Jump to content

Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 2605:8d80:5a0:66c9:5e6d:b4d8:1afe:b513 (talk) at 18:25, 9 April 2021. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Graf
Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff
Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff
Member of the Reichstag
In office
1933–1944
Chief of the Berlin Police
In office
1935–1944
Personal details
Born(1896-10-14)14 October 1896
Merseburg, Province of Saxony, Prussia, German Empire
Died15 August 1944(1944-08-15) (aged 47)
Berlin, Nazi Germany
Political partyNSFB (1924-1925)
NSDAP (1925-1944)
Military service
RankSA-Obergruppenführer

Wolf-Heinrich Julius Otto Bernhard Fritz Hermann Ferdinand Graf von Helldorff (14 October 1896 – 15 August 1944) was a German police official and politician, who served as a Member of the Landtag of Prussia during the Weimar Republic, as a Member of the Reichstag for the Nazi Party from 1933, and as Ordnungspolizei Chief of Police in Berlin. From 1938 he became associated with the anti-Nazi resistance, and was executed in 1944 for his role in the 20th July plot to overthrow Hitler's regime.

Early life

Helldorff was born in Merseburg, a noble landowner's son. Helldorff served as a lieutenant from 1915 in the First World War.

He was also friends with the stage magician and psychic, Erik Jan Hanussen, who constantly lent him money for his debts. "The count was always in debt, and his private life was a wreck. He was separated from his wife and was on bad terms with his mother after welching on his promise to pay her rent. Sometimes he was behind in his own rent. On one occasion he 'forgot' to pay for a new Mercedes. And he was always late paying his personal tailor and the trainer he hired for his racehorse. There were other debts as well, all from a gambling habit Helldorff couldn't shake. Luckily, he could always count on a handout from Hanussen. All he had to do was sign an IOU, which Hanussen would add to his growing pile of chits he kept safe in his apartment."[1]

Political career

After the war, he was a member of the right-wing Freikorps and later of the nationalist paramilitary organisation Stahlhelm.

He became a member of the National Socialist Freedom Movement (NSFB) in 1924, which served as a legal front for the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), which has been was banned after the Beer Hall Putsch, and he also joined its paramilitary force, Frontbann. He was elected in the Landtag of Prussia in 1924 in the NSFB list.

The NSFP was reabsorbed into the NSDAP in 1925 after the latter was made legal again, and in 1928 Helldorff was re-elected to his post on their list. By 1931 he had joined the Sturmabteilung (SA), functioning as an SA leader in Berlin. The scope of his work got bigger in 1933 when he was also given responsibility for the Schutzstaffel's (SS) Berlin-Brandenburg leadership. At the same time, he was also elected to the Reichstag.

He was closely allied with Joseph Goebbels, Gauleiter of Berlin and Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. As chief of the Berlin police, Helldorff played an instrumental role in the harassment and plundering of Berlin's Jewish population in the early and the mid-1930s, a policy known as Aktionen.

Goebbels mentioned in his diary on 2 July 1938, that "Helldorff wants to construct a Jewish ghetto in Berlin. The rich Jews will be required to fund its construction". Helldorff was the organizational brains behind the arson and looting of Berlin's synagogues and Jewish businesses in the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 1938.[2][3][4] On 8 November 1938, the day that Kristallnacht began, he was quoted in The New York Times' "as a result of a police activity in the last few weeks the entire Jewish population of Berlin had been disarmed".[5]

20 July plot

Main article: 20 July plot

It is asserted that Helldorff was in some form of communication with the military opposition to Hitler as early as 1938.[6] Goebbels certainly ensured that Helldorf took the blame for Kristallnacht by declaring "the police act with an appearance of legality, the party provides spectators". The police took orders not to arrest or to treat too harshly rioters who beat up Jews.[7]

In contrast, Hans Gisevius's book To the Bitter End described as Helldorff playing an important role in a circle of conspirators and anti-Nazis. On 20 July 1944, he was in communication with the coup d'état plotters attempting to assassinate the Führer. His planned role would be to keep the police from interfering with the military takeover and then to aid the new government.[8] The fact that Helldorff sided with the anti-Hitler movement in its attempt to assassinate Hitler earned him a place in history as a German resistance fighter against the azi regime.

Trial and execution

For his involvement in the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, Helldorff was condemned by Roland Freisler at the People's Court and was later put to death at Plötzensee Prison. So enraged was Hitler at Helldorff's participation in the plot that he insisted Helldorff be forced to watch his fellow conspirators being hanged before his own execution.[9]

Career

  • 2 August 1914 – Spring 1918: Service on Western and Eastern Fronts[10]
  • 1919: Service with Freikorps Lützow, involved in fighting against communist uprisings in Brunswick, Jena and Munich[10]
  • 1919–1920: Leader of Offiziers-Stoßtrupp in Freikorps Roßbach, which participated in the Kapp Putsch of 13 March 1920[10]
  • 1919–1924: Member of Der Stahlhelm[11]
  • August 1924: Joined the Frontbann[11]
  • 1 May 1925 – 22 September 1935: Commander of the Frontbann[11]
  • 1 August 1930: Joined the NSDAP, member number 325,408[11]
  • January 1931: Joined the Sturmabteilung (SA)[11]
  • 25 March 1933 – 18 July 1935: Police President in Potsdam[12]
  • 2 November 1933 – 10 August 1944: Member of the Reichstag[12]
  • 19 July 1935 – 24 July 1944: Police President in Berlin[12]

Awards and decorations

Notes

  1. ^ Magida, Arthur J. 2011. The Nazi Seance: The Strange Story of the Jewish Psychic in Hitler's Circle. Palgrave Macmillan Books. Pages 3-4.
  2. ^ Kershaw, Ian (2000). Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis. p. 135. ISBN 9780393049947. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  3. ^ MacDonogh, Giles (10 May 2011). 1938 : Hitler's Gamble. ISBN 9780465022052. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  4. ^ Fröhlich,Elke. Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I Aufzeichnungen 1923-1941. Helldorff (Polizeipräsident) will in Berlin ein Judenghetto errichten. Das sollen die reichen Juden selbst bezahlen. Das ist richtig. Ich unterstütze ihn dabei." (Fröhlich, I.3, S. 470)
  5. ^ Tolischuswireless, Otto D. (9 November 1938). "NAZIS ASK REPRISAL IN ATTACK ON ENVOY - Press Links Shooting in Paris to 'World Conspiracy' and Warns Jews of Retaliation MASS EXPULSIONS FEARED Berlin Police Head Announces 'Disarming' of Jews-Victim of Shots in Critical State New Fear Aroused Round-up in Vienna Diplomat's Condition Critical - Article - NYTimes.com". Select.nytimes.com. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
  6. ^ Ted Harrison: "Alter Kämpfer" im Widerstand. Graf Helldorff, die NS-Bewegung und die Opposition gegen Hitler. Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 45(1997) (PDF, 6,5 MB), p. 385-423.
  7. ^ T.Thacker, Goebbels: Life and Death, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009
  8. ^ H. Gisevius, Part Two, section 3, "Too Late – 20 July 1944"
  9. ^ Fröhlich,Elke. Goebbels, Joseph: Die Tagebücher, Teil 2, Bd. 13, S. 245.
  10. ^ a b c Miller 2015, p. 535.
  11. ^ a b c d e Miller 2015, p. 536.
  12. ^ a b c Miller 2015, p. 541.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Miller 2015, p. 550.

References

Further reading

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Wolf-Heinrich_Graf_von_Helldorff&oldid=1016908484"