Name Udo Woyrsch Party Nazi Party | ||
 | ||
Full Name Udo Gustav Wilhelm Egon von Woyrsch Criminal penalty Sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, released early Conviction(s) Crimes against humanity Died January 14, 1983, Biberach an der Riss, Germany | ||
Udo von Woyrsch (24 July 1895 – 14 January 1983) was a high-ranking SS official in Nazi Germany who was responsible for mass murder during The Holocaust.
Contents
First World War
From early 1914 to 9 February 1919 Udo von Woyrsch served with the Germany Army as an Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) in the Great War. From 10 February 1919 to 23 August 1920 he was associated with an organization called the Grenzschutz ("Border Defense"). He was awarded a variety of medals during the war, including the Iron Cross (First Class) and later the Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 for Combatants.
Nazi career
According to Richard Grunberger, Woyrsch had been involved in the Freikorps during the 1920s. Early on Woyrsch joined the NSDAP (Membership number 162,349) and the SS (Member Number 3,689). Himmler charged him with organising the SS in the Nazi Gau Silesia; as such von Woyrsch became the first commander of the SS-Oberabschnitt Südost.
In 1933 von Woyrsch was elected to the Reichstag. He was the SS and Police Leader in Elbe, and in 1934 Von Woyrsch participated in the Night of the Long Knives, ordering the execution of his SS rival Emil Sembach. On 30 June 1934 "he took command in Silesia, and on the orders of Göring arrested a number of SA leaders, disarmed all SA headquarters' guards and occupied the Breslau police headquarters. Von Woyrsch's men murdered some of the SA officers as a result of an on-going private feud."
Udo von Woyrsch had a close friendship with Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, and was on Himmler's personal staff. On 1 January 1935 he was promoted to SS Obergruppenführer (then the second-highest rank in the SS).
Einsatzgruppe
In September 1939 Woyrsch commanded the Einsatzgruppe ("Special Purpose Operational Group") specifically charged with, and adept at, terrorizing and murdering the Jewish population of Poland. Woyrsch was responsible for some of the deadliest Jewish massacres in Poland in 1939, where in East Upper Silesia he led the group that murdered 500 Jews in Kattowitz, Będzin, and Sosnowiec. The brutality of this Einsatzgruppe in Kattowitz was such that some Wehrmacht officers interceded with the Gestapo to have it withdrawn. However many junior military commanders actively supported Woyrsch's campaign.
Between 20 April 1940 and February 1944 Woyrsch was the Higher SS and Police Leader in military district IV and district leader in Dresden. Woyrsch was removed from office in 1944 for incompetence. According to Richard Grunberger Woyrsch was part of Himmler's entourage trailing about northern Germany in 1945.
Trials and convictions
Woyrsch was interned by the British from 1945 to 1948. In 1948, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the "Night of the Long Knives" in 1934. However, he was released in 1952. He was tried again in 1957 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.