Fritz Freitag

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Fritz Freitag
Fritz Freitag mit Ritterkreuz.JPG
Birth date 28 April 1894
Place of birth Allenstein, Province of East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Death date 10 May 1945 (aged 51)
Place of death Federal State (Land) Salzburg, Allied-occupied Germany
Place of burial Cemetery of the Catholic branch church of Saint Andrew in Sankt Andrä im Lungau
Allegiance  German Empire
 Weimar Republic
 National Socialist Germany
Service/branch War and service flag of Prussia (1895–1918).png Prussian Army
Iron Cross of the Luftstreitkräfte.png Imperial German Army
Freikorps Flag.jpg Freikorps
Polizei in der Weimarer Republik.jpg Police
Flag Schutzstaffel.png SS
Years of service 1914
1914–1918
1919
1920–1940
1940–1945
Rank SS-Brigadeführer
Service number NSDAP #3,052,501
SS rune.png #393,266
Commands held 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian)
Battles/wars World War I
World War II
Awards Iron Cross
House Order of Hohenzollern
German Cross in Gold
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Relations ∞ 16 June 1920 Helene de la Chaux

Fritz Freitag (1894–1945) was a German soldier of the Prussian Army as well as officer the Imperial German Army, the Freikorps, the Police and the Waffen-SS, finally SS-Brigadeführer, Generalmajor der Polizei and Generalmajor der Waffen-SS and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II.

Life

SS-Oberführer Fritz Freitag (left) with Ukrainian translator Waffen-Hauptsturmführer der SS Dmytro Palijiw (Paliiv/Paliyev;[1] b. 17 May 1896; ⚔ 20 July 1944) at a swearing-in ceremony for Ukrainian soldiers who finished their military training.
Grave

Freitag was the son of a mid-level railway official (Eisenbahn-Obersekretär). He finished his school career in his hometown with a Abitur, began studying medicine and natural sciences and then started his mandatory military service with the Prussian Army on 1 April 1914 as a one-year volunteer (Einjährig-Freiwilliger) with the Grenadier-Regiment „Kronprinz“ (1. Ostpreußisches) Nr. 1, not knowing, war was near. Freitag belonged to this regiment throughout the First World War. He was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant of the reserves in 1915 and was wounded four times until 1918.

In 1919, he joined the Freikorps (Ostpreußisches Jägerkorps Gieseler) and served until April 1919. He then returned to university for his studies. Because of lack of finances for further studies and his wish to marry, he joined the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei) on 3 February 1920. From 1936, he taught tactics at the police officer school in Berlin-Köpenick and became deputy commander there in 1938. Freitag took part in the Poland Campaign as Chief of Operations (Ia) of the Police Regiment 3. At the beginning of October 1939, he became Chief of Staff of the police group under the command of Udo von Woyrsch. In 1940, he returned to the police academy and was appointed commander of the police officer school in Fürstenfeldbruck (Bavaria).

On 9 May 1941, he was appointed Chief of Operations (Ia) of the Commando Staff of the Reichsführer SS (Kommandostab „RFSS“), at the same time, he was head of the (1st) command department (Führungsabteilung). He was granted leave on 19 June 1941. In August 1941, he was appointed Chief of Operations (Ia) of the 1st SS Brigade. On 15 December 1941, he was appointed commander of the Polizei-Schützen-Regiment 2 (until 4 January 1943), with brutal fight, especially in the Volkhov pocket. From 15 February to 19 April 1943, he commanded the 8th SS Cavalry Division “Florian Geyer” and from 25 August to 26 October 1943 the Kampfgruppe of the 4th SS Police Panzergrenadier Division. On 20 October 1943, he was appointed commander of the 14th SS Volunteer Division “Galicia”, which would be renamed four more times. On 8 May 1945, the division surrendered to British troops near Tamsweg and Judenburg.

Knight's Cross recommendation

SS-Brigadeführer Freitag has demonstrated exemplary personal readiness for duty amidst singularly difficult combat conditions during the command of his division in the Brody pocket. At this time, his division did not consist of German soldiers that were ready to perform their duties to the utmost. Instead they were Ukrainians from Galicia, who were internally soft and fickle, and deprived of all manly and soldierly German virtues. In maintaining command and control of these men (who were unaccustomed to war and lacking steadfastness) during the execution of difficult orders, specifically during the combat in the Brody pocket, their responsible leader brought about high and exceptional achievements. Deployed at the decisive location of the fighting in the pocket starting on the 12 July 1944 due to the circumstances thrust upon it, the division’s first impressions of the fighting came from fleeing German elements. When the reinforced Grenadier-Regiment 30 threatened to be swept away by this retreat movement, the divisional commander and the regimental commander were able to firm up their troops across their assigned sector and thereby prevent the breakthrough that threatened to take place.
In the further course of the battle, numerous volunteers from the division were led to flee on account of their ingrained cowardice, and some even took up arms against their own officers and NCOs. Once again, it was largely the divisional commander who restored the situation through his ruthless actions all over his sector, a time in which he carried out the necessary brutal measures against every weakling. Under the hardest of conditions, the division managed to complete its assigned mission up to the 19 July 1944. This was achieved with Ukrainians no less, who were, with few exceptions, not fighting men due to their inner weakness. They were supported only by a minimal number of German personnel. The fact that the Division was able to notch up this success even when deployed at the focal point of the battle is solely thanks to the merits of its German officers, of which the divisional commander was the most important. He influenced the fighting where it was most critical through his ruthless devotion to duty. The tragedy of the division was that, despite the exemplary behaviour of its divisional commander, it was unable to bring about a decisive victory in battle.
After the shattering of the division in the Brody pocket the divisional commander joined the side of the commander of the rearguard, Generalmajor Lindemann. After the latter died a heroes’ death as the last general in the pocket,[2] the divisional commander (himself wounded) took over all the remnants in the pocket and led them through the first encirclement ring with prudence and confidence. On the late afternoon of the 22 July 1944 the divisional commander assembled about 4000 men from all divisions of the XIII. Armee-Korps, and on his own initiative he moved out towards the southwest through the enemy’s rebuilt encirclement ring. In contrast to other Kampfgruppen [combat groups] that tried breaking out to the west and south and consequently fell victim to the bulk of the enemy near Zaskow and Przemyslany, he led his Kampfgruppe through the renewed encirclement to friendly territory despite the total exhaustion of his troops. SS-Brigadeführer Freitag has served on the frontline since the beginning of the war, and almost uninterruptedly on the Eastern Front starting from the end of 1941. He has distinguished himself as a leader of men as a regimental and Divisions-Kampfgruppe commander on the middle sector of the Eastern front, near Volkhov and before Leningrad.

Death

General Fritz Freitag, after learning that he and others would be handed over to the NKVD and illegally extradited to the Soviet Union,[3] committed suicide on 10 May 1945, as most sources report. Some sources, like historian Thierry Tixier, state, it was on 20 May 1945.[4] The where is more complicated. Most sources claim in or near Graz, more likely it was in the American POW camp for SS rune.png personell in Hallein, south of Salzburg, 50 km north of Radstadt, where he was taken prisoner by the British on 8 May 1945. His body was secretly transported 110 km to the south an buried in Sankt Andrä im Lungau. This strange action leads to speculation that he was actually tortured to death during an interrogation and did not commit suicide.

Promotions

Gold Ring for Fritz Freitag from Reichsführer SS.jpg
  • 6.11.1915: Leutnant der Reserve (2nd Lieutenant of the Reserves)
  • 3.2.1920: Polizeileutnant (Police 2nd Lieutenant)
  • 20.7.1921: Polizeioberleutnant (Police 1st Lieutenant)
  • 24.12.1923: Polizeihauptmann (Police Captain) with effect from 1 December 1923
  • 1.7.1934: Major der Schutzpolizei / Schupo (Major of the Protection Police) with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 21 July 1934
  • 20.4.1939: Oberstleutnant der Schupo (Lieutenant Colonel of the Protection Police) with Rank Seniority (RDA) from 1 April 1939
  • 1.9.1940: SS-Mann (this simple rank was mandatory for the files, simultaneously being promoted to officer)
  • 1.9.1940: SS-Obersturmbannführer
  • 20.4.1942: SS-Standartenführer
  • 20.4.1943: SS-Standartenführer der Reserve of the Waffen-SS
  • 24.4.1943: Oberst der Schupo (Colonel of the Protection Police)
  • 6.8.1943: SS-Oberführer
  • 20.4.1944: SS-Brigadeführer, Generalmajor der Polizei and Generalmajor der Waffen-SS

Awards and decorations

Gallery

  • SS-Oberführer Freitag, 1943

  • SS-Brigadeführer Freitag inspecting his Ukrainian troops at the Neuhammer training area in Poland, April 1944

  • Heinrich Himmler reviews troops of the Galician SS-Volunteer Division on 3 June 1944, behind him commander Fritz Freitag.

References

  1. ↑ In honor of Dmytro Paliyev, commemorative plaques were installed in Lviv and Kalush. On 28 April 2023, in the city of Kalush, Chernyakhovsky Street was renamed "Dmytro Paliiv Street".
  2. ↑ Generalmajor Gerhard Lindemann, commander of the 361. Infanterie-Division, was thought fallen. Although wounded, he was captured by the Russians and was a POW until 7 October 1955.
  3. ↑ It is well known that the US Army in particular specifically searched for Waffen-SS officers in its war and internment camps. The US interrogation officers at the time consistently worked through their list material. In the first months after the end of the war, it was not only officers from the Waffen-SS who were handed over to the Red Army. There were also cases in which Wehrmacht officers were treated in the same way.
  4. ↑ Fritz Freitag
  5. ↑ Freitag, Fritz (Waffen SS)
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