Rudolf Neugebauer (21 December 1912 December 1944) was a German 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 ...

during the

Nazi era Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. He served as the head of the

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

(Secret State Police) in German-occupied Lithuania and personally killed

Jacob Gens Jacob Gens (1 April 1903 – 14 September 1943) was the head of the Vilnius Ghetto government. Originally from a merchant family, he joined the Lithuanian Army shortly after the independence of Lithuania, rising to the rank of captain ...

Biography

He became an SA (''Sturmabteilung'') of the original

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 of the

NSDAP 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 ...

in 1931 (party number 1086615). In 1938, he joined the SS (SS number: 266047) and worked for the SDHA (''Sicherheitsdiensthauptamt''), the headquarters of the intelligence agency of the SS and NSDAP. As the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

annexed Austria, he worked for the

Kripo ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

(KriminalPolizei) and the Staatspolizei (state police) in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

from 1938 to 1940. He was promoted to ''Kriminalkommissar'' of the Prussian zone in 1941. From February 1942 to October 1943, he was

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 ...

and headed the Vilnius Gestapo as the

Vilna Ghetto The Vilna Ghetto was a World War II Jewish ghetto established and operated by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the modern country of Lithuania, at the time part of the Nazi-administered Reichskommissariat Ostland. During the approximatel ...

was in a "quiet" phase. He was commander of the

Einsatzkommando During World War II, the Nazi German ' were a sub-group of the ' (mobile killing squads) – up to 3,000 men total – usually composed of 500–1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to exterminate Jews, Polish intellectu ...

3 and took part in the

Ponary massacre , location = Paneriai (Ponary), Vilnius (Wilno), Reichskommissariat Ostland , coordinates = , date = July 1941 – August 1944 , incident_type = Shootings by automatic and semi-automatic weapons, genocide , perpetrators ...

. He imposed the concept of "collective responsibility" where relatives of someone who escaped were executed. As such he ordered the murders of 32 relatives after the escape of several young

Jewish partisans Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. A number of Jewish partisan groups operated across Nazi-occupied Euro ...

on 24 July 1943. At the end of July 1943, Neugebauer set up economic restrictions on the Jewish activities (e.g. no more night work, exclusion from trading from 4 August 1943). On 3 September, one testimony describes Neugebauer sparing the life of an HKP 52 worker. On 4 September 1943, he murdered

, the leader of the

Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every c ...

(ghetto government), after he reported himself. Gens was accused by the Gestapo of providing money to the FPO (United Partisan Organization). He ordered

Bruno Kittel Bruno Kittel (born 1922 in Austria – disappeared 1945) was an Austrian Nazi functionary in the German SS and Holocaust perpetrator who oversaw the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in September 1943. Kittel became known for his cynical cruelty. He ...

to liquidate the Vilna Ghetto on 22-23 September 1943 and was then transferred to the

Kovno Ghetto The Kovno Ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 29,000 people, most of whom were later sent to concentration and extermination camps, or were sho ...

. At the end of 1944, he was seconded to Budapest by the

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

Gestapo as the Budapest Ghetto was being created and the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

was closing in since the beginning of the offensive on the town in 19 October 1944. He was awarded the

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Merit ...

First Class with swords (''Kriegsverdienstkreuz 1.Klasse mit Schwertern'') for exceptional service "not in direct connection with combat". He was buried at the communal cemetery of

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

References

Bibliography

* Dieckmann 2011, Bd. 1, S. 496ff.; Bd. 2, p. 1269ff. * Gräfe, Karl-Heinz: Vom Donnerkreuz zum Hakenkreuz, Berlin 2010, p. 476 * Eckert, Christina: Die Mordstätte Paneriai (Ponary) bei Vilnius, in: Bartusevičius u.a. (Hg.): Holocaust in Litauen, Köln 2003, p. 132–142 {{Portal bar, Germany, World War II, biography 1912 births 1944 deaths German military personnel killed in World War II SS officers Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania Einsatzgruppen personnel Vilna Ghetto Gestapo personnel

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography