Heinz Barth
Encyclopedia
Heinz Barth was an
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...

(First Lieutenant) in the Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...

 and war criminal.

He was dubbed "Murderer of Oradour-sur-Glane" for his involvement in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of 1944. Barth was the only Nazi officer involved in the Oradour massacre to have been judged, in 1983 in East Germany. Awarded a "war victim" pension in 1991 (which would later become a wide-ranging controversy and would lead to changes in German law regarding war or disability pensions for World War II war criminals) by the reunified German government, he was released in 1997 and died in 2007.

Under Nazi Germany

Barth entered the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...

in 1932, earning the Gold Badge of the organisation during his attendance. In 1938, he joined the National Socialist Motor Corps
National Socialist Motor Corps
The National Socialist Motor Corps , also known as the National Socialist Drivers Corps, was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that existed from 1931 to 1945. The group was a successor organization to the older National Socialist Automobile Corps, which had existed since the beginning...

, taking motorised para-military training. He joined the NSDAP on 9 November 1939, on the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...

 with Party #7,844,901.

Barth enlisted in the military police, where he was made an officer. The 1983 East Germany court found that Barth participated, as a member of security police battalion, in execution of 92 Czech civilians during martial law in summer of 1942 in Klatovy
Klatovy
Klatovy is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic.Klatovy is also the seat of the Municipality with Extended Competence and Municipality with Commissioned Local Authority.- History :Klatovy was founded during 1260–1263 by Přemysl Otakar II....

 and Pardubice
Pardubice
Pardubice is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the river Elbe, 65 miles east of Prague. Pardubice has an antique centre square and old town, with many restaurants that stay open until late in the evening. There is an old Tower and a recently renovated Castle...

. He was also one of those who, in June 1942, shot 32 citizens of Ležáky
Ležáky
Ležáky was a village in Czechoslovakia. In 1942 it was razed to the ground by Nazis during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.Ležáky was a settlement inhabited by poor stone-cutters and little cottagers...

 according to the historian Eduard Stehlík from the Military History Institute.

Barth joined the SS on 10 February 1943 (n°458037) with the rank of Untersturmführer
Untersturmführer
Untersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the German Schutzstaffel first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of Sturmführer which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921...

(Second Lieutenant) and was assigned to the SS-Kraft Pioneers detachment. On 15 January 1943, he was moved to the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg
The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg or 10.SS-Panzer-Division Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS panzer division. The division was formed at the beginning of 1943 as a reserve for the expected Allied invasion of France. However, their first campaign was in the Ukraine in April 1944...

, later to the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf
3rd SS Division Totenkopf
The SS Division Totenkopf , also known as 3. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf and 3. SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf, was one of the 38 divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. Prior to achieving division status, the formation was known as Kampfgruppe Eicke...

, and then, in October 1943, to the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

 in the 2nd SS Division Das Reich
2nd SS Division Das Reich
The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich was a Waffen-SS division during World War II. It is considered to be an elite formation amongst the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS....

 He led a section in the 3rd company, 1st battalion of the 4th Panzergrenadier
Panzergrenadier
is a German term for motorised or mechanized infantry, as introduced during World War II. It is used in the armies of Austria, Chile, Germany and Switzerland.-Forerunners:...

regiment Der Führer of the division.

In 1944, he became part of Adolf Diekmann's brigade, being under the direct command of Otto Erich Kahn. He then took part in the June 1944 Oradour-sur-Glane massacre by leading the group which led the men of the village into a barn and commanding the fire. During his 1983 trial, he testified to having personally shot roughly fifteen times into the crowd. He also confirmed that the massacre of 642 civilians (the whole village, including more than 200 children) had no military objective.

In August 1944, Barth was severely wounded in Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

, losing part of his leg. He was reassigned to the 2nd Training Battalion of the SS-Panzer Grenadier, and promoted to Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...

(First Lieutenant) on 9 November 1944.

Post-war

After the end of the war, Barth returned to his hometown in Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

 in the then German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

. According to the AFP
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...

, he returned under a false name. He was tried in France in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...

 on 12 February 1953, and sentenced to death for war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...

s.

Identified and arrested on 14 June 1981 in Gransee
Gransee
Gransee is a town in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 20 km south of Fürstenberg/Havel, and 55 km northwest of Berlin....

, Barth was tried again in 1983 in East Germany and sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

 for war crimes. Barth, who claimed that he was only following orders
Superior Orders
Superior orders is a plea in a court of law that a soldier not be held guilty for actions which were ordered by a superior office...

, was the only former Nazi to have been judged for this massacre. Others Nazis involved had taken refuge in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 (such as General Lammerding
Heinz Lammerding
Heinz Lammerding was aBrigadeführer in the Waffen-SS and a commander of 2...

, commander of the Das Reich division
2nd SS Division Das Reich
The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich was a Waffen-SS division during World War II. It is considered to be an elite formation amongst the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS....

,) and had not been judged

Barth was released in 1997 reportedly in consideration of his age and health and for having "expressed remorse".

Controversy arose because of the 800 mark pension Barth had been receiving as a wounded veteran for his lost leg since 1991, following German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

. In 2000, a tribunal in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....

 canceled the pension with the argument that a war criminal should not be granted a pension. In 2001, the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

 enacted a law stripping war criminals from obtaining disability compensation.

Barth's death at the age of 86 was announced on 14 August 2007 by a priest in Gransee. However, the priest would only say that he died within the last few days of cancer, and did not disclose the place or exact date of his death.

Nazi hunter
Nazi hunter
A Nazi-hunter is a private individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis, SS members and Nazi collaborators involved in the Holocaust, typically for use at trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity...

 Serge Klarsfeld commented that "the man responsible of this horrible crime [in Oradour-sur-Glane], the one who had authorised its execution, General Heinz Lammerding
Heinz Lammerding
Heinz Lammerding was aBrigadeführer in the Waffen-SS and a commander of 2...

, who lived in the Federal Republic of Germany, died unpunished.

External links

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