Figure 1.--This is the family of SS Oberabschnittsleiter and Reichsfrauenführerin Gertrud Scholtz-Klink with their children. A good NAZI family had numerous children. The portrait is undated, but would have been take in the late-1930s or early 40s. |
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August Heissmeyer was a a decorated World War I soldier and an early recruit to the NAZI Party and became a general in the Waffen-SS. His wife, Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, was an eminent NAZI herself--the "Reich Women's Leader" ("Reichsfrauenführerin"). They were the perfect NAZI family. There were 10 children, including children from earlier marriages. We do not know a great deal about the children. A photograph shows the older boys dressedin the uniform of one of the NAZI Party boarding accademies. The girls and youngest boy are all dressed in brighly colored tracht. A nephew was a SS doctor who planned and crried out medical expeiments on children at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hamburg. Both were tried as war criminals. It is these family photographs of ardent NAZIs surrounded by their adoring children thatare perhaps the World War II images that are most difficult to understand.
August Heissmeyer after school joined the Prussian Army just before World War I. He served as a young officer in the War. He was decorated several times, receiving the Iron Cross, First Class. After the War he went back to school, but did not ger very far. He got a job as a driving teacher. Like many veterans not able to succeed economically, he was drawn to right-wing parties. He joined the NAZIs (1925). The following year he joined the SA andcbecame an active member (1926). He became a successfil organizer, greatly expanding the SA-Gausturm Hannover-Süd, and served as acting Gauleiter. He decided to switch to the SS (1930). He gained a position at the main SS office in Berlin (1932), His work met with Himler's approval and was rapidly promoted. He was appointed Head of the SS Main Office (1935). This made him an important figure in the SS
leadership. He took the administrative burden off Himmler who had served as Office Head. Heissmeyer was appointed SS Obergruppenführer and Inspector of the National Political Institutes of Education (NPEA) (1936).
More promotions followed. Heissmeyer was next appointed SS Oberabschnittsleiter "East" (1939). After the outbreak of War he was appointed Higher SS and Police Leader Spree. This placed him in command of policec forces in the Berlin-Brandenburg area.
Heissmeyer now had considerable authority. He established the "Dienststelle SS-Obergruppenführer Heissmeyer"--essentially his own bureau. He was responsible for NPEA students' military training. This was the NAZI Party schools that two of his boys attended.
Heissmeyer took over the General Inspection of the Strengthened SS Totenkopf Standard (1940) when the former director Theodor Eicke afterv taking command of a front line division was unable to effectively supervise the concentration camps.
Heissmeyer temprarily took over this responsibility (until May 1942). SS Gruppenführer Richard Glücks assumedcthis position.
AS the NAZI REich began to collaopse, Heissmeyer was given the rank of General of the Waffen-SS (November 1944). His major combat command came in the defense of Berlin as the Soviets prepared to storm the city (April 1945). He commanded Battle Group Heissmeyer. It was hardly aaffen-SS formation. It was mostly Volkssturm and Hitlerjugend boys given the impossible task of protecting the Spandau airfield.
Gertrud Scholtz-Klink married a postal worker only 18 years of age. They had six children before he died.
While being fully envolved at home with young children, she became politically active. Dhe joined the NAZI Party. She proved a talented promoter and orator and was appoined leader of the women's section in Baden (1929).
In that post she impressed Hitler. After the NAZIs seized power, he appointed her Reich Women's Leader and head of the Nazi Women's League--the "Reich Women's Leader" ("Reichsfrauenführerin").
(1933). Her primary task was to promote the NAZI view of women and family. This was essentially that women's primary resoponsibility was to support their husbands in the home and bear children. In one of her more notable addresses she insisted that "the mission of woman is to minister in the home and in her profession to the needs of life from the first to last moment of man's existence."
Hitler next appointed her head of the Women's Bureau in the German Labour Front. She became the mpst prominant female face in Germany. As the country moved toward War,
Scholtz-Klink she insisted that "the German woman must work and work, physically and mentally she must renounce luxury and pleasure." (1938). She strongly promoted women's efforts to support the War effort.
After the War Scholtz-Klink successfully his. The French police finally found her (1948). She was sentenced by a French military court to an 18-month prison term.
They were the perfect NAZI family. There were 10 children, including children from earlier marriages. One aspect of being a good NAZI family was having lots of children. We do not know a great deal about the children. They were apparentlyb mostly the children of Scholtz-Klink's previous marriages.
A photograph shows the older boys dressedin the uniform of one of the NAZI Party boarding accademies. The girls and youngest boy are all dressed in brighly colored tracht. The girls of course had braids. We do not know yet what happened to the children during the War.
A nephew was Kurt Heissmeyer, a SS doctor who planned and crried out medical expeiments on Jewish children at the Neuengamme Concentration Camp near Hamburg. He specifically requested Jewish children to complete the experiments he condicted on adults.
Heissmeyer assignment defending Spandau Airpory provided him the ability to escape capture by the Red Army. He escaped to the Western occupation zone. There the French arrested him after the War close to Tübingen (1948). He was tried and sentenced to 18 months inprisonment. He was released (1949) but rearrested (1950). In a trial before the de-Nazification appeals court sentencted tp 3 years as a "major Nazi offender" as well as forfeiture of property.
Kurt Heissmeyer were tried as war criminals. It is these family photographs of ardent NAZIs surrounded by their adoring children thatare perhaps the World War II images that are most difficult to understand.
After releasr from prison, Heissmeyer went to live in Schwäbisch Hall. He managed to obtain the position of director of the West German Coca-Cola bottling plant. He died at the age of 82 (1879).
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