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Walter Huppenkothen
BornDecember 31st, 1907
DiedApril 5, 1978
EducationOpladen Gymnasium, University of Cologne, University of Düsseldorf
Political partyNSDAP/Nazi Party

Walter Huppenkothen

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Dr. Walter Huppenkothen was an attorney and member of the Nazi Party who served multiple roles in the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Schutzstaffel (SS) (both of which were later incorporated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), led by Heinrich Himmler) in Nazi Germany.[1] [2] [3][4] He studied at a primary school (Gymnasium) in Opladen before attending the University of Cologne and University of Düsseldorf as a student of law.[5] He was born in Haan, in the Rhineland region of Germany, on December 31st, 1907 and died on April 5, 1978 in Lübeck, Germany. [5]

World War II

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Role in the Holocaust
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Walter Huppenkothen was involved in The Holocaust in various areas of Poland such as Lublin and Kraków,which were part of the Nazi-controlled Generalgouvernement at the time.[6] Huppenkothen worked as a liason with the 14th Army of the SD's Einsatzgruppen during his time as part of the Gestapo, the secret police force of Nazi Germany.[3] Huppenkothen also served as a State Police chief and the leader of the SD in Nazi-occupied Tilsit, now modern-day Sovetsk, Russia. He was replaced in October and November 1937, respectively, by fellow Gestapo member Dr. Heinz Gräfe, and was later appointed in 1941 as the head of the IV E Counterespionage Group of the RSHA.[7]

Canaris Trial
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Towards the end of the war, Huppenkothen served as prosecutor in the April 8, 1945 trial of a group of anti-Nazi resistance members and political prisoners at the Flossenbürg concentration camp. The prisoners were accused of making an assassination attempt by bombing on Adolf Hitler at his headquarters of Wolf's Lair, which killed four and wounded Hitler himself[3]. Among the accused were the Lutheran clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer and former head of the Abwehr (the military intelligence arm of Nazi Germany) Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.[8][9] The court's prosecution employed torture methods such as thumb screwing and mechanical stretching devices on the accused, who were subsequently sentenced to death after a brief trial and executed by hanging on April 9, 1945.[9][7] A commemorative plaque for the prisoners executed, as well as a statue of Bonhoeffer, exists at the former site of the concentration camp, now a memorial site. [10][11]

Post-War

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Collaboration with US Army Counterintelligence Corps

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Following the end of World War II, Huppenkothen was captured by American forces and collaborated with the US Army Counterintelligence Corps until he was released in 1949.[1][12] The Army's counterintelligence division took a particular interest in Huppenkothen's knowledge of Communism and his work as a Gestapo official in searching for members of the Communist resistance and espionage group, the Red Orchestra.[3][8]

Trials and Testimonies

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From 1949-1956, Walter Huppenkothen was tried multiple times for torture and murder in his April 8, 1945 prosecution.[13] For the charge(s) of murder, Huppenkothen was acquitted, but he was still sentenced to prison-time on charges of torture (sources conflict on the exact length of the sentence, but it is believed

to have ranged somewhere between 3.5-7 years), although the acquittal of his murder charge(s) has continued to arouse criticism in modern times.[1][12] [9][14] Huppenkothen also testified at the May 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, Israel, though his family reported that he was reluctant to do so.[15][16]

  1. ^ a b c Breitman, Richard; Goda, Norman J. W.; Naftali, Timothy; Wolfe, Robert (2005-04-04). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. Cambridge University Press. pp. 149, 299. ISBN 9780521617949.
  2. ^ Adams, Jefferson (2009). Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 0810863200.
  3. ^ a b c d Nelson, Anne (2009-04-07). Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitle r. Random House Publishing Group. pp. 300–304. ISBN 9781588367990.
  4. ^ "Rsha". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  5. ^ a b Ravensburg, Munzinger-Archiv GmbH,. "Walter Huppenkothen - Munzinger Biographie". www.munzinger.de (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Birn, Ruth (June 2011). "FIFTY YEARS AFTER: A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE EICHMANN TRIAL". Case Western Reserve Journal of Law. 1/2: 443.
  7. ^ a b Wildt, Michael (2009). An Uncompromising Generation: The Nazi Leadership of the Reich Main Security Office. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 219, 329–330. ISBN 0299234649.
  8. ^ a b Matthaus, Jurgen (September 2004). "U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis". American Jewish History: 1 – via Literature Resource Center.
  9. ^ a b c "Hitler's Advocate". Time 57. February 26, 1951. Retrieved 2018-04-26.
  10. ^ "KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg: Memory". www.gedenkstaette-flossenbuerg.de. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  11. ^ Purucker, Erwin. "Flossenbürg - KZ-Gedenkstätte". www.fotos-reiseberichte.de. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  12. ^ a b Sifton, Elisabeth; Stern, Fritz (2013). No Ordinary Men: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans Von Dohnanyi, Resisters Against Hitler in Church and State. New York Review of Books. pp. 115, 139. ISBN 9781590176818.
  13. ^ Steinweis, Alan E.; Rachlin, Robert D. (2013-03-30). The Law in Nazi Germany: Ideology, Opportunism, and the Perversion of Justice. Berghahn Books. p. 172. ISBN 9780857457813.
  14. ^ "Frode Weierud's CryptoCellar | Huppenkothen Message". cryptocellar.org. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
  15. ^ Bigart, Homer (May 9, 1961). "Huppenkothen Reluctant". New York Times. Retrieved 2018-05-02.
  16. ^ "Eichmann trial: Testimony taken abroad". www.nizkor.org. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
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