Rudolf "Dolf" von Scheliha (31 May 1897 – 22 December 1942) was a German
aristocrat
The aristocracy is historically associated with "hereditary" or "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the upper class of people (aristocrats) with hereditary rank and titles. In some, such as ancient Greece, ancient Ro ...
, cavalry officer and
diplomat
A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...
who became a
resistance fighter
A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...
and anti-Nazi who was linked to the
Red Orchestra. Von Scheliha fought in the
World War I
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 ...
and this experience defined his politics. He joined the Foreign Office, trained to be a diplomat and was sent to the embassy in Warsaw. In the years leading up to the war, Von Scheliha was placed in a position of trust in the Foreign Office. In 1934, he was recruited by Soviet intelligence while he served in Warsaw due to financial necessity, which enabled him to pass documents to Soviet intelligence. In the years leading up to the war, he became a committed opponent of the Nazi Regime and its anti-semitic policies.
He became the director of an information department in the embassy in September 1939 that was established to counter enemy propaganda. As part of the job, photographs of atrocities against Jews and other people passed through his department that were used for propaganda. Appalled at what he saw, he began to resist, building a portfolio of worst images over several years. In January 1942, the portfolio was smuggled to London.
In June 1941, at the start of the
invasion of the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
, his line of communication to the Soviets was cut off. Soviet intelligence tried several times to reinitiate communications with Von Scheliha but were unsuccessful. In May 1942, Soviet intelligence sent the agent
Erna Eifler
Erna Frida Eifler (born 31 August 1908, Berlin - died 8 April or 7 June 1944, Ravensbrück concentration camp) was a German steno typist secretary who became a communist, resistance fighter, Soviet GRU agent (known as a ''Scout'' in Soviet parla ...
to make contact with Scheliha in Berlin, but she was captured. He was executed by hanging in
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt Plötzensee, JVA Plötzensee) is a juvenile prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The d ...
on 14 December 1942.
Early life
Rudolf von Scheliha was born in
Zessel,
Oels,
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
(now Cieśle, Gmina Oleśnica, Poland), as the son of a
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n aristocrat and officer Rudolph von Scheliha. His mother was a daughter of Prussian Finance Minister
Johann von Miquel
Johannes von Miquel (19 February 1828 – 8 September 1901) was a German statesman.
Biography
Born Johannes Franz Miquel at Neuenhaus, Kingdom of Hanover on 19 February 1828 as a descendant from a French family that had emigrated during the Fre ...
. His younger sister,
Renata von Scheliha
Renata Johanna von Scheliha (born 16 August 1901 in Cieśle, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Zessel, Oels, Province of Silesia, Silesia, German Empire; died 4 November 1967 in New York, USA) was a German classical philology, philologist. She authored ...
, was a classic's
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
.
Rudolf wed Marie Louise von Medinger, the daughter of a large landowner and industrialist.
The couple had two daughters: Sylvia, born in 1930, and Elisabeth, born in 1934. Sylvia became an engineer and Elisabeth received a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
in chemistry, with the latter surviving to 2016 and dying in
Adliswil
Adliswil is a town and a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
The official language of Adliswil is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alem ...
.
Military
He served as an army officer in
World War I
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 ...
, volunteered after his graduation in 1915. Scheliha volunteered at the same regiment, the Cavalry Rifle Regiment, Guard Cavalry Rifle Division, that his father and uncle had served in and whose influx for officers was drawn from nobility.
On 8 August 1918, he was shelled in a ditch with two brothers next to him, who were blown up, one brother died months later from the injuries.
Scheliha was buried; when rescued, his hair turned grey and was suffering
shell shock
Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a react ...
.
His parents were shocked at the change.
He never spoke of his experiences.
He was honoured for his efforts with both
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...
es and the
Silver Wound Badge.
Career
Until 1933
After the war, he studied law in
Breslau. In May 1919, he moved to the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
, where he joined the
Corps Saxo-Borussia during that year and came in contact with
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
and anti-totalitarian circles; He was elected to the
AStA
The General Students' Committee (German: Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss) or AStA, is the acting executive board and the external representing agency of the (constituted) student body at universities in most German states. It is therefore consid ...
, the ''Association of Heidelberg Associations'', where he vehemently opposed too the
anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
riots by the students.
After his examination in 1921, he became first clerk at the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
; in 1922. In February 1922, Rudolf von Scheliha joined the regional office of the
Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* Unit ...
in Hamburg.
After six months, he was promoted to
attaché
In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accor ...
.
He began to worked in the department responsible for East European affairs, in the office of Undersecretary of State in Berlin.
In December 1924, he was promoted again, when he was admitted into the diplomatic service.
In following years, Von Scheliha took over tasks in the diplomatic missions of
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 ...
,
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
,
Angora,
Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...
and
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 ...
. In 1927, he was appointed to the position of
legation secretary
A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a minister. Ambassadors outranked ministers and had precedence at official events. Legations ...
.
A few months after
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's appointment as
''Reichskanzler'' in January 1933, von Scheliha became a member of 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 ...
, a requirement as a diplomat. In 1935, von Scheliha participated in the
Nuremberg Rally
The Nuremberg Rallies (officially ', meaning ''Reich Party Congress'') refer to a series of celebratory events coordinated by the Nazi Party in Germany. The first rally held took place in 1923. This rally was not particularly large or impactful; ...
.
1933 to 1942
From 1932 to 1939, von Scheliha was a member of the German embassy in
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 ...
. In September 1939, von Scheliha was appointed director of an information department in the Foreign Office, created to counter foreign press and radio news propaganda about the German occupation in Poland.
His appointment allowed him to verify the veracity of foreign reports and to interview Nazi officials.
In that position, he would often protest to Nazi agencies against German
war crimes in Poland. As well as being critical of Kliest, he disagreed with the brutality of
Richard Heydrich and
Hans Frank
Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and lawyer who served as head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War.
Frank was an early member of the German Workers' Party ...
and started to resist.
He also helped Poles and Jewsh folk flee abroad. He became aware of the atrocities committed by 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 ...
under the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime and made contact with Polish nobles and intellectuals. Working either in an official capacity, or a friend, he helped many people to escape from Poland, in some cases providing money for travel costs. He remained capable of establishing several partial contacts after the beginning of the
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
on 1 September 1939, utilising them to disseminate news concerning Nazi crimes abroad.
Soviet agent
In 1937, von Scheliha, who had risen to become the First Secretary at the German embassy in Warsaw, began working for the Soviet secret police, the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
.
[Andrew, Christopher & Gordievsky, Oleg, ''The KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev'', New York: Harper Collins, 1990 page 192.] His first case officer, if not recruiter, was
Rudolf Herrnstadt, a journalist for the
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
''
Berliner Tageblatt
The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the '' Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.
History
The ''Berlin ...
''. As Herrnstadt was
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, contact with von Scheliha became increasingly difficult and an intermediary who would not be recognised was needed.
Ilse Stöbe, a communist who was a secretary to
Theodor Wolff
Theodor Wolff (2 August 1868 – 23 September 1943) was a German writer who was influential as a journalist, critic and newspaper editor. He was born and died in Berlin. Between 1906 and 1933 he was the chief editor of the politically liberal new ...
for the newspaper ''Berliner Tageblatt'', agreed to act as a
cutout. Herrnstadt passed the documents that von Scheliha supplied to the Soviet Embassy in Warsaw by Stöbe until September 1939.
Scheliha's motivation for espionage were entirely financial, as he had a lifestyle beyond his salary, was a long-time gambler with gambling debts and liked to keep several mistresses at once. He found that selling state secrets to the Soviet Union was the best way of providing the additional income that he needed.
[ Scheliha was paid well for his work; in February 1938, a Soviet agent deposited US$6,500 in his bank account in Zurich, making him the best paid Soviet agent in the world.][ It was from the intelligence sold by Scheliha that the Soviet Union became very well-informed about the state of German-Polish relations in 1937–1939 and that in October 1938, the Reich wanted to reduce Poland to a ]satellite state
A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting ...
.[
]
Archive
Von Scheliha secretly began making a collection of documents on the atrocities of the 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 ...
in 1939, particularly on the murders of Jews in Poland, which also contained photographs of the newly-established extermination camps
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
. In June 1941, he showed the dossier to the Polish intelligence agent Countess Klementyna Mankowska, who was a member of the anti-Nazi group, the Muszkieterowie ("Musketeers") where she worked as a courier. Countess Mankowska visited him at the Foreign Office in Berlin to make the details known to the Polish Resistance and the Allies. Mankowska writes that she was led into a large well furnished room and Von Scheliha presented a large thick folder that described the gassing of Jews and other folk.
In the autumn of 1941, von Scheliha invited his Polish friend, Count Konstantin Bninski, to Berlin, under the pretext of writing propaganda texts for the Foreign Office against the Polish Resistance. The German diplomat and historian Ulrich Sahm considered it probable in his 1990 biography that von Scheliha then passed material to Bninski containing a comprehensive documentation of crimes during the German occupation, in addition to members of the Polish resistance. Co-authored with fellow German diplomat Johann von Wühlisch, it was completed in January 1942 and was titled ''The Nazi Culture in Poland''. The document was recorded on microfilm
Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...
and smuggled to Britain, with a high personal risk to those involved. It is considered one of the most detailed contemporary accounts of the early Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
during the war. The document describes the persecution of the church, school and the university system; the dark role of the Institute of German Ostarbeiter
:
' (, "Eastern worker") was a Nazi German designation for foreign slave workers gathered from occupied Central and Eastern Europe to perform forced labor in Germany during World War II. The Germans started deporting civilians at the beginning ...
as the driver of cultural rescheduling; the relocation and the sacking of libraries; the devastation of monuments; the looting of archives, museums and the private collections of Polish nobility; the subversion of Polish theatre, music and the press; and the destruction of other cultural institutions under force by the Nazi Party. The Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
published the document as a novel in 1944 to 1945. Around then, von Scheliha was in contact with ''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 ...
'' Henning von Tresckow
Henning Hermann Karl Robert von Tresckow (; 10 January 1901 – 21 July 1944) was a German military officer with the rank of major general in the Nazi Germany, German Army who helped organize German resistance to Nazism, German resistance again ...
who was also becoming increasingly antifascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
, as he witnessed the murder of Jews and would later take part in the 20 July plot
On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. The ...
.
In February 1942, von Scheliha ended his attempts to name and send out exiled Poles as helpers for German propaganda to stop endangering them and himself. At the same time, he closed the small Polish research department foreign office, fearing for their lives. At that time he was in despair, realising his powerlessness. That spring, he travelled to Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
where his sister lived and provided Swiss diplomats with information on ''Aktion T4
(German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of ...
'', including sermons by Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen
Clemens Augustinus Emmanuel Joseph Pius Anthonius Hubertus Marie Graf von Galen (16 March 1878 – 22 March 1946), better known as ''Clemens August Graf von Galen'', was a German count, Bishop of Münster, and cardinal of the Catholic Churc ...
on the murders of the mentally ill. He also sent reports on the Final Solution
The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...
, including the construction and the operation of more extermination camps and Hitler's order to exterminate European Jews. As part of the February trip to Switzerland, he banked part of his espionage earnings. It is calculated that he was paid about $50,000 for his services, but it was believed by the Germans who captured him that most of the money was consumed in domestic expenses, but at least some of it was banked. Von Scheliha made further trips to Switzerland in September and October 1942.
The extent of Soviet intelligence interest in von Scheliha was shown in May 1942 when Bernhard Bästlein
Bernhard Bästlein (; 3 December 1894 in Hamburg – 18 September 1944 in Brandenburg an der Havel) was a German Communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi régime. He was imprisoned very shortly after the Nazis seized power in 1933 and wa ...
assisted Erna Eifler
Erna Frida Eifler (born 31 August 1908, Berlin - died 8 April or 7 June 1944, Ravensbrück concentration camp) was a German steno typist secretary who became a communist, resistance fighter, Soviet GRU agent (known as a ''Scout'' in Soviet parla ...
, Wilhelm Fellendorf
Erna Frida Eifler (born 31 August 1908, Berlin - died 8 April or 7 June 1944, Ravensbrück concentration camp) was a German steno typist secretary who became a communist, resistance fighter, Soviet GRU agent (known as a ''Scout'' in Soviet parla ...
, Soviet agents who had parachuted into Germany in May 1942 with wireless telegraphy
Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimental technologies for ...
sets and had been instructed to find Ilse Stöbe to re-establish communications with von Scheliha. Eifler failed to contact Stöbe, who was in Dresden at the time. Eifler was arrested on 15 October 1942, Fellendorf a short time later. Another Soviet agent Heinrich Koenen was dropped in 23 October 1942 to make another attempt to contact Stöbe and von Scheliha. Koenen's mission was to pass all the material collected by von Scheliha and Stoebe to Soviet intelligence, but he was arrested in Berlin on 26 October 1942.
Unbeknownst to Stöbe and von Scheliha, the Gestapo had already started to arrest members of the Red Orchestra in August 1942. Stöbe was arrested on 12 September 1942, and von Scheliha was arrested on 29 October 1942 in the office of the personnel director of the Foreign Office shortly after he had returned from Switzerland.
Arrest and death
Suspected by the 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 ...
for his critical attitude, he was charged by the Second Senate of the Reichskriegsgericht
The Reichskriegsgericht (RKG; en, Reich Court-Martial) was the highest military court in Germany between 1900 and 1945.
Legal basics and responsibilities
After the Prussian-led Unification of Germany, the German Empire with effect from 1 October ...
of being a member of the Red Orchestra and sentenced to death on 14 December 1942 for "treason". On 22 December 1942, he was executed by hanging in Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt Plötzensee, JVA Plötzensee) is a juvenile prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The d ...
His wife, Marie Louise, was arrested on 22 December 1942 and taken to the women's prison in Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
. There, she was repeatedly interrogated and threatened but released on 6 November 1943. In the last days of the war, she fled with her daughters to Niederstetten
Niederstetten () is a town and a municipality in the Main-Tauber district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km southeast of Bad Mergentheim, and 19 km west of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Sights
The main attraction is ...
via 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 Haltenbergstetten Castle, the former castle of the principality of Hohenlohe-Jagstberg
Hohenlohe-Jagstberg was a Principality located in northeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, around Jagstberg which had been a territory of the Bishopric of Würzburg. It was ruled by one of the lines of the House of Hohenlohe. Hohenlohe-Jagstberg ...
, the family lived in a cellar mainly on mushrooms, berries and fruit.
Reappraisal
In West German historiography, von Scheliha was seen until 1986 as not a resistance fighter, but a spy in Soviet services. In the process, the acts of interrogation and Gestapo records continued to be uncritically classified as "sources" to which former Nazi prosecutors such as Manfred Roeder
Manfred Roeder (6 February 1929 – 30 July 2014) was a German lawyer and Neo-Nazi terrorist. Roeder was a prominent Holocaust denier. He has also been described as an early representative of the ''Reichsbürger'' movement.
Life
Born in Berl ...
and Alexander Kraell, the former president of the Second Senate of the Reichskriegs Court, contributed after 1945.
Awards and honours
On 20 July 1961, the Foreign Office in Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
commemorated eleven of its employees, who were executed as resistance fighters, with a plaque, including Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff, Ulrich von Hassell
Christian August Ulrich von Hassell (12 November 1881 – 8 September 1944) was a German diplomat during World War II. A member of the German Resistance against German dictator Adolf Hitler, Hassell unsuccessfully proposed to the British ...
, Adam von Trott zu Solz
Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz (9 August 1909 – 26 August 1944) was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative resistance to Nazism. A declared opponent of the Nazi regime from the beginning, he actively participated in ...
and Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenburg. Von Scheliha was not mentioned because he continued to pass on information to the Soviet Union, which was considered a betrayal. Only recent research on the Red Orchestra, especially the biography by Ulrich Sahm, has revised the assessment. In response, the Cologne Administrative Court ruled in October 1995 that Scheliha had been sentenced to death not for espionage but in a sham trial for his opposition to Nazism, which overturned the 1942 verdict.
On 21 December 1995 at the Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* Unit ...
, in a ceremony with State Secretary Hans-Friedrich von Ploetz, an additional board with the inscription "Rudolf von Scheliha 1897–1942" was attached.
On 18 July 2000 in a ceremony at the new Foreign Office in Berlin, both panels were brought together and the names listed in the sequence of death dates. Von Scheliha's name leads the list. On 9 July 2014 Ilse Stöbe received the same honour at the Foreign Office.
In Neuallermöhe
is a quarter of Hamburg, Germany, in the borough of Bergedorf. In 2020 the population was over 23,000.
Geography
200px, left, Viewing platform „Zuckerstangen“
Neuallermöhe limits to the Berlin-Hamburg Railway and Billwerder to the north. ...
, a street was named in memory of von Scheliha on 5 May 1997. There is a street in Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...
named Schelihastraße, but the street is named after the Oberhofmeister Ludwig Albert von Scheliha, who owned a large garden plot on the street on which the Protestant church stands today.
Literature
*
*
*
*
* (Lars Jockheck
Rezension.
In: ''sehepunkte.'' 3, 2003, Nr. 4.)
*
*
*
*
* Wolfgang Wippermann: ''Widerstand für Polen und Juden – Rudolf von Scheliha.'' esistance for Poles and Jews – Rudolf von SchelihaIn: Sebastian Sigler (Hrsg.): ''Corpsstudenten im Widerstand gegen Hitler''. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2014, pp. 191–215.
External links
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheliha, Rudolf von
1897 births
1942 deaths
German diplomats
Red Orchestra (espionage)
German Army personnel of World War I
People condemned by Nazi courts
People from the Province of Silesia
People executed for treason against Germany
People from Oleśnica County
Executed German people
People executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison
German spies for the Soviet Union
World War II spies for the Soviet Union
Executed spies