Jakob Sporrenberg (16 September 1902 – 6 December 1952) was an SS-'' Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei'' in

Minsk, Belarus Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the adm ...

and

Lublin, Poland Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

. After the war, Sporrenberg stood trial in Poland and was convicted in 1950 of war crimes and sentenced to death. He was executed in December 1952.

Biography

Jakob Sporrenberg was born on 16 September 1902 in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Sporrenberg joined 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 t ...

in 1925. In 1929 he was appointed an SA officer and one year later joined the SS, rising to the rank of 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 ...

'' by 1933. In January 1940, he was promoted to the rank of SS-'' Gruppenführer'' (''Generalleutnant''). From July to August 1941, he was SS and Police Leader (SSPF) in the ''

Generalbezirk Weißruthenien Generalbezirk Weissruthenien (General District White Ruthenia) was one of the four administrative subdivisions of ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'', the 1941-1945 civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany for the administration of the th ...

'', headquartered in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

. He then served on the staff of ''

Reichskommissar (, rendered as "Commissioner of the Empire", "Reich Commissioner" or "Imperial Commissioner"), in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and Nazi Germany. Ger ...

'' Erich Koch in the ''

Reichskommissariat Ukraine During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Min ...

''. In March 1943 he was assigned to the staff of SS-''

Obergruppenführer ' (, "senior group leader") was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissio ...

Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski Erich Julius Eberhard von dem Bach-Zelewski (born Erich Julius Eberhard von Zelewski; 1 March 1899 – 8 March 1972) was a high-ranking SS commander of Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State" ...

to combat partisans. Sporrenberg subsequently succeeded

Odilo Globočnik Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globocnik (21 April 1904 – 31 May 1945) was an Austrian Nazi and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. He was an official of the Nazi Party and later a high-ranking leader of the SS. Globocnik had a leading role in Operation Re ...

as SSPF of Lublin, in the '' Generalgouvernement'' of occupied

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 populou ...

from August 1943 to November 1944. In this capacity, Sporrenberg oversaw and implemented the mass shooting of Jews during Operation "Harvest Festival".Mark C.Yerger: Allgemeine-SS: The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS (Schiffer Publishing Ltd.), 1997, p. 28, In November 1944 Sporrenberg and several of his staff were redeployed to Norway. There Sporrenberg served as SS and Police Leader of ''Süd-Norwegen'' (South Norway). In May 1945, Sporrenberg and his staff were captured by British forces. Their interrogation shed much light on Globočnik's activities in Lublin. One outcome of his interrogation was the transfer of Sporrenberg from the PWIS Detachment (Norway) in Oslo to the

MI19 MI19 was a section of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. During the Second World War it was responsible for obtaining information from enemy prisoners of war. It was originally created in December 1940 as ...

interrogation centre in

Kensington Palace Gardens Kensington Palace Gardens is an exclusive street in Kensington, west of central London, near Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. Entered through gates at either end and guarded by sentry boxes, it was the location of the London Cage, th ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, known as the "

London Cage The London Cage, also known as Connor McCracken's room, was an MI19 prisoner-of-war facility during and after the Second World War to mainly interrogate captured Germans, including SS personnel and members of the Nazi Party. The unit, which was ...

"; for further questioning by the War Crimes Interrogation Unit. This established his participation in a number of war crimes committed in Poland and the Soviet Union.

Post-war

Sporrenberg was extradited to Poland in October 1946, and sentenced to death by a Polish court 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 1950. He was hanged on 6 December 1952. Sporrenberg is the supposed source for ''Prawda o Wunderwaffe'' (2000), a book about the alleged German occult secret weapon '' Die Glocke'' (The Bell) by Polish writer Igor Witkowski, who claimed to have gained access to transcripts of an interrogation by Polish authorities of Sporrenberg through an unnamed contact in the Polish intelligence service. The book is widely considered a hoax.

References

External links

*
Porträt und Biographie
im Handbuch der Reichstagsabgeordneten {{DEFAULTSORT:Sporrenberg, Jakob 1902 births 1952 deaths Executed people from North Rhine-Westphalia General Government German Roman Catholics Holocaust perpetrators in Belarus Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Kapp Putsch participants Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany Military personnel from Düsseldorf German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom Nazis convicted of war crimes People executed for war crimes Nazis executed by Poland by hanging Nazi Party politicians People extradited from Germany People extradited to Poland People from the Rhine Province Prisoners and detainees of the British military Recipients of the Iron Cross (1939), 1st class People of Reichskommissariat Ostland SS and Police Leaders SS-Gruppenführer Sturmabteilung officers 20th-century Freikorps personnel Executed mass murderers

Biography

Post-war

See also

References

External links