Bruno Streckenbach

Infobox Military Person
name= Bruno Streckenbach
lived=birth date|1902|2|7|df=y — death date and age|1977|10|28|1902|2|7|df=y


caption=
placeofbirth=Hamburg
placeofdeath=Hamburg
nickname=
allegiance=flagicon|German Empire German Empire (to 1918)
flagicon|Germany Weimar Republic (to 1922)
flagicon|Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
branch=
serviceyears=1919-1945
rank=SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of the Waffen-SS and Polizei
commands=8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian)
unit=
battles=World War I
World War II
awards=Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Oak Leaves
German Cross in Gold
Close Combat Clasp in Bronze
EK I
EK II
laterwork=

Bruno Streckenbach (February 7 1902 – October 28 1977) held the rank of SS-Brigadeführer, when was the head of the RSHA's Amt I: Personnel, but eventually achieved rank of SS-Gruppenführer both in Allgemeine-SS and Waffen SS.

He served in the last year of World War I and was a member of the Freikorps{See [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.phpt=92523&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15] }.

Career in Allgemeine-SS

Streckenbach had been chosen back in 1933 to run the Hamburg political police after it had been swallowed by the Gestapo.He was then transferred to Poland after the Nazi occupation(1939); being concerned with the arrest of the professors at Cracow University and had been one of the architects of the effective implementation of the Extraordinary Pacification Action.

When Streckenbach's work was finished in Poland, he was ordered to return to Berlin for administrative duties.

Without warning, Streckenbach received a top secret order to proceed immediately to the police barracks at Pretzsch on the Elbe.He was met there by hand-picked members of the SD, the Gestapo and the police .

Bruno Streckenbach was tasked to train and indoctrinate these men before the onset of the Russian campaign. Veterans of many a Polish atrocity became members of one of four newly constituted Einsatzgruppen destined for Soviet Russia.

Streckenbach detailed the mission of the Einsatzgruppe was to seize and destroy all political and radical enemy groups such as Bolsheviks, gypsies, partisans and Jews. In addition, the Einsatzgruppen were to report and evaluate material gained in every field of Russian operations and collect information from agents and spies from the Russian population.

SS-Brigadeführer Streckenbach further ordered that all enemies of the Third Reich were to be deported to concentration camps and execution. Jews were especially singled out for 'special' treatment, which meant destruction.

On 9.11.1941 he was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei.

Career in Waffen-SS

Streckenbach then requested to join a fighting unit, and thus in September 1942 he was transferred to Waffen-SS as an SS-Obersturmführer der Reserve - members of Allegemeine-SS weren't necessarily allowed to keep their ranks in Waffen-SS. He trained with anti-tank units and joined SS Kavallerie Division as SS-Hauptsturmführer in March 1943.

By April he was in command of division's anti-tank battalion, SS Panzerjäger Abteilung. In that position he was able to prove his bona fide talents as military leader, receiving rapid promotions to SS-Sturmbannführer, SS-Obersturmbannführer and SS-Standartenführer, the last one happening in end of August 1943. Later in the autumn he replaced Hermann Fegelein as a divisional commander, and was promoted to SS-Oberführer on 30.1.1944.

On April 13th he was appointed as a commander of 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian), taking over from deputy commander SS-Standartenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock (former leader of the unit, SS-Oberführer Hinrich Schuldt, had been killed in action when visiting frontlines in March). Streckenbach held this post to the end of war, and in battles of 1944 - 1945 on Eastern Front his crack Latvian unit enabled him to earn further advance in ranks to SS-Brigadeführer in July and finally to SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS in November '44, as well as a Knight's Cross, later added with Oak Leaves.

In 1952 he was sentenced by USSR to prison for 25 years but he was released in 1955. Postwar attempts by West Germans to bring him to justice were delayed because of reports of his "ill-health". He died in Hamburg on 28.10.1977.

Awards

* Iron Cross
** 2nd Class (10 October 1940)
** 1st Class (1 July 1943)
* Infantry Assault Badge
* Close Combat Clasp in Bronze
* German Cross in Gold (15 December 1943)
* Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
** Knight's Cross (27 August 1944)
** Oak Leaves (16 January 1945)

References

* Trang, Charles - Division << Florian Geyer >> ISBN 2 84048 141 3
* Silgailis, Arthur - Latvian Legion ISBN 0 912138 35 1