Alexander von Falkenhausen

Infobox Military Person
name=Alexander von Falkenhausen, Wehrmacht
lived=birth date|1878|10|29—death date and age|1966|7|31|1878|10|29
placeofbirth=Gut Blumenthal, Province of Silesia
placeofdeath=Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate


caption=
allegiance=flagicon|German Empire German Empire (to 1918)
flagicon|Germany|Weimar Weimar Republic (to 1933)
flagicon|Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
serviceyears=1897—1944
rank=General
awards=Pour le Mérite

Alexander Ernst Alfred Hermann von Falkenhausen (October 29, 1878 – July 31, 1966) was a German general. He was the head of the military government of Belgium from 1940–44 during its occupation by Germany in World War II.

He is related to Ludwig von Falkenhausen, who was the governor-general of Belgium during the German occupation, from 1917 until 1918, during the First World War.

Falkenhausen was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the German Army in 1897 and served as a military attaché in Japan prior to the First World War. He was awarded the Pour le Mérite during the war while serving with the Ottoman Army in Palestine. After the war he stayed in service and later headed the Dresden Infantry School in 1927. In 1930 he retired from service and went to China to serve as Chiang Kai-Shek's military advisor.

In 1937 Nazi Germany officially allied themselves with the Empire of Japan, whom by then had declared war with the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Nazi party, as a goodwill gesture to Japan recognized the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and withdrew German support to China, including forcing Falkenhausen to resign his advisor post by threatening to have his family back in Germany punished for treachery. After a brief goodbye dinner party with Chiang Kai-Shek's family, Falkenhausen promised to Chiang Kai-Shek that he would never reveal any battle plans he had taught him to the Japanese. Recalled to active duty in 1938, he served as an infantry general on the Western Front until his appointment as military governor for Belgium in May 1940.While serving as military governor his administration published 17 decrees against the Jewish population of Belgium as preparatory measures leading in June 1942 to the Final Solution and the deportation of 28,900 Jews.His deputy for economic affairs, Eggert Reeder was responsible for the destruction of "Jewish influence" in the Belgian economy, leading to mass unemployment of Jewish workers, especially in the diamond business. Some 2250 of these unemployed were thus send to forced labour camps in Northern France in order to build the Atlantic Wall for the TODT organisation.Some 43,000 non-Jewish Belgians were also deported to German camps of which 13,000 died.Hundred of resistance fighters were shot by the German army during the occupation.

He was a close friend of two anti-Hitler conspirators, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, and soon came to detest Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, offering his support to von Witzleben for a planned coup d'état. After the failure of the July 20 Plot in 1944, von Falkenhausen spent the rest of the war transferred from one concentration camp to another until freed by the Allies in 1945.

Falkenhausen was sent to Belgium for trial in 1948, and in March 1951 he was sentenced to 12 years hard labour for deporting 25,000 Jews and executing Belgian hostages. However, he was acquitted and released three weeks into his sentence after overwhelming evidence proved that Falkenhausen tried to save as many Jews and Belgians as possible from deportation and execution. Falkenhausen died in Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Interesting notes

*During his 72nd birthday in 1950, Falkenhausen received a million dollar cheque from Chiang Kai-shek as his birthday gift and a personal note declaring him a "Friend of China".
*During his trial in Nuremberg, he was vouched for by a Chinese woman named [http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Apr/30512.htm Qian Xiuling] who was living in Belgium, provided copious evidence that he tried to save Belgian and Jewish lives.
*In his youth, Alexander already showed interest in Eastern Asia and its culture. He stayed in Japan for a few years as an advisor, and he also claimed that he liked Chinese cuisine best.
*According to some sources (especially from Communist Chinese during late 1930s), Falkenhausen still kept contact with Chiang Kai-Shek after his return to Germany and would occasionally send him European luxury items and food to the Chiang household and his officers.

See also

*Sino-German cooperation (1911–1941)

External links

* [http://www.specialcamp11.fsnet.co.uk/General%20der%20Infanterie%20Alexander%20von%20Falkenhausen.htm Personal Bio and Military achievement of Von Falkenhausen]
* [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=116829&highlight=falkenhausen More tidbit info on Falkenhausen in Axis forum]