Wilhelm Harster
Wilhelm Harster | |
|---|---|
Harster in 1942 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 July 1904 Kelheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died | 25 December 1991 (aged 87) Munich, Germany |
| Alma mater | University of Munich |
| Occupation | Lawyer Civil servant |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Weimar Republic Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service | Freikorps Reichswehr Schutzstaffel German Army |
| Years of service | 1920–1926 1933–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei |
| Unit | Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) |
| Commands | Commander, SiPo and SD (Krakow, 1939; Netherlands, 1940–1943; Italy, 1943–1945) |
| Awards | German Cross in gold Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with swords |
| Criminal conviction | |
| Convictions | War crimes Crimes against humanity |
| Criminal penalty | 12 years imprisonment (1949) 15 years imprisonment (1967) |
Wilhelm Harster (21 July 1904 – 25 December 1991) was a German lawyer, police official and convicted war criminal. An SS-Gruppenführer in the Schutzstaffel (SS), he commanded German security police and intelligence services in Kraków, the Netherlands and northern Italy during the Second World War. A Holocaust perpetrator, he was convicted by a Dutch court and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. After an early release, he returned to Germany and was employed by the state government of Bavaria as a civil servant but was dismissed after a public outcry, though he retained his full pension. He was again tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years for complicity in the murder of 83,000 Dutch Jews.