Karl Bömelburg (28 October 1885 – 31 December 1946) was an 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 ...

'' (major) and head 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 orga ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

during 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 opposi ...

. He notably had authority over section IV J, charged with the deportation of the Jews, for which

Alois Brunner Alois Brunner (8 April 1912 – December 2001) was an Austrian (SS) SS-Hauptsturmführer who played a significant role in the implementation of the Holocaust through rounding up and deporting Jews in occupied Austria, Greece, Macedonia, France, ...

(sent in 1943 by

Heinrich Müller Heinrich Müller may refer to: * Heinrich Müller (cyclist) (born 1926), Swiss cyclist * Heinrich Müller (footballer, born 1888) (1888–1957), Swiss football player and manager * Heinrich Müller (footballer, born 1909) (1909–2000), Austrian ...

) was responsible. His aliases included Charles Bois, Mollemburg, and Bennelburger.

Life

Before the war

During his youth, he spent five years in Paris, in which he learned to speak nearly perfect French. He returned to Germany, was married and began working in his parents' bakery in Berlin. In 1931, Bömelburg became a member of the

National Socialist German Workers' Party 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 ...

(Nazi Party), joining the SA then the SS. In 1933 he joined the Gestapo, in which he became a commissary directing 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 ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. In 1938 he joined the staff of Joachim von Ribbentrop in Paris. At the start of November, he was put in charge of enquiries into the murder of

Ernst vom Rath Ernst Eduard vom Rath (3 June 1909 – 9 November 1938) was a member of the German nobility, a Nazi Party member, and German Foreign Office diplomat. He is mainly remembered for his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Polish Jewish teenager, ...

. When this affair was quickly resolved, he became attached to the German ambassador in Paris, setting up an unofficial Gestapo centre in Paris. He worked in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

and Saint-Étienne, making use of his French language ability. In January 1939, he was expelled by Antoine Mondanel, the inspector general of the

judicial police The judicial police, judiciary police, or justice police are (depending on both country and legal system) either a branch, separate police agency or type of duty performed by law enforcement structures in a country. The term judiciary police is mo ...

, for helping extreme-right French organisations and fifth-columnists. He moved to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, becoming police counsellor to the Gestapo and the head of its anti- Maquis section. While in Prague, he provided needed documents (probably for bribes) that permitted

Nicholas Winton Sir Nicholas George Winton (born Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British humanitarian who helped to rescue children who were at risk of being murdered by Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain at ...

and his colleagues to rescue 669 Jewish children who escaped Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia at the last moment.

Paris

On 14 June 1940, during the

German invasion of France France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans. * the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...

, Bömelburg returned to France in colonel

Helmut Knochen Helmut Herbert Christian Heinrich Knochen (March 14, 1910 – April 4, 2003) was the senior commander of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and Sicherheitsdienst in Paris during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. He was se ...

's Kommando SD and acted as ''Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei'' (''KdS'', Commander of Security Police). In August he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the SS and had

name him his personal representative and the head of the

(section IV of the BdS covering France), with the title of criminal director. His activities during the time he spent in Paris passed from repression and interrogations to the frequent use of torture in the courts by his subordinates such as

Ernst Misselwitz Ernst Misselwitz (31 August 1909 –?) was an SS-''Hauptscharführer'' who worked for the Gestapo (Secret State Police). He became head of the unit IV E of the RSHA - Reich Security Main Office of the Paris Gestapo. In 1952 he was found guilty ...

, but also fashionable soirées and little gifts offered by Henri Lafont, derived from the black market or from war loot. One of Bömelburg's wishes was to have a poultry farm, and Henri Lafont obliged by giving him a farm near

Giverny Giverny () is a commune in the northern French department of Eure.Commune de Giverny (27285) ...

staffed by his own men. His offices were situated at 11

rue des Saussaies Rue des Saussaies is a short (50m long) street in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that adjoins the Ministry of the Interior. It begins at place Beauvau and finishes at place Saussaies. At number 10, lived the comte de Ségur, Napoleon I ...

(1940-1942), then

84 Avenue Foch 84 Avenue Foch (german: Avenue Foch vierundachtzig) was the Parisian headquarters of the '' Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD), the counter-intelligence branch of the SS during the German occupation of Paris in World War II. Avenue Foch is a wide res ...

, and his adjutants included ''

Josef Kieffer Hans Josef Kieffer (4 December 1900 – 26 June 1947) was a Sturmbannführer (Major) and the head in Paris of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence agency of the SS during the German occupation of France during the Second World War. Kieffer' ...

. In 1941 he succeeded

Rudy de Mérode Rudy de Mérode, real name Frédéric Martin (1905 in Silly-sur-Nied, Moselle (department), Moselle – ?, probably in Spain) was a French Collaboration with the Axis powers, collaborator during the German military administration in occupied France ...

at 43, avenue Victor-Hugo in Neuilly, in a ''Gasthaus'' (a house reserved for "forced" guests), which came to be called villa Boemelburg. He personally recruited agents, with the initial B or Boe. In summer 1941 he made a trip to the unoccupied zone to reactivate pre-war agents, and in the autumn he supervised the inquiry into Paul Collette, who had tried to assassinate

Pierre Laval Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. During the Third Republic, he served as Prime Minister of France from 27 January 1931 to 20 February 1932 and 7 June 1935 to 24 January 1936. He again occ ...

and

Marcel Déat Marcel Déat (7 March 1894 – 5 January 1955) was a French politician. Initially a socialist and a member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), he led a breakaway group of right-wing ' Neosocialists' out of the SFIO in 1933 ...

. During that year, he also headed up the Red Orchestra Kommando and enacted Operation

Funkspiel ''Funkspiel'' (german: radio game) was a German term describing a technique of transmission of controlled information over a captured agent's radio so that the agent's parent service had no knowledge that the agent had turned and decided to work f ...

against the workers' Soviets. In autumn 1942 he put ''Aktion Donar'' into effect, and in June 1943 he was the last German senior officer to see

Jean Moulin Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and French Resistance, resistant who served as the first President of the National Council of the Resistance during World War II from 27 May 1943 until his death less ...

alive. Moulin had been arrested on 21 June at Caluire, and then spent two weeks (25 June to 8 July) at villa Boemelburg, before dying on his train journey to Berlin. In November 1943, Bömelburg reached the age limit and was replaced by an officer surnamed Stindt. Bömelburg was transferred to

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a spa and resort town and in World War II was the capital of ...

, where he represented Carl Oberg, and then in June 1944 replaced SS captain Hugo Geissler (killed in an ambush near

Murat Murat may refer to: Places Australia * Murat Bay, a bay in South Australia * Murat Marine Park, a marine protected area France * Murat, Allier, a commune in the department of Allier * Murat, Cantal, a commune in the department of Cantal Elsewhe ...

) as head of the Gestapo in the southern zone of France. On 28 August that year he ensured Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, ) or Marshal Pétain (french: Maréchal Pétain), was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of Worl ...

's safe journey to

Sigmaringen Sigmaringen ( Swabian: ''Semmerenga'') is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district. Sigmaringen is renowned for its castle, Schloss Sigmaringen ...

, as security-chief, and then on 29 April 1945 authorised Pétain's departure for Switzerland.

Postwar

In May 1945, after the German surrender, Bömelburg and his Gestapo chief in Berlin, Heinrich Müller, disappeared and were never recaptured. Bömelburg doctored the papers of a sergeant Bergman, killed in the bombardment, and adopted his identity. He was hired as a gardener near Munich, then promoted to librarian, and also directed a group of active Nazis fleeing to Francoist Spain. At Saint-Sylvestre, in 1946, he slipped on ice, broke his skull and died. Later his son Ralf engraved his name on the family tombstone.Source : Jean Lartéguy and Bob Maloubier He was condemned to death ''

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in ab ...

'' on 2 March 1950 by a military tribunal meeting in Lyon, and the Czechoslovak authorities were also seeking him for trial for war crimes.

Bibliography

*Jacques Delarue, ''Histoire de la

'' Ed. Fayard, 1962. *Jean Paul Cointet, ''Sigmaringen'' Ed. Perrin, 2003, . *Cyril Eder, ''Les Comtesses de la

'' Ed. Grasset, 2007, . *Patrice Miannay, ''Dictionnaire des agents doubles dans la Résistance'', le cherche midi, 2005, . *Jean Lartéguy and

Bob Maloubier Robert Maloubier (2 February 1923 – 20 April 2015) was a French secret agent who worked for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in World War II. He received his training at Wanborough Manor in Surrey. Following the war, Maloubier wen ...

, ''Triple jeu, l'espion Déricourt'', Robert Laffont, 1992. * Monika Siedentopf, ''Parachutées en terre ennemie'', Perrin, 2008. See p. 97.

Notes