Carl Oberg

Carl Albrecht Oberg

Pierre Laval (on left) and Carl Oberg in Paris
Born 27 January 1897 (1897-01-27)
Hamburg
Died 3 June 1965(1965-06-03) (aged 68)
Flensburg
Occupation Nazi official.
Criminal penalty Sentenced to death by hanging, commuted to life imprison, later released.
Motive Nazism
Conviction(s) Crimes against humanity

Carl Oberg (27 January 1897 – 3 June 1965) was the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) of France during the Second World War. Oberg deported over 40,000 Jews from France. After the war he was twice sentenced to death by two different courts. However, in 1958 the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and later reduced to 20 years hard labor. Oberg was pardoned and released on 28 November 1962.

Nazi career

He joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party) on 1 April 1931 and the SS on 7 April 1932. After meeting Reinhard Heydrich in May, 1933, he asked Heydrich for a job and joined the SD. Oberg was later promoted to an SS-Oberführer and made the police administrator for Hanover. He served in that capacity from September, 1938 until January 1939. Next, Oberg served as Police President of Zwickau until late 1941. He served as SS-und Polizeiführer (SS and Police Leader - SSPF), "Radom" from August 1941 to May, 1942. Oberg was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer on 20 April 1942.[1]

From May 1942 to November 1944, Oberg served as Higher SS and Police Leader (Höherer SS-und Polizeiführer, HSSPF) "Frankreich" (France) over all German police forces in France, including the SD and Gestapo. He was the supreme authority in France for managing anti-Jewish policy and the battle against the French Resistance. He thus drove the rounding up of Jews in the Paris Velodrome d'Hiver ("la rafle du Vel d'hiv") in 1942. On Heydrich's orders, Oberg deported over 40,000 Jews from the country.[2] By 1943, however, he was resisting some of the orders issued by Himmler and Hitler. On January 18, Himmler demanded a cleansing of Marseilles with 100,000 arrests and explosive demolition of the city's crime district. Working with the French police, Oberg supervised a "minimalist" response of 6,000 arrests, 20,000 people displaced, and partial destruction of the harbour area. In 1944, Oberg blocked an attempt to establish an Einsatzkommando of the Waffen-SS in France.[3]

Post-war trial, sentence, and reprieve

Oberg was arrested by the US military in June, 1945 and sentenced to death by a British court before receiving another death sentence from the French in October, 1954. In 1958, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by French President René Coty, and later reduced to 20 years hard labor.[4] Oberg was pardoned by Charles de Gaulle and released on 28 November 1962.[1]

Ranks and positions

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Yerger (1997), p 103.
  2. ↑ Yerger (1997), pp 51, 103.
  3. ↑ Longerich (2012), pp 650-653
  4. ↑ Time (1958).
  5. ↑ Yerger (1997), pp 103, 180-181.
  6. ↑ Yerger (1997), p 124.
  7. 1 2 Yerger (1997), p 51.
  8. ↑ Yerger (1997), pp 55, 103.

References

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