Wilhelm Harster (21 July 1904 – 25 December 1991) was a German policeman and war criminal. A high-ranking member in the SS and a Holocaust perpetrator during the Nazi era, he was twice convicted for his crimes by the Netherlands and later by West Germany. He had been employed by the government of Bavaria as a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and was let go with a full pension after public outcry.

Education and early career

Harster graduated from University of Munich with a degree in 1927. Before the war, Harster was reservist with the Reichswehr, joining in 1920. In 1929 he joined the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). He joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933, holding the party number of 3,226,954.

SS service

He joined the SS on 9 November 1933 with the serial number of 225,932. He joined the Sicherheitsdienst or SD on 29 October 1935 and eventually obtained the rank of

Gruppenführer __NOTOC__ ''Gruppenführer'' (, ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term ''Gruppenführer'' is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire de ...

. He was also recalled to service in the Wehrmacht, serving in July 1940 as a member of a machinegun company. From 19 July 1940 until 29 August 1943, he was the commander of the Security Police and SD in the occupation of the Netherlands, where many of his war crimes occurred. He was implicated in the deaths of 104,000 Jews in the Holocaust, including Anne Frank. After his role in the occupation of the Netherlands, he was moved to Italy as the commander of the SD (

Bolzano Transit Camp , known for = , location = Bolzano, Operationszone Alpenvorland , coordinates = , built by = , operated by = SS , commandant = Wilhelm Harster Karl Friedrich Titho , original use ...

) there under

Karl Wolff Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff (13 May 1900 – 17 July 1984) was a German SS functionary who served as Chief of Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS (Heinrich Himmler) and an SS liaison to Adolf Hitler during World War II. He ended the war as the Supre ...

from 29 August 1943 until his capture.

Criminal convictions

Harster was arrested by the British Army where he was transferred to the Netherlands and tried for war crimes. In 1949, he was convicted and sentenced to 12 years for his role in the deportation and murder of Dutch Jews. He was released in 1953. Upon release, he again became a civil servant in Bavaria, until he was retired due to public and media pressure in 1963. He kept his full pension. In 1967 he was tried alongside his two closest aides

Wilhelm Zoepf Wilhelm Zoepf, also rendered Zöpf, (11 March 1908 in Munich – 7 July 1980) was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) Sturmbannführer and a figure in the Holocaust. Early years Educated at the ''Maximiliansgymnasium München'', Zoepf was a lawyer by pro ...

and Gertrud Slottke and sentenced to an additional 15 years in jail for deportation of Jews 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 con ...

and

Sobibor concentration camp Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ...

s. He was given credit for time served and was pardoned in 1969. His doctorate was officially removed from him. Harster died in 1991.

References

Citations

Sources

* * *Christian Ritz, ''Schreibtischtäter vor Gericht. Das Verfahren vor dem Münchner Landgericht wegen der Deportation der niederländischen Juden (1959-1967)''. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012; p. 257 {{DEFAULTSORT:Harster, Wilhelm 1904 births 1991 deaths Military personnel from Munich Holocaust perpetrators in the Netherlands Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Recipients of German presidential pardons German people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of the Netherlands Prisoners and detainees of Germany Gestapo personnel People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Reich Security Main Office personnel SS-Gruppenführer 20th-century Freikorps personnel