902 – 8 August 1950) was a German officer of the ''

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe dur ...

'' (SS) who served as commandant of Fort Breendonk, a Nazi prison camp in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. For a year, he was also in charge of

Mechelen transit camp The Mechelen transit camp, officially () in German, also known as the Dossin barracks, was a detention and deportation camp established in a former army barracks at Mechelen in German-occupied Belgium. It served as a point to gather Belgian J ...

but was dismissed for corruption and

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the s ...

eering. He later served in occupied Denmark and the Netherlands. After the war, he was convicted of war crimes and was executed in 1950. Schmitt was the last person executed in Belgium.

Early life

Schmitt was born in

Bad Kissingen Bad Kissingen is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is one of the health resorts, which beca ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, in 1902. After 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 fighti ...

Schmitt enlisted in a Bavarian Freikorps. He was a member of the

Bund Oberland The ''Freikorps Oberland'' (also ''Bund Oberland'' or ''Kameradschaft Freikorps und Bund Oberland'') was a voluntary paramilitary organization that, in the early years of the Weimar Republic, fought against Communist and Polish insurgents. It ...

from 1922 to 1923 and from 1925 to 1930. He became a member of the

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

in 1925 but let his membership lapse in 1926. In September 1930 Schmitt renewed his party membership and in March 1932 he joined the ''

'' (SS) (member nr. 44.291). He was promoted to SS-

Untersturmführer (, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of ''Sturmführer'' which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921. ...

in September 1935 and to SS-

Obersturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Ostuf'') was a Nazi Germany paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organisations, such as the SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Obersturmführer'' was first created in 1932 as the result of an expa ...

in September 1936. In 1936 he was transferred to the SD. In April 1938 he was promoted to SS-

Hauptsturmführer __NOTOC__ (, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...

. Before the start of 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 opposing ...

Schmitt was transferred to

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

where he oversaw order during the road works of the

Organisation Todt Organisation Todt (OT; ) was a civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi. The organisation was responsible for a huge range of engineering pro ...

World War II

After the fall of Belgium, in August 1940 Schmitt was posted to Brussels as a SS-

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 ...

with the SD. He was given the task to establish a prison camp in the old Fort Breendonk. He served as camp commandant until November 1943. Schmitt was known for his ruthless attitude towards the prisoners. He was known for having his Alsatian dog, 'Lump', attack the prisoners. Besides being commandant of Breendonk in July 1942 Schmitt was also made commandant of the SS-Sammellager Mecheln, a detention and deportation camp established in the ''Dossin'', the oldest

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

Mechelen Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...

. From this camp over 25,000 people, mainly Jews, were deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It co ...

. In November 1943 Schmitt was fired as commandant as it became known that he had engaged in

practices, for which he was formally reprimanded by

Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 190316 October 1946) was a high-ranking Austrian SS official during the Nazi era and a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinrich H ...

. He was replaced as commandant by Karl Schönwetter. After recovering from an illness he was transferred to Denmark where he was part of the Aarhus division and involved in the murder of four Danish resistance members. Near the end of the war he was transferred to the Netherlands, where near

Roermond Roermond (; li, Remunj or ) is a city, municipality, and diocese in the Limburg province of the Netherlands. Roermond is a historically important town on the lower Roer on the east bank of the river Meuse. It received town rights in 1231. Roe ...

he was wounded by American artillery fire in the leg.

Capture, trial and execution

Philipp Schmitt was arrested in May 1945 in the Netherlands. In the prison of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

, Schmitt was recognized by a former inmate of Breendonk and in November 1945 he was handed over to the Belgian authorities and himself imprisoned in Breendonk. Schmitt was tried in August 1949 for his role in the deaths of 83 inmates at Breendonk and for the inhuman treatment of the prisoners in the facility. He never showed any remorse and denied all of the atrocities that occurred at Breendonk, claiming he was merely re-educating the inmates as ordered. Schmitt was sentenced to death on 25 November 1949. On 8 August 1950, Schmitt was executed by firing squad in

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 ...

at 6 a.m. He was the last person to be executed in Belgium before the formal abolishment of the

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in 1996.

Notes

References

* *Nefors, Patrick - "Breendonk, 1940-1945 - De Geschiedenis"; Standaard Uitgeverij, 2004; * *Pirard, Claude - "Description et analyse de la gestion nazie au Auffanglager Breendonk"; lic. verh. UCL 1978-1979 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmitt, Philipp 1902 births 1950 deaths Executed Nazi concentration camp commandants People executed by Belgium by firing squad German people convicted of crimes against humanity 20th-century executions by Belgium People from Bad Kissingen Executed people from Bavaria German people executed abroad People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Breendonk prison camp personnel SS officers People executed for crimes against humanity 20th-century Freikorps personnel