Fritz Katzmann
| Fritz Katzmann | |
|---|---|
Janowska concentration camp official visit. Right: Heinrich Himmler. Next to him: Fritz Katzmann. Left: camp commandant Friedrich Warzok
|
|
| Born | 6 May 1906 Langendreer |
| Died |
19 September 1957 (aged 51) Darmstadt |
| Allegiance |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Service/branch |
 Schutzstaffel
|
| Rank |
 SS-Gruppenführer (Major General) |
| Unit |
 SS-Totenkopfverbände
|
| Commands held | District of Galicia |
SS-Gruppenführer Fritz Katzmann or Friedrich Katzmann (6 May 1906 – 19 September 1957) was a Nazi German Major General and Polizei leader who perpetrated genocide in the cities of Katowice, Radom, Lemberg (Lwów), Danzig (Gdańsk), and across the Nazi German District of Galicia during the Holocaust in occupied Poland.
Katzmann was responsible for many of the atrocities that were perpetrated by the SS after the attack on the Soviet positions in Operation Barbarossa. He personally directed the slaughter of between 55,000 and 65,000 Jews of Lemberg in 1941-1942 followed by mass deportations to death camps including Janowska (pictured). In 1943, Katzmann wrote a top secret report summarizing Operation Reinhard in Galicia. The Katzmann Report is now considered one of the most important pieces of Germany's own evidence of the extermination process. He managed to escape prosecution after the Second World War, living under a false identity.
Born in Langendreer, Westphalia into a family of a coal miner, Katzmann was a carpenter before he lost his job and joined the SA in December 1927. He joined the NSDAP in September 1928 (# 98,528) and the SS on July 1, 1930 (# 3,065). His career rapidly advanced: 20 August 1931 he was commissioned as an SS 2nd Lieutenant, and, on 1 December 1932, promoted to SS Captain. He became SS Major on 30 January 1933, promoted to SS Colonel on 17 August 1934.
He married, moved to Berlin and became the SS Commander of the 75. Standarte “Widukind” on 4 April 1934. Katzmann participated in the murders of the Night of the Long Knives. He became the NSDAP member of the Reichstag, and, from 21 March 1938, he served as Commander SS Section VI Breslau (Wrocław).
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