Ludwig Fischer (16 April 1905 – 8 March 1947) was a German

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 ...

lawyer, politician and a convicted war criminal who was executed for war crimes.

Background

Born into a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family in

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

, Fischer joined the

in 1926 while a student, and the ''

Sturmabteilung The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ral ...

'' (SA) in 1929, eventually rising to 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 ...

''. In 1937, he was elected to the Reichstag.

Actions during the Nazi occupation of Poland

Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. On 24 October 1939 Fischer became Chief Administrator (and in 1941

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

) of the

Warsaw District Warsaw District was one of the first four Nazi districts of the General Governorate region of German-occupied Poland during World War II, along with Lublin District, Radom District, and Kraków District. It was bordered on the north by Regierungsb ...

in the occupied

General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...

(the area of Poland that Germany did not formally annex). He held this position until the withdrawal of the German forces from Warsaw in January 1945. Fischer was directly responsible for a number of war crimes, as well as

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

. He oversaw the establishment of the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

and issued many

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 ...

laws, as well as participating in the bloody Ghetto de-establishment and deportation. Fischer was also responsible for terror in the occupied city, including

mass execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

s, slave-labor and the deportation of Poles and Polish Jews to the various German concentration camps. The

Underground court Underground Court ('' pl, Sądy podziemne'') were World War II underground courts in occupied Poland, organized by the Polish government in exile, Polish Government-in-Exile. The courts determined punishments for Polish people, citizens of Polan ...

s of the Polish resistance movement sentenced him to death for crimes against Polish citizens. His name appeared first on the list of "

Operation Heads Operation Heads ( pl, Operacja Główki) was the code name for a series of assassinations of Nazi officials by the World War II Polish Resistance. Those targeted for assassination had been sentenced to death by Polish Underground Special Courts ...

"—the serial assassinations of Nazi personnel by the Polish Resistance. Before the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

in 1944, his car was shot at in

Operation Hunting Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

( pl , Akcja Polowanie), but Fischer survived. After the failure of the

of August to October 1944, Fischer played an important role in Germany's

planned destruction of Warsaw The destruction of Warsaw was Nazi Germany's substantially effected razing of the city in late 1944, after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising of the Polish resistance. The uprising infuriated German leaders, who decided to destroy the city as retaliation. ...

. He was also responsible for the poor conditions in the temporary transit camp on the western outskirts of Warsaw in

Pruszków Pruszków ( yi, ‏פּרושקאָוו) is a city in east-central Poland, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in Warszawa Voivodeship (1975–1998). Pruszków is the capital of Pruszków County, located along t ...

, which the Nazis set up to intern people expelled from the capital.

Postwar trial and execution

After the war, Fischer hid in the town of

Bad Neustadt an der Saale Bad Neustadt an der Saale, officially Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale and often simply called Bad Neustadt, is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is the capital of the Rhön-Grabfeld district in Lower Franconia. It is situated on the rivers Fränki ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. He was arrested by U.S. soldiers on 10 May 1945. On 30 March 1946, Fischer was extradited to Poland, where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity. On 3 March 1947, Fischer was sentenced to death by hanging and disenfranchisement for life forces and was handed over to the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

authorities. He was tried before the

Supreme National Tribunal The Supreme National Tribunal ( pl, Najwyższy Trybunał Narodowy TN}) was a war-crime tribunal active in communist-era Poland from 1946 to 1948. Its aims and purpose were defined by the State National Council in decrees of 22 January and 17 Oct ...

and sentenced to death. Treblinka and Warsaw uprising survivor

Jankiel Wiernik Jankiel (Yankel, Yaakov, or Jacob) Wiernik ( he, יעקב ויירניק; 1889–1972) was a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was an influential figure in the Treblinka extermination camp resistance. He had been forced to work as a '' So ...

testified at his trial in 1947. Fischer was executed by

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

in Warsaw's

Mokotów Prison Mokotów Prison ( pl, Więzienie mokotowskie, also known as ''Rakowiecka Prison'') is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was built by the Russians in the final years of the foreign Partitions of P ...

References

External links

Testimonies collected during Fischer's trial in "Chronicles of Terror" database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Ludwig 1905 births 1947 deaths People from Kaiserslautern German people convicted of crimes against humanity Executed people from Rhineland-Palatinate Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Sturmabteilung officers Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany Executed German people Executions by the Supreme National Tribunal Prisoners and detainees of the United States military People extradited to Poland Executed mass murderers

Background

Actions during the Nazi occupation of Poland

Postwar trial and execution

References

Further reading

External links