Christoph Diehm

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Christoph Diehm
Born1 March 1892
SS and Police Leader, "Shitomir;" "Lemberg;" "Kattowitz"
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
AwardsIron Cross, 1st and 2nd class
War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords

Christoph Diehm (1 March 1892 – 21 February 1960) was a German SS-

Second World War
.

Early life

Diehm, son of a farmer, was educated in

Stahlhelm, the army veterans' organization.[1]

Peacetime SA and SS career

Diehm joined the

SS-Oberführer.[2]

Diehm became the first commander of SS-Abschnitt (District) X, based in Stuttgart, from March 1932 to July 1933. In mid-July 1933, he was transferred to be the first commander of newly-established SS-Abschnitt XIX in Karlsruhe where he would remain until 15 March 1936. He was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer on 21 March 1934. When he left Karlsruhe in March 1936, he became the commander of the prestigious SS-Abschnitt I, based in Munich, the headquarters of the Nazi Party. He would remain there until 1 March 1939. He was next assigned to a staff position with SS-Oberabschnitt (Main District) "West," based in Düsseldorf.[3]

Becoming involved in politics, Diehm was elected as a Nazi member to the Landtag of Württemberg where he sat from 24 April 1932 to 20 November 1933. Then in November 1933, he was elected as a deputy to the national Reichstag from electoral constituency 32, Baden, where he would serve until the end of the Nazi regime.[4]

Second World War

Diehm had joined the

Second World War, he served with Infantry Regiment 61 in the Polish campaign. Following the conquest of Poland, he was made chief of police in Gotenhafen (today, Gdynia) from the end of September 1939 to October 1941. During his tenure there, the Intelligenzaktion Pommern took place in the surrounding area when thousands of Polish intellectuals and social elites were murdered by SS and police personnel. Diehm was next transferred to be the Police President of Saarbrücken and Metz until September 1943, attaining the rank of Generalmajor of Police on 1 April 1942.[1]

In September 1943, Diehm was transferred to the office of the Higher

Kattowitz" in Upper Silesia. In August and September, Diehm was charged with trying to expand the Kaminski Brigade into the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Russian National Liberation Army (1st Russian), but it was never fully operationalized and the effort was abandoned. From 16 September 1944 to 18 January 1945, Diehm served as the Acting HSSPF "Belgien-Nordfrankreich" while the permanent holder of that post, Friedrich Jeckeln, was still in Russia. Appointed a Generalmajor in the Waffen-SS on 9 November 1944, he served as a divisional commander. From January 1945 he also was the Inspector "Südwest" for the Volkssturm, the Nazi paramilitary militia.[6]

Postwar

Serving as a combat commander with the 6th Army, Diehm was taken prisoner by the Red Army on 8 May 1945 near

Holocaust in Poland.[7] However, he was kept in Soviet captivity for nine years until mid-January 1954. He then returned to Germany, where he lived for a short time in Zuffenhausen, then again with his family in Rottenacker until his death in 1960.[1]

Awards

Diehm earned the following awards and decorations:[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Yerger 1997, p. 152.
  2. ^ Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2000, p. 12.
  3. ^ Yerger 1997, pp. 118, 133, 150, 152.
  4. ^ Information about Christoph Diehm in the Reichstag database
  5. ^ Pohl 1997, p. 373.
  6. ^ Yerger 1997, pp. 48, 58, 66, 152.
  7. ^ Pohl 1997, p. 389.

Sources

  • Klee, Ernst (2007). Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag.
    ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
    .
  • Pohl, Dieter (1997). Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941–1944. Organisation und Durchführung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag.
    ISBN 3-486-56233-9. (full text digitally available, in German
    ).
  • Schiffer Publishing Ltd., ed. (2000). SS Officers List: SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer (As of 30 January 1942). Schiffer Military History Publishing.
    ISBN 0-7643-1061-5
    .
  • Yerger, Mark C. (1997). Allgemeine-SS: The Commands, Units and Leaders of the General SS. Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
    ISBN 0-7643-0145-4
    .

External links
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