Hermann Höfle (SS general)

This article is about the SS-Obergruppenführer. For the SS-Sturmbannführer of the same name, see Hermann Höfle.

 Hermann Höfle  (12 September 1898 in Augsburg – 9 December 1947 in Bratislava) was a German SS-Obergruppenführer, General of the Waffen-SS and police, and SS and Police Leader (HSSPF).

Biography

Höfle, the son of a post office official, was called up to the German Imperial Army in 1916 as a soldier in the Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Regiment "Großherzog Friedrich II. von Baden" Nr. 8 and also served as an observation pilot during World War I. After the war he was with the Freikorps von Epp and the Bund Reichskriegsflagge of Ernst Röhm and participated in the Beer Hall Putsch. He officially joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in the early 1930s. From 1920 to 1934 he was an officer with the Reichswehr and left with the rank of major in the Reserve. He was also qualified as a Spanish language interpreter in 1931.[1] He was married in 1925 and had two daughters.[2]

From August 1934 to January 1937 he was leader of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) in Munich, director of the NSKK Reichsführerschule from 1935 to 1937 and, starting from August 1937, inspector of NSKK training. He was leader of the NSKK brigade "Ostmark" from June to September 1937, then leader of the NSKK Motorgruppe "Niederschlesien" until December 1941 and finally leader of the NSKK Motorgruppe "Upper Silesia" from 1 July 1943. Besides it led the NSKK Verkehrskompanien in the corps.[3]

Höfle did not officially join the Nazi Party until May 1937 (membership number: 3,924,970) and joined the SS in July 1943 after a request from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (membership number: 463,093). From September 1943 to October 1944 he served as HSSPF "Mitte" from a base in Braunschweig. From late September 1944 to the end of World War II, he filled a similar role in Slovakia.[1] In this position he played a leading role in the suppression of the Slovak National Uprising.[4] Arrested by the Czechoslovakian authorities, he was tried along with Hanns Ludin. Both were sentenced to death and executed on 9 December 1947.[5] Some sources claim that he died in custody on 3 December.[1]

Höfle was survived by his wife and two daughters. After marriage, his elder daughter, Helga Tiscenko (born 1929), emigrated to New Zealand. In 2000 she published a popular account of her childhood entitled Strawberries with the Führer.[6] Her book is now the subject of a video documentary [7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, Frankfurt am Main 2007, S. 260.
  2. ↑ Ruth Bettina Birn: Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer. Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten., Düsseldorf 1986, p. 336
  3. ↑ Dorothee Hochstetter: Motorisierung und Volksgemeinschaft: Das nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK), 1931-1945, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag 2005, p. 135
  4. ↑ Venohr, Wolfgang (1969), Aufstand für die Tschechoslowakei: Der slowakische Freiheitskampf von 1944, Hamburg: C. Wagner, pp. 204ff., retrieved 6 October 2012
  5. ↑ Venohr, Wolfgang (1969), Aufstand für die Tschechoslowakei: Der slowakische Freiheitskampf von 1944, Hamburg: C. Wagner, pp. 282f., retrieved 6 October 2012
  6. ↑ Tiscenko, Helga (2000). Strawberries with the Fuhrer: A Journey from the Third Reich to New Zealand. Shoal Bay Press. ISBN 978-1-877251-03-0.
  7. ↑ "Strawberries with the Führer - Documentary © 2010 Positive Pattern Films.".
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