The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen
The Nazi Jurist Turned Executioner: Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
12m
He began as a law graduate from Leipzig — and became one of the most ruthless SS commanders of the Holocaust. As head of the Gestapo and Security Police in occupied Poland, he led Einsatzgruppen death squads that massacred Jews, Polish elites, and professors in Lwów. A participant at the Wannsee Conference, he enforced the “Final Solution” with fanatic zeal. In 1944, he ordered the execution of captured U.S. pilot Americo S. Galle in the Netherlands. After the war, the British tried him for war crimes. Justice caught up with him at Hamelin Prison in 1946.
Up Next in Season 1
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Einsatzgruppe Killings in Yugoslavia ...
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Erwin Rösener: SS General Behind Brut...
April 1941. Nazi Germany invades Yugoslavia, crushing the country within days and dividing it among Axis powers. In occupied Slovenia, resistance grows—but every act of defiance is met with ruthless retaliation.
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SS General Behind Balkan Atrocities i...
August Schmidhuber was an SS commander whose forces spread terror across Yugoslavia during World War II. After Nazi Germany invaded the Balkans in 1941, he rose through the Waffen-SS and led units infamous for mass killings, village burnings, deportations, and anti-partisan reprisals.
As an offi...
