Hans Helwig
Encyclopedia
Hans Helwig was a German
Nazi Party politician, Schutzstaffel
general and Nazi concentration camp commandant. An early member of the Nazi movement he fulfilled a number of roles within Nazism down the years.
in an infantry regiment before leaving in early 1914 to work as a court clerk. Helwig was only a few months out of the army when World War I
broke out, prompting him to re-enlist. Returning to the same battalion Helwig saw action on both the Western
and Eastern Fronts
.
which was under French
occupation and was invaded and re-occupied
by France and Belgium
in 1923. An admirer of Adolf Hitler
from early, his beliefs caused him trouble professionally and he was suspended from his job following the Beer Hall putsch
, which he had been heard to praise at work. By this time Helwig was already officially a member of the Sturmabteilung
, havinig initially joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund
after the war.
Suspended from work, Helwig was able to devote more of his time to the SA and the Nazi Party. A founder of the local branch of the reorganised Nazi Party in 1925, he was elected a city councilman not long after. At the time in Baden Nazi politics were dominated by a personality clash between local strongmen Heinrich Himmler
and Robert Heinrich Wagner
, a struggle in which Helwig eventually sided with Himmler, leaving the SA for the SS in 192. Already 48 and generally considered to be of low intelligence it was unclear what use he could be to the SS but nonetheless he was received enthusiastically both due to his friendship with Himmler and the fact that he had put loyalty to the Nazi Party above his own finances by getting suspended from work due to his Nazism
.
from Himmler. In the July 1932 election he was returned as a delegate to the Reichstag
although there is no record of him accomplishing anything during his brief spell in the institution. In the meantime his old rival Wagner had re-established his control of Baden, Himmler having long since departed to serve as Reichsführer-SS
, and ensured that Helwig would not be a candidate in the November 1932 election, instead ensuring his demotion to the Landtag der Republik Baden, a body that was abolished following the Nazi takeover.
prison, a role that he did not last long in due to the mentally taxing nature of the work. Following a nervous breakdown
he retired from SS duty but was dismayed to find his pension only stretched to 202 Marks a month. Helwig recovered from his health issues rapidly and sought to return to the SS. He was readmitted reluctantly, largely on the basis of his long service (which entitled him to the Golden Nazi Party Badge) and loyalty.
By this time it was unclear what role Helwig could possibly fill in the SS and a superior officer had written a personal letter to Himmler to this effect. Within the letter it was suggested that his prison experience might make it possible for him to command a concentration camp and Himmler acted on this suggestion, and made him commandant of the women's camp at Lichtenburg
. In July 1937 he succeeded Karl Otto Koch
as commandant of Sachsenhausen concentration camp
and was soon being put forward as a candidate for promotion by Theodor Eicke
, who had initially been reluctant to have Helwig as one of his men. However Helwig did blot his copybook when it was discovered that he boasted of his atrocities at Sachsenhausen to a group of non-Germans after getting drunk in a bar, breaking protocol about keeping concentration camp activities quiet. Indeed, as was the case for all of the commandants at Sachsenhausen, Helwig's command was noted for its viciousness.
Helwig lost his position the following year over a somewhat pedantic clash between the SS hierarchy and Justice Minister Franz Gürtner
over a failure to obey protocol. An inmate of Sachsenhausen, Johannes Winiarz, was given a forced vasectomy
at the camp but it emerged that the operation had not been approved by a judge and Winiarz had had no chance to appeal, both of which were laid down as essential in such cases. Himmler put the blame on Eicke who in turn argued that it had been Helwig who had mixedup the orders, having become confused by a sudden influx of new prisoners at the time. Eicke told Himmler that the 57 year old Helwig was "totally decrepit ... both mentally and physically" and recommended he be removed as commandant. He was replaced by Hermann Baranowski
soon afterwards.
that suited his talents. Based on the Eastern Front
, he oversaw the building of a fuel camp that also doubled as a place to hold Soviet
prisoners of war. The veteran, who by this time was a Brigadeführer
in the SS despite having previously been described by Eicke as not officer material, finished the war as the liaison officer between the northern command of the Wehrmacht
and Himmler's HQ.
Helwig, who remained an active member of his local Protestant
church in Hemsbach throughout his SS career despite the faith being officially discouraged, died in his hometown in 1952 before any legal proceedings could be brought against him.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Nazi Party politician, Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
general and Nazi concentration camp commandant. An early member of the Nazi movement he fulfilled a number of roles within Nazism down the years.
Military service
The son of a forest ranger and the youngest of 15 children Helwig apprenticed as a bricklayer in his home viallge of Hemsbach. Discontented with life a bricklayer the 19 year-old Helwig enlisted in the German Imperial Army. He rose to the rank of master sergeantMaster Sergeant
A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-Israel Defense Forces:Rav samal rishoninsignia IDF...
in an infantry regiment before leaving in early 1914 to work as a court clerk. Helwig was only a few months out of the army when World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out, prompting him to re-enlist. Returning to the same battalion Helwig saw action on both the Western
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
and Eastern Fronts
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
.
Joining the Nazi Party
Helwig returned to his post with the court before eventually moving on to a role as a minor official at the German Ministry of Justice. Although his personal position was largely untouched, Helwig nonetheless became deeply resentful of the situation in his native BadenBaden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
which was under French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
occupation and was invaded and re-occupied
Occupation of the Ruhr
The Occupation of the Ruhr between 1923 and 1925, by troops from France and Belgium, was a response to the failure of the German Weimar Republic under Chancellor Cuno to pay reparations in the aftermath of World War I.-Background:...
by France and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
in 1923. An admirer of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
from early, his beliefs caused him trouble professionally and he was suspended from his job following the Beer Hall putsch
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...
, which he had been heard to praise at work. By this time Helwig was already officially a member of the Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
, havinig initially joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund
Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund
The Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund was the largest, most active, and most influential anti-Semitic federation in Germany after the first World War, and one of the largest and most important organization of the German völkisch movement during the Weimar Republic, whose...
after the war.
Suspended from work, Helwig was able to devote more of his time to the SA and the Nazi Party. A founder of the local branch of the reorganised Nazi Party in 1925, he was elected a city councilman not long after. At the time in Baden Nazi politics were dominated by a personality clash between local strongmen Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
and Robert Heinrich Wagner
Robert Heinrich Wagner
Robert Heinrich Wagner was Gauleiter of Baden and Head of the Civil Government of Alsace during the German occupation of France in World War II....
, a struggle in which Helwig eventually sided with Himmler, leaving the SA for the SS in 192. Already 48 and generally considered to be of low intelligence it was unclear what use he could be to the SS but nonetheless he was received enthusiastically both due to his friendship with Himmler and the fact that he had put loyalty to the Nazi Party above his own finances by getting suspended from work due to his Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Political career
Helwig initially followed a career in Nazi politics, following a personal endorsement to Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
from Himmler. In the July 1932 election he was returned as a delegate to the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
although there is no record of him accomplishing anything during his brief spell in the institution. In the meantime his old rival Wagner had re-established his control of Baden, Himmler having long since departed to serve as Reichsführer-SS
Reichsführer-SS
was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...
, and ensured that Helwig would not be a candidate in the November 1932 election, instead ensuring his demotion to the Landtag der Republik Baden, a body that was abolished following the Nazi takeover.
Camp commandant
On account of his long military service he initially served the SS as voluntary commander of a battalion and then a regiment. Following the Nazi takeover he was then appointed governor of BruchsalBruchsal
Bruchsal is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany...
prison, a role that he did not last long in due to the mentally taxing nature of the work. Following a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
he retired from SS duty but was dismayed to find his pension only stretched to 202 Marks a month. Helwig recovered from his health issues rapidly and sought to return to the SS. He was readmitted reluctantly, largely on the basis of his long service (which entitled him to the Golden Nazi Party Badge) and loyalty.
By this time it was unclear what role Helwig could possibly fill in the SS and a superior officer had written a personal letter to Himmler to this effect. Within the letter it was suggested that his prison experience might make it possible for him to command a concentration camp and Himmler acted on this suggestion, and made him commandant of the women's camp at Lichtenburg
Lichtenburg (concentration camp)
Lichtenburg was a Nazi concentration camp, housed in a Renaissance castle in Prettin, near Wittenberg in eastern Germany. Along with Sachsenburg, it was among the first to be built by the Nazis, and was operated by the SS from 1933 to 1939. It held as many as 2000 male prisoners from 1933 to 1937...
. In July 1937 he succeeded Karl Otto Koch
Karl Otto Koch
Karl-Otto Koch , a Standartenführer in the German Schutzstaffel , was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, and later also served as a commander at the Majdanek concentration camp.-Early life:Koch was born in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse on...
as commandant of Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
and was soon being put forward as a candidate for promotion by Theodor Eicke
Theodor Eicke
Theodor Eicke was a SS Obergruppenführer , commander of the SS-Division Totenkopf of the Waffen-SS and one of the key figures in the establishment of concentration camps in Nazi Germany. His Nazi Party number was 114,901 and his SS number was 2,921...
, who had initially been reluctant to have Helwig as one of his men. However Helwig did blot his copybook when it was discovered that he boasted of his atrocities at Sachsenhausen to a group of non-Germans after getting drunk in a bar, breaking protocol about keeping concentration camp activities quiet. Indeed, as was the case for all of the commandants at Sachsenhausen, Helwig's command was noted for its viciousness.
Helwig lost his position the following year over a somewhat pedantic clash between the SS hierarchy and Justice Minister Franz Gürtner
Franz Gürtner
Franz Gürtner was a German Minister of Justice in Adolf Hitler's cabinet, responsible for coordinating jurisprudence in the Third Reich. Detesting the cruel ways of the Gestapo and SA in dealing with prisoners of war, he protested unsuccessfully to Hitler, nevertheless staying on in the cabinet,...
over a failure to obey protocol. An inmate of Sachsenhausen, Johannes Winiarz, was given a forced vasectomy
Vasectomy
Vasectomy is a surgical procedure for male sterilization and/or permanent birth control. During the procedure, the vasa deferentia of a man are severed, and then tied/sealed in a manner such to prevent sperm from entering into the seminal stream...
at the camp but it emerged that the operation had not been approved by a judge and Winiarz had had no chance to appeal, both of which were laid down as essential in such cases. Himmler put the blame on Eicke who in turn argued that it had been Helwig who had mixedup the orders, having become confused by a sudden influx of new prisoners at the time. Eicke told Himmler that the 57 year old Helwig was "totally decrepit ... both mentally and physically" and recommended he be removed as commandant. He was replaced by Hermann Baranowski
Hermann Baranowski
Hermann Baranowski was a German politician and military figure. A member of the Nazi Party, he is best known as the commandant of two German concentration camps of the SS Death's Head unit. He was the commandant of Dachau concentration camp in 1938...
soon afterwards.
Later years
Helwig appealed to be allowed to continue but neither Eicke nor Himmler would be moved. Given a 5000 Mark severance in order to convince him to leave he returned to Hemsbach. His standing as a party loyalist ensured that the SS continued to help him find employment and after a few failed attempts he found a role in the Organisation TodtOrganisation Todt
The Todt Organisation, was a Third Reich civil and military engineering group in Germany named after its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi figure...
that suited his talents. Based on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, he oversaw the building of a fuel camp that also doubled as a place to hold Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
prisoners of war. The veteran, who by this time was a Brigadeführer
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....
in the SS despite having previously been described by Eicke as not officer material, finished the war as the liaison officer between the northern command of the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
and Himmler's HQ.
Helwig, who remained an active member of his local Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
church in Hemsbach throughout his SS career despite the faith being officially discouraged, died in his hometown in 1952 before any legal proceedings could be brought against him.