Aribert Heim: SS-Hauptsturmführer

(28 June 1914 – 10 August 1992)

Early life

Heim was born on June 28, 1914, in Bad Radkersburg, Austria-Hungary, the son of a policeman and a housewife. He studied in Graz, and received his diploma in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1940.

Heim volunteered for the Waffen-SS in April 1940, rising to the rank of Hauptsturmführer (Captain).

Mauthausen concentration camp

Aribert Heim worked in Mauthausen for six weeks as a doctor starting in October 1941 at the age of 27. Prisoners at Mauthausen called Heim "Dr. Death", or the "Butcher of Mauthausen" for his cruelty.

According to witnesses, Heim worked closely with SS pharmacist Erich Wasicky. The two performed gruesome experiments together, such as injecting various solutions into the hearts of Jewish prisoners to see which killed them the fastest.

Heim was known for performing operations without anesthesia. For about two months (October to December 1941), Heim was stationed at the Ebensee concentration camp near Linz, Austria, where he carried out experiments on Jews and others similar to those performed at Auschwitz by Josef Mengele. According to Holocaust survivors, Jewish prisoners were poisoned with various injections directly into the heart, including petrol, phenol, available poisons, or even water, to induce death.

Later service

From February 1942, Heim served in the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord in northern Finland, especially in Oulu's hospitals as an SS doctor. His service continued until at least October 1942.

On 15 March 1945, Heim was captured by US soldiers and sent to a camp for prisoners of war. He would remain imprisoned for a two-and-a-half year period. But while Heim's former colleague, Erich Wasicky, and dozens of others were tried and executed in the Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials, Heim was never prosecuted. In December 1947, he was released and worked as a gynecologist at Baden-Baden until his disappearance in 1962; he had telephoned his home and was told that the police were waiting for him. Having been questioned on previous occasions, he surmised the reason (an international warrant for his arrest had been in place since that date) and went into hiding. According to his son, Rüdiger Heim, he drove through France and Spain onward to Morocco, moving finally to Egypt via Libya.

Investigations and possible sightings

In the years following his disappearance, Heim was the target of a rapidly escalating manhunt and ever-increasing rewards for his capture. Following his escape there were reported sightings in Latin America, Spain and Africa, as well as formal investigations aimed at bringing him to justice, some of which took place even after he had apparently died in Egypt. The German government offered €150,000 for information leading to his arrest, while the Simon Wiesenthal Center launched Operation Last Chance, a project to assist governments in the location and arrest of suspected "Nazi war criminals" who are still alive. Tax records prove that, as late as 2001, Heim's lawyer asked the German authorities to refund capital gains taxes levied on him because he was living abroad.

Heim reportedly hid out in South America, Spain and the Balkans, but only his presence in Spain has ever been confirmed. Efraim Zuroff, of the Wiesenthal Center, initiated an active search for his whereabouts, and in late 2005, Spanish police incorrectly determined he was in Palafrugell, Spain. According to El Mundo, Heim had been helped by associates of Otto Skorzeny, who had organised one of the biggest ODESSA bases in Franco's Spain.

Press reports in mid-October 2005 suggested that Heim's arrest by Spanish police was "imminent". Within a few days, however, newer reports suggested that he had evaded capture and had moved either to another part of Spain or to Denmark.

Fredrik Jensen, a Norwegian and a former SS Obersturmführer, was put under police investigation in June 2007, and charged with assisting Heim in his escape. The accusation was denied by Jensen. In July 2007, the Austrian Ministry of Justice declared that it would pay €50,000 for information leading to his arrest and extradition to Austria.

On 6 July 2008, Efraim Zuroff, the Wiesenthal Center's chief Nazi-hunter, went to South America as part of a public campaign to capture the most wanted National Socialist in the world and bring him to justice, claiming that Heim was alive and hiding in Patagonia, either in Chile or in Argentina. He elaborated on 15 July 2008 that he was sure Heim was alive and the groundwork had been laid to capture him within weeks.

In 2008, Heim was named as one of the ten most wanted "Nazi war criminals" by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Later years and death

Heim and his former wife, Friedl, had two sons. He also had a daughter, Waltraud, born out of wedlock in Chile.

In 2006, a German newspaper reported that he had a daughter, Waltraud, living on the outskirts of Puerto Montt, Chile, who said he had died in 1993. However, when she tried to recover a multimillion-euro inheritance from an account in his name, she was unable to provide a death certificate.

In August 2008, Heim's son Rüdiger asked that his father be declared legally dead, in order to take hold of his assets. He claimed he intended to make a donation to humanitarian projects working to document the atrocities committed in the camps.

After years of apparently false sightings, the circumstances surrounding Heim's escape, life in hiding and death were jointly reported by the German broadcaster ZDF and The New York Times in February 2009. It was reported that Heim died on August 10, 1992, in Cairo, Egypt with his cause of death being colorectal cancer. In the later years of his life, Heim had named himself Tarek Farid Hussein. People in Egypt who knew Heim said they did not know he was a wanted man.

Speech in Berlin, March 10, 1940: Heroes’ Memorial Day

By Adolf Hitler.

It is at a solemn hour that the German Volk celebrates its Heroes’ Memorial Day today. With more justification than ever before in the past twenty years can one step before the spiritual eye of those who once, as courageous sons of our Volk, sacrificed themselves for the future of the nation, the greatness and inviolability of the Reich. What once resounded as empty phrases of an unworthy posterity has today become an expression of proud gratitude by a worthy present. After an unequaled victorious campaign in the East, the soldiers of our Field Army’s divisions, the crews of our ships, the fighters of our Luftwaffe, are henceforth prepared to take up the defense of the Reich in the West against the enemies of old with the same sense of duty, the same obedience, as true to their orders as soldiers of the Great War. Behind them stands the homeland, cleansed of elements of disintegration and fragmentation. For the first time in our history the entire German Volk steps before the countenance of the Lord Almighty to implore Him to bestow His blessings on our struggle for existence.

The struggle of our soldiers is a hard one. Insofar as we comprehend nature and have gained insight into its ways, we know that just as life, to sustain itself, demands sacrifice time and time again to bear new life and deals out pain to heal wounds, the soldier is the foremost representative of life itself. At all times, he represents the cream of a people. He places his life at risk, and gives his life if need be, to render possible and to secure the life of his contemporaries and hence of posterity. In the hour in which Providence shall come to weigh the intrinsic worth of a people, he steps up before the Lord Almighty to face trial by ordeal.

And through him, the nations shall be weighed. They will be judged either too light and hence they will be erased from the book of life and the book of history, or they will be deemed worthy enough to create new life. Only he who himself had the opportunity to fight under the most adverse of conditions, who himself saw death’s shadow pass him by time and time again in years of struggle-only he can measure the greatness of the risk taken by the soldier, only he can appreciate the graveness of the sacrifice. The instinct of survival has engraved upon mankind universal principles for the evaluation of those who were willing to give up themselves so that the life of the community should be sustained.

Mankind places the idealist in opposition to the repulsive egoist. And when it despises the one as a coward, then its gratitude for the other is all the greater in the subconscious realization of the sacrifice brought. It glorifies him as a hero and raises him above the mass of other, indifferent phenomena. No one has a greater right to celebrate its heroes than the German Volk! Given the most precarious geopolitical location of its lands, it was possible to assure the existence of our Volk time and time again only thanks to the heroic mustering of its men. And if we have enjoyed a historic existence within these past 2,000 years, then we did so only because men were willing, time and time again within these 2,000 years, to place their lives at risk for the community-and, if necessary, to sacrifice their lives. Every one of these heroes gave his life not in the mistaken belief that he would deliver future generations of this duty. All the achievements of the past would be for naught should only one future generation lack the strength to make similar sacrifices. For the life of a nation resembles a chain without end until the day one generation decides to sever this link and thereby brings to an end the course of evolution. No one has the right to celebrate heroes who is not himself capable of such conviction.

No one has the right to speak of tradition who is not himself willing to enrich this tradition through his own life and works. This principle applies to all peoples just as to all statesmen. And it applies to soldiers no less than to generals.

From within the sacred halls of this building, relics of an incomparably glorious past speak to us. They were fought for and sealed with the blood of countless German heroes. We have no right to enter into this hall unless we bear in our hearts the solemn resolve to be no less valiant than the bearers of these weapons, of these emblems, and of these uniforms before us. The risking of his life was no less difficult for a musketeer in the Seven Years’ War than for one who, 1,000 years before, as a German knight, fought off the hordes of the East to protect the German lands. And it was no less difficult than that demanded of us today. The power of decision, the cool daring courage of the great statesmen and warlords of the past were not less than those expected of us today. Then, too, the gods loved these great statesmen and warlords only because they attempted and demanded the apparently impossible. Hardly one of the great battles in the history of our Volk and, above all, in the history of Prussia, already betrayed its likely outcome at the beginning. Based on numerical and material superiority, many an action seemed destined to success, only to end in defeat due to the lack of spirits of the fighters. Conversely, many others which seemed doomed from the very start, based on all human intuition, entered into history as glorious victories. 

The secret of the miracle of life will never reveal itself to the pale theoretician.

He will always see amiss the mighty formative force of existence that he himself most sorely lacks, namely: willpower, boldness in making and carrying out decisions.

And thus we commence this day of commemoration of our heroes with a feeling of new, inner dignity. Not with heads bowed, but rather with heads carried high and with pride we greet them, conscious that we are their equals, capable of the same achievements, and-should this be necessary- willing to take upon ourselves the same sacrifices.

What they once fought for, we now fight for ourselves. What was noble enough a goal for them to fight and, if necessary, to die for-every hour will find us braced for a like deed. The faith which inspired them has grown within us. Whatever life or destiny might deal to the individual among us, the existence and future of the community takes precedence over it. There is something which carries us further yet than in the ages past, namely, the realization of what it was that many earlier ages unconsciously were forced to fight for: the German Volk! To be allowed to live within it is our greatest earthly good. To belong to it is our pride. To defend it in unconditional loyalty even in the worst of times, is our fanatic defiance. The greater the dangers surrounding us, the more precious this treasure of our community seems to us. All the more important is, therefore, the realization that in its development and promotion lies the strongest raison d’etre for German survival. Now that the outside world of plutocratic democracies has declared the wildest of campaigns against National Socialist Germany and has pronounced its destruction as the loftiest of war aims, then this simply reaffirms to us what we already know: the thought of a National Socialist Volksgemeinschaft alone has made the German Volk especially dangerous in the eyes of our enemies, because it has made it invincible. Above all differences of class or rank, profession or confession, and above all the usual confusion of everyday life, looms the social union of the German man, irrespective of caste or origin, based on blood, forged in communal life throughout thousands of years, bound together by destiny for better or for worse.

The world desires our dissolution. Our answer to this can be but a renewed oath sworn to the greatest community of all time. Their aim is the disintegration of Germany. Our avowal of faith is German unity. They hope for the success of capitalist interests, and we will the victory of the National Socialist Volksgemeinschaft! In nearly fifteen years of laborious work, National Socialism has delivered the German Volk from its state of tragic despair; in a unique historic work, it has uplifted the conscience of the nation and has driven away the wretched specter of a defeatist capitulation; it has built the general political foundations for a rearmament. In spite of all this, I stood prepared throughout the years to extend my hand to the world for a true understanding. They rejected the idea of a reconciliation of all peoples based on equal rights.

As a National Socialist and a soldier, I have always upheld the principle of securing the rights of my Volk either in peace, or-if necessary-in a fight.

As the Fuhrer of the nation, the Chancellor of the Reich, and the Supreme Commander of the German Wehrmacht, I live today for the fulfillment of one great task: to think of the victory, day and night; to struggle for it; to work for it; and to fight for it. If necessary, I shall not spare my own life either in the realization that this time around the future of Germany shall be decided for centuries to come.

As a former soldier of the Great War, nevertheless, I have devoutly pleaded with Providence to accord us the grace of closing honorably this last chapter in the great struggle of nations (Volkerringen) for the German Volk. Then the spirits of our fallen comrades shall rise from their graves to thank all those whose courage and loyalty have now once more atoned for the sins committed in an hour of weakness against them and against our Volk. Let our avowal of faith on this day be a solemn oath: the war forced upon the Greater German Reich by the capitalist rulers of France and England must be transformed into the most glorious victory in German history!

Religious and spiritual beliefs of Adolf Hitler

• Adolf Hitler (Archive)

Views on Christianity

Hitler was born to a practising Catholic mother and an anti-clerical father; after leaving home, Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments. Albert Speer states that Hitler railed against the church to his political associates, and though he never officially left the church, he had no attachment to it. He adds that Hitler felt that in the absence of organised religion, people would turn to mysticism, which he considered regressive. According to Speer, Hitler believed that Japanese religious beliefs or Islam would have been a more suitable religion for Germans than Christianity, with its "meekness and flabbiness". 

Historian John S. Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed to the Christian churches. According to Bullock, Hitler did not believe in God, was anticlerical, and held Christian ethics in contempt because they contravened his preferred view of "survival of the fittest". In a 1932 speech, Hitler stated that he was not a Catholic, and declared himself a German Christian. In a conversation with Albert Speer, Hitler said, "Through me the Evangelical Church could become the established church, as in England."

Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society, and he adopted a strategic relationship with it that "suited his immediate political purposes". In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan Jesus" who fought against the Jews. Any pro-Christian public rhetoric contradicted his private statements, which described Christianity as "absurdity" and nonsense founded on lies. Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view of Himmler's and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS. Hitler was more pragmatic, and his ambitions centred on more practical concerns.

Views on Islam

After the war, Eva Braun’s sister, Ilse, remembered his frequent discussions on the topic, repeatedly comparing Islam with Christianity in order to devalue the latter. In contrast to Islam, which he saw as a strong and practical faith, he described Christianity as a soft, artificial, weak religion of suffering. Islam was a religion of the here and now, Hitler told his entourage, while Christianity was a religion of a kingdom yet to come — one that was deeply unattractive, compared to the paradise promised by Islam.

For Hitler, religion was a means of supporting human life on earth practically and not an end in itself. “The precepts ordering people to wash, to avoid certain drinks, to fast at appointed dates, to take exercise, to rise with the sun, to climb to the top of the minaret — all these were obligations invented by intelligent people,” he remarked in October 1941 in the presence of Himmler. “The exhortation to fight courageously is also self-explanatory. Observe, by the way, that, as a corollary, the Mussulman [sic] was promised a paradise peopled with houris, where wine flowed in streams — a real earthly paradise,” he enthused. “The Christians, on the other hand, declare themselves satisfied if after their death they are allowed to sing Hallelujahs!” Two months later he commented in a similar vein: “I can imagine people being enthusiastic about the paradise of Mahomet [sic], but as for the insipid paradise of the Christians!” Hitler would also compare Islam with other Asian religions that he admired. “Just as in Islam, there is no kind of terrorism in the Japanese State religion, but, on the contrary, a promise of happiness,” he said on April 4, 1942.

By contrast, Christianity had “universalized” the “terrorism of religion,” which in Hitler’s eyes was a result of “Jewish dogma.” Once, while engaging in his usual agitation against the Catholic Church — which was, he told his audience, foisted on the Germans by “Jewish filth and priestly twaddle” — he expressed anger that the Germans had been haunted by Christianity, “while in other parts of the globe religious teaching like that of Confucius, Buddha and Mohammed offers an undeniably broad basis for the religious-minded.”

Raging against the Christian Church’s adherence to “proven untruth,” he came again to speak of Islam: “It adds little to our knowledge of the Creator when some person presents to us an indifferent copy of a man as his conception of the Deity. In this respect, at least, the Mohammedan is more enlightened.” Reflecting on history, he described the Islamic reign on the Iberian peninsula as the “most cultured, the most intellectual and in every way best and happiest epoch in Spanish history,” one that was “followed by the period of the persecutions with its unceasing atrocities.”

Hitler expressed this view repeatedly. After the war, Albert Speer remembered that Hitler had been much impressed by a historical interpretation he had learned from some distinguished Muslims:

Hitler expressed this view repeatedly. After the war, Albert Speer remembered that Hitler had been much impressed by a historical interpretation he had learned from some distinguished Muslims:

"When the Mohammedans attempted to penetrate beyond France into Central Europe during the eighth century, his visitors had told him [Hitler], they had been driven back at the Battle of Tours. Had the Arabs won this battle, the world would be Mohammedan today. For theirs was a religion that believed in spreading the faith by the sword and subjugating all nations to that faith. The Germanic peoples would have become heirs to that religion. Such a creed was perfectly suited to the Germanic temperament. Hitler said that the conquering Arabs, because of their racial inferiority, would in the long run have been unable to contend with the harsher climate and conditions of the country. They could not have kept down the more vigorous native, so that ultimately not Arabs but Islamized Germans could have stood at the head of this Mohammedan Empire."

While Hitler did not perceive Islam as a “Semitic” religion, the race of its followers remained a silent but persistent problem. To be sure, our knowledge of the ideas about Islam that circulated within the National Socialist elite mostly comes from memoirs and postwar testimonies, which must be read with caution. Nonetheless, these accounts draw a remarkably coherent picture of the ideological notions prevalent among the higher echelons of the regime.

Religious and spiritual beliefs of Heinrich Himmler

• Heinrich Himmler (Archive)

Mysticism and symbolism

Himmler was interested in mysticism and the occult from an early age. He tied this interest into his racial philosophy, looking for proof of Aryan and Nordic racial superiority from ancient times. He promoted a cult of ancestor worship, particularly among members of the SS, as a way to keep the race pure and provide immortality to the nation. Viewing the SS as an "order" along the lines of the Teutonic Knights, he had them take over the Church of the Teutonic Order in Vienna in 1939. He began the process of replacing Christianity with a new moral code that rejected humanitarianism and challenged the Christian concept of marriage. The Ahnenerbe, a research society founded by Himmler in 1935, searched the globe for proof of the superiority and ancient origins of the Germanic race.

All regalia and uniforms of National Socialist Germany, particularly those of the SS, used symbolism in their designs. The stylised lightning bolt logo of the SS was chosen in 1932. The logo is a pair of runes from a set of 18 Armanen runes created by Guido von List in 1906. The ancient Sowilō rune originally symbolised the sun, but was renamed "Sieg" (victory) in List's iconography. Himmler modified a variety of existing customs to emphasise the elitism and central role of the SS; an SS naming ceremony was to replace baptism, marriage ceremonies were to be altered, a separate SS funeral ceremony was to be held in addition to Christian ceremonies, and SS-centric celebrations of the summer and winter solstices were instituted. The Totenkopf (death's head) symbol, used by German military units for hundreds of years, had been chosen for the SS by Julius Schreck. Himmler placed particular importance on the death's-head rings; they were never to be sold, and were to be returned to him upon the death of the owner. He interpreted the death's-head symbol to mean solidarity to the cause and a commitment unto death.

Islam

In public and private, Heinrich Himmler made complimentary statements about Islam as both a religion and a political ideology, describing it as a more disciplined, militaristic, political, and practical form of religion than Christianity is, and commending what they perceived were Muhammad's skills in politics and military leadership.

The most intimate insights into Himmler’s attitude toward Islam are given by his doctor, Felix Kersten, whose notorious memoirs devote an entire chapter to Himmler’s “Enthusiasm for Islam.” According to Kersten, Himmler saw Islam as a masculine, soldierly religion, telling him in late 1942:

"Mohammed knew that most people are terribly cowardly and stupid. That is why he promised every warrior who fights courageously and falls in battle two [sic] beautiful women. … This is the kind of language a soldier understands. When he believes that he will be welcomed in this manner in the afterlife, he will be willing to give his life; he will be enthusiastic about going to battle and not fear death. You may call this primitive and laugh about it … but it is based on deeper wisdom. A religion must speak a man’s language."

Himmler, who had left the Catholic Church in 1936, bemoaned that Christianity made no promises to soldiers who died in battle, no reward for bravery. Islam, by contrast, was “a religion of people’s soldiers,” a practical faith that provided believers with guidance for everyday life. Himmler, convinced that Muhammad was one of the greatest men in history, had apparently collected biographies of the Prophet, and hoped to visit Muslim countries and continue his studies after the war was won. In discussions with Haj Amin al-Husayni, the legendary Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who sided with the Axis and moved to Berlin in 1941, from where he called for holy war against the Allies, Himmler lamented the failed invasions by Islamic forces in centuries past which, he said, “depriv[ed] Europe of the flourishing spiritual light and civilization of Islam.”

In 1943, Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, a Wehrmacht general, noted that Himmler had expressed his disdain for Christianity, while finding Islam “very admirable.” A few months later, Himmler would again “speak about the heroic character of the Mohammedan religion, while expressing his disdain for Christianity, and especially Catholicism,” wrote Horstenau.

Himmler in a January 1944 speech called Islam “a practical and attractive religion for soldiers,” with its promise of paradise and beautiful women for brave martyrs after their death. “This is the kind of language a soldier understands,” Himmler gushed.

Hinduism

Himmler was reportedly fascinated by Hinduism and ancient Indian culture and had read the Bhagavad Gita, among other classic Indian texts. As early as 1925, when Himmler was only 24 years old and had joined the SS, and just two years after Adolf Hitler's beer hall putsch, Himmler wrote: Kshatriyakaste, that is how we need to be. This is the salvation. [“Kshatriyakaste” referred to the military and ruling elite of the Vedic-Hindu social system of ancient India.]

Himmler was deeply influenced by the Indologist, yoga scholar and SS Capt. Jakob Wilhelm Hauer of the University of Tübingen in Germany and the Italian philosopher Baron Julius Evola.

Himmler had a keen interest in the Rigveda and the Bhagavad Gita. According to his personal massage therapist, Felix Kersten, Himmler carried a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in his pocket from 1941 until his death four years later. The book was a translation by the German theosophist, Dr. Franz Hartmann. Himmler had clear preferences with some of the scriptures of Hinduism. One was his interest in the Rig Veda, which in some places is imbued with much violence. The other was the Bhagavad Gita, which he greatly admired and appreciated. Himmler particularly referred to Krishna's instructions on satisfying one's duty on the battlefield and not to identify with such actions. Himmler was not really sympathetic so much to the complexities Indian culture, but rather to the ideal of the Kshatriya [warrior caste of India] and to the ideals of purity.

Karl von Krempler: SS-Standartenführer and SS Police Leader Sanjak (1943)

Early life

Karl von Krempler was born on 26 May 1896 in Pirot, Kingdom of Serbia. He was the son of an Austrian engineer. In 1915 he volunteered as a cadet for the Lower Austrian Infantry Regiment No. 84 (k.u.k. Niederösterreichischen Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 84). In 1920 he was released from active service with the rank of Lieutenant (Oberleutnant).

World War II

He spoke fluent Turkish, Serbian, and German. He was considered a specialist within the SS on Islam and in 1942 was recruited by Heinrich Himmler and Artur Phleps to participate in the formation of a proposed Bosniak Handschar Division within the Waffen-SS, the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian). Unlike most SS personnel, Krempler was not a member of the NSDAP.

"On 3 March 1942, Phleps met with fellow SS officer Karl von Krempler, who, together with Croatian government official Alija Šuljak, was to conduct the recruiting effort. The campaign began on the twentieth, when the multi-lingual von Krempler and Dr. Šuljak, accompanied by several other dignitaries began an eighteen-day recruiting tour through eleven Bosnian districts."

Alija Šuljak and Krempler soon fell out over the aims and purposes of the proposed Division. The pro-Ustasha, Croatian nationalist doctor, who was an entirely political appointee, criticized Krempler's spoken Serbian dialect and his use of traditional Islamic colours and emblems (green flags and crescent moons) rather than the new Ustaše symbols during recruitment.

"Upon reaching Tuzla he [von Krempler] met with Major Hadžiefendić, and on 28 March the pair departed for Sarajevo, where Hadžiefendić introduced the German to leading Muslim autonomists, including the Amin al-Husseini, Reis-el-Ulema, Hafiz Muhamed Pandža."

Major Muhamed Hadžiefendić had been an important Muslim officer in the Yugoslav Royal Army and came from a distinguished family in Tuzla. Angry Ustaše officials demanded that Krempler be relieved of his duties and Envoy Siegfried Kasche of the Reich Foreign Affairs Ministry was also very critical of Krempler's perceived interference in the internal affairs of Croatia.

As he spoke Turkish, Krempler also helped liaise with and organise security for the visit to Bosnia by Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, over 30 March and 14 April 1942. (The Mufti was Arab but had served in the Turkish army during World War I). Croatian authorities tried to interrupt the visit but Krempler was instrumental in arranging an interview between the Mufti and several Bosnian community leaders.

Role in Sandžak

Following his appointment to the post of Höhere SS-und Polizeiführer Sandschak (Higher SS and Police Leader Sanjak) in September 1943, Krempler came to be known as the "Sanjak Prince" after his relatively successful formation of the Police Self-Defense Regiment Sandjak. He went to the Sanjak region in October and took over the local volunteer militia of around 5,000 anti-communist, anti-Serb Muslim men headquartered in Sjenica. This formation was sometimes thereafter called the Kampfgruppe Krempler or more derisively the "Muselmanengruppe von Krempler". As the senior Waffen SS officer, Krempler appointed a token local Muslim named Hafiz Sulejman Pačariz as the formal commander of the unit, but as the key military trainer and contact person with German arms and munitions, he remained effectively in control. One of Krempler's goals was to bring Muslim Militia and Chetniks together to fight against Yugoslav Partisans. He ordered that Muslims and Chetniks under German command must be obedient and banned fighting between them with 'harshest possible penalties'. In November 1943. Muslim collaborator Ćazim Sijarić was ordered by Krempler to stop attacking and plundering Serb villages and to return stolen cattle, and Sijarić had to comply with the order.

Krempler was replaced in June 1944 by SS Oberführer Richard Kaaserer, who commanded the Sandschak Regiment from 21 June 1944 to 28 November 1944. Kaaserer had been a member of the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I. Unlike Krempler, Kaaserer was extradited to Yugoslavia after the war; he was tried and executed in January 1947 for war crimes.

Yugoslav Partisans, equipped with Allied war material attacked and seized Sjenica over 14–15 October 1944. The Kampfgruppe Krempler was effectively scattered: older men deserted or simply went home, whilst hundreds of younger men under the leadership of Pačariz travelled to Sarajevo where they joined up with the notorious Ustaše Vjekoslav Luburić. (Pačariz was granted the rank of Pukovnik – leader – in the Ustaše militia.) Krempler and his small contingent of German training personnel were reassigned during the latter part of October 1944.

In January 1945 he was reassigned to the administrative staff of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian).

Krempler died on 17 April 1971 in Salzburg, Austria.

Fritz Grobba: Ambassador to Iraq and Saudi Arabia (1932) and Foreign Ministry Plenipotentiary for the Arab States (1942)

(18 July 1886 – 2 September 1973)

Early life

He was born in Gartz on the Oder in the Province of Brandenburg, Germany. His parents were Rudolf Grobba, a nurseryman, and Elise Grobba, born Weyer. He attended elementary and high school in Gartz. Grobba studied law, economics and Oriental languages at the University of Berlin. In 1913, he received his doctorate of law. Grobba worked briefly in the German consulate in Jerusalem, Palestine. Palestine was then part of the Ottoman Empire.

World War I

During World War I, Leutnant Grobba fought for the Central Powers, as an officer of the Prussian Army. Grobba fought in France and with the Asia Corps on the Middle Eastern Front.

Interwar

In September 1922, Grobba joined the legal affairs department of the German Foreign Ministry of the Weimar Republic. In January 1923, he was transferred to Department 3 (Abteilung III), the department responsible for the Middle East. In October 1923, when postwar diplomatic relations were established between Weimar Germany and the Emirate of Afghanistan, Grobba was named Germany's representative in Kabul, with the rank of consul. In 1925, when the government of Emir Amanullah Khan accused him of attempting to help a visiting German geographer escape from Afghanistan shortly after the geographer shot and killed an Afghan citizen near Kabul, Grobba denied the charge. There was a diplomatic crisis between Germany and Afghanistan over the role of Grobba.

In April 1926, Grobba was recalled to Berlin. From 1926 to 1932, Grobba served again in Abteilung III. He was now in charge of the section responsible for Iran, Afghanistan and British India.

Ambassador to Iraq and Saudi Arabia

From October 1932, he was appointed as the German ambassador to the Kingdom of Iraq and was sent to Baghdad. Grobba was able to speak both Turkish and Arabic. He frequently spoke of Arab nationalism and of ousting the British from the Middle East. Grobba purchased a Christian-owned newspaper, "The Arab World" (al-'Alam al-'Arabi). He serialised an Arabic version of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, and soon, Radio Berlin began to broadcast in Arabic.

On 30 January 1933, Hitler became the chancellor. By the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party were in full control over Germany.

After the death of King Faisal I on 8 September 1933, Grobba convinced King Ghazi to send a group of Iraqi military officers to Germany for a military simulation. The officers returned home amazed.

Grobba also convinced Ghazi to allow Germany to send 50 German officers to Iraq for war games. Ghazi was convinced to accept German "research expeditions" to Iraq. Unlike the Iraqis, the Germans did not return home but stayed in Iraq for the long term.

Grobba enthusiastically supported a virulently anti-imperialist group of Iraqi officers, the "Circle of Seven". Its four leading officers were nicknamed the "Golden Square". They would represent real power, as successive Iraqi governments sought the support of the military for survival. They had long looked to Germany to support them, which Grobba enthusiastically encouraged.

In 1938, a main British pipeline in Iraq was attacked and set on fire by Arabs. When the attack was claimed to be connected to Grobba, he was forced to flee. Grobba fled to the court of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Since 1937, Ibn Saud was reported to be "on the outs" with the British, and, in 1939, his emissary was reported to be seeking arms in Germany. From November 1938 to September 1939, Grobba was also the German Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Beginning of World War II

On 1 September 1939, National Socialist Germany occupied Poland and World War II began. On 3 September, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. After Germany and the United Kingdom became enemies, the Kingdom of Iraq deported German officials and broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. However, contrary to Article 4 of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, Prime Minister Nuri Said chose not to have Iraq declare war on Germany despite Article 4: "Should ... either of the High Contracting Parties become engaged in war, the other High Contracting Party will ... immediately come to his aid in the capacity of an ally." In addition to refusing to declare war, Said also announced that Iraqi armed forces would not be employed outside of Iraq.

On 31 March 1940, Said was replaced by Rashid Ali as Prime Minister. On 10 June, when Fascist Italy joined the war, on the side of Germany and against Britain, the Iraqi government under Ali did not break off diplomatic relations with Italy. That violated Article 4 of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty. On 3 February 1941, after much tension and calls for his removal, he was replaced as Prime Minister by Taha al-Hashimi, a candidate acceptable to Ali and the members of the "Golden Square".

From October 1939 to May 1941, Grobba served in the German foreign ministry in Berlin.

Iraqi coup

On 1 April 1941, Rashid Ali and members of the "Golden Square" led a coup d'état in Iraq. During the time leading up to the coup d'état, Rashid Ali's supporters had been informed that Germany was willing to recognize the independence of Iraq from the British Empire, there had also been discussions on war material being sent to support the Iraqis and other Arab factions in fighting the British.

War in Iraq

On 2 May 1941, after much tension between the Rashid Ali government and the British, the besieged forces at RAF Habbaniya under Air Vice-Marshal H. G. Smart launched pre-emptive air strikes against Iraqi forces throughout Iraq and the Anglo-Iraqi War began. On 3 May, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop persuaded Hitler that Fritz Grobba be secretly returned to Iraq to head up a diplomatic mission to channel support to the Rashid Ali regime. Grobba was to return under the alias "Franz Gehrke". Grobba's mission was to be sent to Iraq along with a military mission commanded by the High Command in the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW). The military mission had the cover name "Special Staff F" (Sonderstab F) and it included Brandenburgers and a Luftwaffe component. Sonderstab F was commanded by General Hellmuth Felmy.

On 6 May, Luftwaffe Colonel Werner Junck received instructions in Berlin that he was to take a small force of aircraft to Iraq. While under Junck's tactical direction, the force was to be under the overall direction of Lieutenant General Hans Jeschonnek and was to be known as "Airplane Commander for Iraq" (Fliegerführer Irak). The aircraft of Fliegerführer Irak were to have Iraqi markings and they were to operate out of an air base in Mosul, some 240 miles north of Baghdad.

Also on 6 May, Grobba and his mission flew from Foggia to Rhodes in two Heinkel He 111 bombers which were dubbed the "Führer Courier Squadron". The mission was accompanied by two Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters. On 9 May, they reached Aleppo in Vichy French-held Syria. On 10 May, the mission reached Mosul and after contacting the Iraqi government, Grobba was told to come to Baghdad as soon as was possible. On 11 May, they reached Baghdad.

On 16 May, Grobba met in Baghdad with Colonel Junck, Rashid Ali, General Amin Zaki, Colonel Nur ed-Din Mahmud, and Mahmud Salman. The group agreed to a number of priorities for Fliegerführer Irak. The first priority was to prevent the British flying column Kingcol from relieving RAF Habbaniya. The second priority was for Iraqi ground forces to take Habbaniyah with air support provided by Fliegerführer Irak. An overall priority for the Germans was to provide the Iraqi Army with a "spine straightening". Much of the army was known to be terrified of bombing by British aircraft.

In the end, Fliegerführer Irak failed to make the impact envisioned by the Germans, RAF Habbaniya was not taken by the Iraqi ground forces, and whether or not the Germans stopped Kingcol did not matter. The air and ground forces at the besieged air base drove off the Iraqis before Kingcol arrived. On 7 May, RAF armoured cars confirmed that the Iraqis on the escarpment above the base were gone. It was not until 18 May that Kingcol arrived to "relieve" Habbaniya. By 22 May, British and Commonwealth ground forces advancing from Habbaniya took and held Fallujah for good. They then began the advance on Baghdad.

On 28 May, Grobba sent a panicked message from Baghdad reporting that the British were close to the city with more than 100 tanks. By then, Junck had no serviceable Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighters and only two Heinkel He 111 bombers with just four bombs between them. Late on 29 May, Rashid Ali, several of his key supporters, and the German military mission fled, under cover of darkness. On 30 May, Grobba fled Baghdad.

Grobba's escape took him through Mosul and then through Vichy French-held Syria. A British flying column commanded by Major R. E. S. Gooch and nicknamed Gocol was created to pursue and capture Grobba. To accomplish this, Gocol first made its way to Mosul and arrived there 3 June. The column then drove west and illegally entered French territory, just prior to the commencement of the Syria-Lebanon Campaign. During the week following 7 June Gocol made efforts to capture Grobba. The column entered Qamishli in Syria, fully expecting to capture him there, but found that Grobba had already been and gone. In the end, Gocol failed in its mission, and Grobba escaped to National Socialist occupied Europe.

Later life

In February 1942, Grobba was named foreign ministry plenipotentiary for the Arab States, a job that entailed liaison between the German government and Arab exiles in Berlin such as Mohammad Amin al-Husayni. In December 1942, Grobba was named to the Paris branch of the German archives commission. He held the post until his brief return to the foreign ministry in April 1944.

In June 1944, Grobba was officially retired from the foreign ministry. However, he continued to work there until the end of the year. In 1945, Grobba worked briefly in the economics department of the government of Saxony, in Dresden.

At the end of the war, Grobba was captured and was kept in Soviet captivity until 1955.

Memoirs

In his 1957 memoirs, Men and Power in the Orient, Grobba summarized as "wasted opportunities" the Middle East policy of Germany during the 1930s. He thought that Germany did not take enough advantage of the Arab hostility towards both the United Kingdom and France. According to Grobba, Germany's failure in the Middle East tracked directly to Hitler; Grobba claimed that as Hitler was uninterested in the Middle East, he deferred to Italian interests in the Mediterranean area against the British.

Grobba also claimed that Hitler also expressed a disinclination to totally eliminate all of the power of the British. Ultimately, Grobba indicated that Hitler was never willing to lend his support to Arab independence and national self-determination.

Islam

Fritz Grobba converted to Islam during his time as a National Socialist German diplomat in Saudi Arabia. He admired Ibn Saud as a leader.

Wilhelm Hintersatz (Harun el-Raschid Bey): SS-Standartenführer, Served with the General Staff of the Ottoman Empire with Enver Pasha and Commander of the Osttürkischer Waffenverband

(May 26, 1886 – March 29, 1963)

World War I and Interwar

El-Raschid was born Wilhelm Hintersatz in Brandenburg in 1886. During the First World War, he converted to Islam while serving with the general staff of the Ottoman Empire with Enver Pasha .  During his time there, he developed an admiration for Otto Liman von Sanders, whom he had met. El-Raschid later wrote a sentimental biography of Sanders, published in Berlin in 1932. 138  He was a military officer serving both the Germans and the Ottomans. In 1919, he took the name of Harun el-Raschid Bey, the name he was listed by in the Dienstalterslisten der SS. According to one source, el-Raschid became a Turk when he was adopted by a Turkish family and was a heavy bomber pilot during the war.

Islamic mobilization during the war influenced el-Raschid. He became involved with former Muslim POWs at Wünsdorf Camp after the war ended, and had served the Italian intelligence in the 1930s in Abyssinia. He believed that he had the "trust of the native Mohammedans", who saw in him "a fellow believer, who prayed without timidity in their mosque". He wanted to cut the "Achilles' heel" of Germany's enemy, England, who he saw as its most dangerous threat, which was, to him, Islam. During his activities in the Islamic world, el-Raschid believed that his belief in Islam and his connection to Muslims was his key "instrument" in gaining their trust.

World War II

After the beginning of the German invasion of Russia, el-Raschid served as a liaison officer and the main line of contact between the Reich Security Main Office and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was seen as the spiritual leader of the SS Neu-Turkestan Division. Previously prevented from forming in Slovakia, the Germans did not give up on their goal to create a Muslim division. Due to his closeness to the Grand Mufti, el-Raschid was seen as the perfect choice to lead such a division. El-Raschid and the Grand Mufti began drawing up a plan. They believed that Bosnia was the ideal place to deploy this division, as they believed that cooperation with the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) would be beneficial to the training of the division. Additionally, Bosnia was a Muslim territory, and religious buildings and leaders could bolster their faith. El-Raschid was supported in his endeavor to create a division by Prince Mansour Daoud, a relative of King Farouk of Egypt, who joined its forces and bolstered their character. El-Raschid was impressed with Daoud's "effective propaganda".

El-Raschid tried to enlist German or Germanic officers for his division. Among his choices were SS-Hauptsturmführer Quintus de Veer, SS-Untersturmführer Körber of the 5th SS Mountain Corps, Gerd Schulte, and SS-Sturmbannführer Franz Liebermann. This division was finally deployed by order of Heinrich Himmler on October 20, 1944, and it was supposed to be dubbed the Östturkischer Waffenverband. Most of the division was made up of members of the Ostmuselmanisches SS-Regiment, who had been transferred to Slovakia. Three Waffengruppen, created and divided upon ethnic lines (Volga-Tatar (Idel-Ural), Crimea (Krim), and Turkestan) were supposed to train many battalions, but there were problems with supplies - vehicles were not working and the only weapons that could be used were malfunctioning weapons from the Ostmuselmanische SS-Regiment Nr. 1, which was the largest group (while still small). The regiment was incorporated into Waffengruppe Turkestan. There was an additional Waffengruppe, named Azerbaijan (Aserbaidschan), created later, with 2851 soldiers. The division was composed mostly of soldiers from Muslim communities of the southern Soviet Union, especially the Turkmens as well as Caspian and Black Sea Tatars that felt no loyalty to the USSR. It suffered from bad discipline and morale, and were only used to their full potential once the Germans started running into manpower problems. In 1944, the unit assisted in suppressing the Warsaw Uprising. However, on Christmas Eve 1944, the Turkmen of the Ostmuselmanische SS-Regiment Nr. 1 mutinied - partially due to them being mooted for transfer to Andrei Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army, which was seen as a betrayal of their anti-Russian ideals, and el-Raschid's general incompetence and inability to interact well with his men. This caused Himmler to immediately dismiss el-Raschid, disbanding and reorganizing the regiment under a different name.

During the War, el-Raschid wrote the novel Schwartz oder Weiss: Ad Imperium Romanum versus (Black or White: Towards the Roman Empire), published in Berlin in 1940. This work of fiction claimed to be based on his experiences in the "African war" in Ethiopia.

In March 1945, the previously sacked el-Raschid, now leader of Waffengruppe Idel-Ural, met with the local partisans and surrendered in Merate in Northern Italy, surrendering his Tatar men under the condition that they would be treated humanely. He decided to surrender to partisans due to the fear that surrendering to Americans would lead them to see his men as Japanese soldiers, who would be run over with tanks. On April 26, el-Raschid's men laid down their arms, with 150 of them being shot immediately by the partisans at Col Di Nesse. El-Raschid and his men were later handed to the 1st Armored Division, and the Tatars were sent back to the Soviet Union, where they were either promptly shot or sent to gulags.

Post-war

El-Raschid was taken prisoner by the United States after the war, and was released. In 1954, his book From the Orient to the Occident: A Mosaic of Various Colored Experiences, a detailed work on his experiences and travels, was published in Bielefeld.

In late March 1956, former Imam of the Osttürkischer Waffenverband Nurredin Namangani returned to Germany, landing in Munich. His early activities included talking about a Muslim prayer room in Munich. However, by late 1958, he was talking about building an entire mosque in the city. El-Raschid was one of his key supporters – the two were close, and had known each other during the war. Both had been imprisoned by the United States. El-Raschid wrote to the federal president, Theodor Heuss, stressing Namangani's "love for Germany" and that he was a "true loyal friend of Germany". He argued that Muslims in Germany lacked a politically free mosque and a "dignified central religious and cultural center", as they did in other Western countries.