Jürgen Stroop

Infobox Military Person
name= Jürgen Stroop
lived=birth date|1895|9|24|df=y — death date and age|1952|3|6|1895|9|24|df=y


caption=Jürgen Stroop in the U.S. military custody in 1945
placeofbirth=Detmold, Germany
placeofdeath=Warsaw, Poland
nickname=
allegiance=flagicon|German Empire German Empire
flagicon|Nazi Germany Third Reich
branch=flagicon|German Empire Deutsches Heer
serviceyears=
rank=Feldwebel
SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS und Polizei
SS- und Polizeiführer
commands=
unit=
battles=World War I
World War II (Warsaw Ghetto)
awards=
laterwork=

Jürgen Stroop, (born Josef Stroop, September 26, 1895 – March 6, 1952) was a general of the SS and police who led the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942–1943. After the war, Stroop was convicted of war crimes and hanged.

Early life

Jürgen Stroop was born in Detmold as the son of a police officer. After receiving only an elementary education, he became an apprentice with the land register in his home town of Detmold, where he worked until the start of World War I, when he joined the German Army as a volunteer. At the end of the war, he held the rank of a vice Feldwebel (Sergeant). After the war, he returned to work at the land register.

career

Stroop joined both the SS and the NSDAP in 1932. His career took off during the election campaign of the same year. In 1933, he was appointed leader of the state auxiliary police. One year later, he was promoted from the rank of SS-"Oberscharführer" to the rank of "Hauptsturmführer". Subsequently he worked for the SS administration in Münster and Hamburg.

In autumn 1938, he was promoted again, this time to the rank of SS-"Standartenführer" (Colonel). After the invasion of Poland, he served as commander of the SS-section in Gnesen (Gniezno). In May 1941, he changed his name from "Josef" to Jürgen for ideological reasons.

Stroop was sent to Warsaw on April 17, 1943 by Heinrich Himmler, as a replacement for "Oberführer" Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, who was relieved of duty.Moshe Arens, [http://www.freeman.org/m_online/may03/arens.htm Who Defended The Warsaw Ghetto?] The Jerusalem Post] [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Strooptoc.html Jurgen Stroop Diary, including The Stroop Report: Table of Contents] (Jewish Virtual Library)] Sammern was in charge of an earlier mass extermination of Jews known as the Gross-aktion Warschau resulting in annihilation of about 254,000 Ghetto residents deported to Treblinka and exterminated there. [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005188 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising] Last Updated: May 20, 2008.] [Robert Moses Shapiro, [http://books.google.ca/books?id=dnMMxHaUzT8C&pg=PA35&dq=Gross+Aktion&sig=ACfU3U2v8vxVVvQvrwBAtw4t7bXPyj_E1Q Holocaust Chronicles] Published by KTAV Publishing Inc.] [http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205886.pdf] Moshe Arens, [http://www.freeman.org/m_online/may03/arens.htm Who Defended The Warsaw Ghetto?] The Jerusalem Post] [ [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Strooptoc.html Jurgen Stroop Diary, including The Stroop Report: Table of Contents] (Jewish Virtual Library)] Jürgen Stroop took over from Sammern following his unsuccessful ghetto offensive at the onset of the Ghetto Uprising.Jewish Virtual Library, [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/sammern.html Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg] Source: Danny Dor (Ed.), "Brave and Desperate. Israel Ghetto Fighters", 2003, p. 166.] A veteran of World War I, Stroop had more recently been involved in operations against Soviet partisans in the Ukraine and was familiar with the latest techniques in counter-insurgency warfare.

One of Stroop's most historically prominent roles was the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and razing of the entire district, an action which cost the lives of around 50,000 people. As his forces were pushed back by heavy resistance, Stroop ordered the entire Ghetto burned down and blown up, building by building, and all of its inhabitants to be killed or deported to extermination camps. Afterwards, in an elaborately prepared report to Himmler, now referred to as "The Stroop Report", he boasted that "the Warsaw Ghetto is no more". This report would later be used as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials. In the report, Stroop recalled: "What a wonderful sight! I called out "Heil Hitler!" and pressed the button. A terrific explosion brought flames right up to the clouds. The colours were unbelievable. An unforgettable allegory of the triumph over Jewry." [ [http://www.freeman.org/m_online/may03/arens.htm Who Defended The Warsaw Ghetto?] ]

He was subsequently named the SS and Police Leader in Greece from September until November 1943. The local civilian administration found his methods and behaviour unacceptable and withdrew cooperation, forbidding the local Ordnungspolizei police to have anything to do with him, which made his position untenable. Consequently, he was removed and appointed SS and Police Leader in the Rhine area until the close of the war.

Trials and execution

After World War II he was put on trial by the American Military Tribunal at Dachau (put forward by the U.S. military) for the summary executions of an Allied airmen shot down over Germany in his field of command. On March 21, 1947, he was sentenced to death by the tribunal. However, that sentence was not carried out; instead, he was extradited to Poland to be tried by the Polish government.

Upon extradition to Poland, Stroop was again found guilty of war crimes. While in Mokotów Prison in Warsaw, awaiting trial, Stroop was placed in the same cell with Kazimierz Moczarski, political prisoner and former Polish resistance fighter jailed by the communist secret police. After his eventual release in 1956, Moczarski wrote a book about his time spent with Stroop, titled "Conversations with an Executioner" ("Rozmowy z katem").

On September 8, 1951 Stroop was executed in Warsaw on the scene of his war crime by the Polish authorities. [Israel Gutman, [http://books.google.ca/books?id=4P_kP4yKqy8C&pg=PA203&dq=Gross+Aktion&sig=ACfU3U3mZvd3T80t88uryViQMBJiOyMwZw#PPA203,M1 Resistance] Published by Houghton Mifflin.]

In popular culture

In the film "The Eagle Has Landed" (1976), Jürgen Stroop is portrayed by the German actor Joachim Hansen (the character is simply referred to as "Herr Gruppenführer" and not by Stroop's actual name, although in the source novel by Jack Higgins, Stroop's name is used).

In the 2001 film "Uprising", Stroop is depicted by the American actor Jon Voight.

In the 2006 Polish television film "Rozmowy z katem" (based on Moczarski's memories under the same title), Stroop is depicted by the Polish actor Piotr Fronczewski.

References

External links

* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Strooptoc.html Jurgen Stroop Table of Contents] (Jewish Virtual Library)