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Dieter Wisliceny

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Dieter Wisliceny
Born
Dietrich Wisliceny

13 January 1911 (1911-01-13)
Died4 May 1948 (1948-05-05) (aged 37)
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
Criminal statusExecuted
Conviction(s)Crimes against humanity
Criminal penaltyDeath
Military career
Allegiance Nazi Germany
Service/branch Sturmabteilung
Schutzstaffel
Years of service1931–1945
RankSS-Hauptsturmführer
UnitSS-Totenkopfverbände
RelationsGünther-Eberhardt Wisliceny (brother)

Dietrich "Dieter" Wisliceny (13 January 1911 – 4 May 1948) was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the deputies of Adolf Eichmann, helping to organise and coordinate the wide scale deportations of the Jews across Europe during the Holocaust.

Life

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Dieter was born in 1911 as the son of the lord of the manor (Rittergut Regulowken) Erich Wisliceny (d. 1928) and his wife Wally, née Paul, in East Prussia. In 1919, after losing the estate, the family moved to Silesia.

After graduating from Gymnasium in Breslau, Wisliceny began studying theology in 1930 at the University of Breslau, but dropped out after one semester.

On 1 October 1931, Wisliceny became a member of the NSDAP and of a formation of the SA. In 1934, he switched from the SA to the SS and became a member of the SD. Wisliceny eventually rose to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (captain) in 1940; he worked in the Reich Security Head Office Referat IV B4 under Adolf Eichmann.[1]

During implementation of the Final Solution, his task was the ghettoization and liquidation of several important Jewish communities in Nazi-occupied Europe, including those of Greece, Hungary and Slovakia. Wisliceny also re-introduced the yellow star in occupied countries; the yellow star being used to distinguish Jews from non-Jews.

Wisliceny was an important witness at the Nuremberg trials. His testimony would later prove important in the successful prosecution of Eichmann for his complicity in the Holocaust in Israel in 1961.

Death

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Wisliceny was extradited to Czechoslovakia, where he was tried and hanged for war crimes in 1948.

Awards and decorations (excerpt)

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References

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  1. ^ Prof. Stuart Stein (1946). "Affidavit of Dieter Wisliceny". Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. VIII. United States Government Publishing Office: 606–619. Archived from the original on 2007-08-10. Dieter Wisliceny in his testimony given before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, 3 January 1946, erroneously identifies the Auschwitz concentration camp as the concentration area Sosnowitz (which was one of its dozens of subcamps).
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