Years of service 1932-1945 | Name Julian Scherner | |
 | ||
Rank SS-Oberfuhrer (Senior Colonel) Awards Iron Cross, 2nd classWar Merit Cross First Class with SwordsWar Merit Cross Second Class with SwordsWound BadgeHonour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 Commands held SS-Gebirgsjager-Regiment 11 "Reinhard Heydrich", SS-Truppenubungsplatz Bohmen Similar People Itzhak Stern, Andrzej Seweryn, Oskar Schindler, Thomas Keneally | ||
Julian Scherner (September 23, 1895 – April 28, 1945) was a Nazi Party official and a high-ranking member in the SS of Nazi Germany. During World War II, he served as the SS and Police Leader of Kraków, Germany-occupied Poland.
Career
Born in colonial Bagamoyo, German East Africa, Scherner attended a Kadettenschule or military cadet school in Imperial Germany from 1905 to 1914. In 1914, he joined the Reichsheer or Imperial army. After retiring from the military in 1920, he joined the Freikorps Oberland, and in 1923 he took part in the Hitler-Ludendorff Putsch. In 1932 he joined the SS and the Nazi Party. In 1937, he became head of the Dachau SS-Führerschule or SS officers school. From September 1939 to 11 November 1939 he was regimental commander of the SS-Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 11 "Reinhard Heydrich". From summer to the winter of 1940, he was commander of the 8 Totenkopf-Standarte. As an SS garrison commander of Prague, between January to September 1941 Scherner supervised preparations for the establishment of a Waffen-SS training area at Beneschau, Bohemia.
On 4 August 1941, Scherner was appointed SS- und Polizeiführer (SS and Police Leader) in Nazi occupied Kraków. As such, he was responsible for the deportations to the Bełżec extermination camp, the mass shootings in Tarnów and all 'evacuations' that took place during his time there - including Aktion Krakau. He liquidated Kraków Ghetto by deporting its inhabitants to Auschwitz.
His position afforded him a great deal of authority in many areas, as the title of SS and Police Leader was conferred to high-ranking Nazi Party members, reporting directly to Himmler's deputy. Like Amon Göth, Scherner was far too interested in the confiscated goods from the Plaszow camp. Scherner was transferred to Dachau in April 1944 and appeared before an SS Court (the dreaded Hauptamt SS-Gericht) on 16 October 1944. As a result, Scherner was demoted from SS-Oberführer der Reserve in the Waffen-SS to SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve and transferred to the Dirlewanger Brigade (formally the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS) under SS-Oberführer Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger.
He was found dead shortly before the war ended in a wooded area near Niepołomice in southern Poland, under unknown circumstances.