Friedrich Gollwitzer

Friedrich Gollwitzer
206th Infantry Division's commander, Alfons Hitter (second from right) and Gollwitzer surrender to the Soviet forces.
Born	27 April 1889
Died	25 March 1977(1977-03-25) (aged 87)
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Army (Wehrmacht)
Rank	General of the Infantry
Commands held	193d Infantry Division 88th Infantry Division LIII Army Corps
Battles/wars	World War I World War II Annexation of Austria Invasion of Poland Battle of France Second Battle of Kharkov Battle of Voronezh (1942) Battle of Kursk Operation Bagration---> Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Friedrich Gollwitzer (27 April 1889 – 25 March 1977) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany who commanded the LIII Army Corps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Gollwitzer was appointed adjutant of the replacement battalion. In the same position he joined the 2nd Reserve Engineer Battalion in mid-January 1915 and was promoted to lieutenant on 1 June 1915. Gollwitzer ended the war as a captain, awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and the Military Merit Order.

Gollwitzer surrendered to the Soviet troops in June 1944 during the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive. Convicted as a war criminal in the Soviet Union, he was held until October 1955. In West Germany, Gollwitzer was investigated for war crimes allegedly committed under his command during the 1939 invasion of Poland.

Allegations of war crimes

In 1964 the public prosecutor's office in Amberg (West Germany) started an inquiry against Gollwitzer over his alleged involvement in war crimes. In 1968 Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg received a letter from Ferdinand D. – a Wehrmacht veteran – who accused Gollwitzer of committing several atrocities during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. In his letter the veteran stated that: "activities of 41st Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel Gollwitzer (...) were nothing less than genocide. Despite the fact that in Poland there were no partisans at that time almost no village from Kalisz to Warsaw had survived because Gollwitzer sparked an obsession with the partisans in his soldiers' minds". In particular, Gollwitzer was accused of ordering the execution of 18 Poles in the village of Torzeniec, which was blamed for the death of three German soldiers (in fact the soldiers were victims of friendly fire). However, the prosecutor's office in Amberg decided to drop the investigation against Gollwitzer.

Awards

• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 8 February 1943 as Generalleutnant and commander of 88. Infanterie-Division

References

Bibliography

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [First published 1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.