Talk:Hans-Adolf Prützmann

Prutzmann in the occupied Ukraine

The existing article content is good as far as it goes, but it misses the bulk of Prutzmann's career in the Nazi Occupied East. When Prutzmann was replaced by Friedrich Jeckeln as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) of the Reichskommissariat (RK) Ostland (which included Latvia), he simply moved into Jeckeln's former position as HSSPF of RK Ukraine. Prutzmann went on to be promoted to Highest SS and Police Leader (HoSSPF), a rank never attained by Jeckeln. In fact, there was only ever one other HoSSPF, Karl Wolf, in Italy. Far from being a weak character, he retained this position until the German withdrawal from the Ukraine during 1943-4, and extended his remit throughout that period.

Prutzmann's control eventually extended over all aspects of security and control in RK Ukraine, a huge territory extending from the eastern borders of the Generalgouvernement to the Crimea, and from the Black Sea to the Pripet marches. He was in control when the infamous Second Sweep killed the majority of Jews in those territories. This was done using the SS Brigades and the mobile Police Battalions, along with the various native auxilliary police units (Ukrainian and Baltic, in the main part) and units of the ethnic German auxiliary units (sometimes under the control of the VoMI, an SS main office concerned with the coordination of German interests in the occupied territories). The HSSPF's role as coordinator of security units while on operations, and direct channel to Himmler gave him complete control over the deployment of these very numerous murder squads, over the RSHA (SD, Gestapo, Kripo etc) and Order Poice (Orpo) headquarters in the cities, towns and villages, and over the Gendarmerie and auxilliary police stations based in almost all sizeable settlements.

He also commanded the various security units (including labour camps) concerned with the Durchgangstrasse IV, a military supply route intended to nourish the military advance into the areas of Stalingrad and the Caucasus.

Time precludes contributing much to the article in the short term, but the existing article need coverage of the period in which Prutzmann committed the bulk of his crimes against humanity.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by FiftusTheSixth (talk • contribs) 17:16, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

In passing, and perhaps as an illustration that Prutzmann's adherence to Nazism did not fade as the end of the war approached, he was assigned to command the Werwolf campaign of partisan resistance to Allied occupation. There seems to be evidence that many more murders were committed by the Werwolf teams than just the Mayor of Aachen, their most famous victim.

FiftusTheSixth (talk) 16:11, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

Von Prutzmann's family is alive and his granddaughter was an exchange student in my house.

I am Jewish and the mother of 4 children. One of my children was in a private school which approached my husband and me with the name of Marina von Prutzmann ...they wanted her to come and live with us. I did not know how to rsearch the family of this girl and accepted her in the summer of 1975 for the coming school year. She was 16. She did nothing wrong in our house but our children did not "take" to her and she was hard on the people of German extraction in Milwaukee.... saying things to their faces such as, "My that is a funny German name...." and thus displaying an arrogant attitude on the part of a genuine German to a transplanted one whose famiy probably had been in the US for at least 100 years at that point... and may have come to the USA as poor people with peasant type names. Because of her standoffishness, I wrote to her parents and said that she really was not adapting well and either that the school had to place her elsewhere in the USA or in Milwaukee OR she had to go home. THey asked to meet us in Holland and I met General Von Prutzmann's eldest son, who never saw his father after he went to war. The son was a fine man with a terrific limp; he had suffered a deep injury. He was married to a beautiful woman, Marina's mother. It was Marina's mother who said, "Oh the General never fought against the USA, he fought on the Eastern Front with the Waffen SS." As if fighting on the Eastern front made his efforts part of a different war. I said, "My son found out he was in Riga as a leader." "Oh, yes by that time in Latvia, he held a high position. Very high," she said, "but still he never fought with the western armies." My husband said, "The Russians by that time had ceased being your allies and had become ours. It was the same war and it was not supposed to be fought against civilians." "They needed food..... " and we decided to stop talking about it. I later found out how he was the head of the ghetto-concentration camp in Riga which was infamous after a while for the mass murders performed there and at Baba Yar.

The son was a kind man who made no defense for his father. He just loved him and missed him as a child. The son was terribly affected by everything in his past. His wife was not, and Marina not at all. There is a possibility that at 16 she was just acting up in our house and 'acting out' as they say today... prehaps because she could not do so at home. Certainly she talked about there being fewer opportunities to go to University in Germany than there were in the USA because there were no gradations of qualities in the colleges there. Either you qualified or you did not. So I think she may have been thinking of taking her University training in the USA and was nervous about suggesting this path to her parents. She left out house without finishing out the year; I do not know what happened to any of her family. I could not pursue the relationship not only because of the grandfather and his crimes but also because the only person I was comfortable with was the son and that would have been improper in those days. Perhaps today if a friendship developed between the wife of one man and the husband of another woman it could flourish but in those days, for me at any rate such a friendship would have not been acceptable..... putting aside the history of the German or Jewish heritage or if I were American or not.... just the factors of his being married to a woman and me being the wife of someone else... we could not develop the friendship we both felt. Last night on the Military Channel I saw the photos of Riga and the filling of the Ghetto, pictures of the previous 10,000 practice murders and then the 30,000 at Baba Yar and got upset all over again. How on earth could a general like that have such a fine son.....somethings are not given to us to understand. I hope this is helpful to those studying the subject of Gen. Von Pruztmann and his participation in RIGA in 1941 or so. He was there. He fought the eastern front.... which is the same as fighting in the west. It was the same war. Goldie Kossow age 73 American born — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.9.20.82 (talk)

OR/Slatersteven (talk) 18:07, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

It is a fascinating story, but not acceptable as a reference on Wikipedia, because it is original research. Wikipedia only cites information that has been previously published in reliable references. - Ahunt (talk) 18:20, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

I assume you are talking about Hans-Adolf Prützmann. Neither the English or German Wikipedia's articles contain any information about his marriage or family so perhaps your note will help someone find some information to add to the articles. Thank you. Sean.hoyland - talk 18:25, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

Unsourced content

Preserving it here by providing this link. The material has been uncited since 2009 & inconsequential; the only decoration cited (Golden Party Badge) is too minor to warrant a section. K.e.coffman (talk) 05:35, 19 March 2017 (UTC)