Fritz Ritterbusch (January 11, 1894 – May 14, 1946) was an SS-Obersturmführer, a member of the crew of the Hinzert concentration camp, Lublin and Gross-Rosen and others. He was a commander of the Trautenau-Parschnitz camp.[1]
He was born in Zschakau (now Beilrode) near Torgau, Germany ,[2] a professional civil servant. He participated in World War I, serving in the 153rd and 264th Infantry Regiment. He was a member of the Sturmabteilung, NSDAP on January 25, 1925 (six card number 317) and SS from 1931 (Registration No. 9 107). From early 1940 to January 30, 1941 he held an unspecified role in the Division IV camp Flossenbürg KL, where then was transferred to the post of commander of one of the camp guard companies. The camp moved to the headquarters staff of Hinzert concentration camp, where he was adjutant to the commandant of the camp, Paul Sporrenberg. On June 18, 1943 he moved to KL Lublin. In early 1944, he was moved to KL Gross-Rosen where from May 1944 to February 13, 1945 he was company commander and the head of sub Parschnitz in Pozici and AL Trautenau in Trutnov in the Czech Republic.
He was arrested by Soviet forces on January 1, 1946. On March 25, 1946 he was sentenced to death by a Soviet Military Tribunal, a special form of a court-martial. On May 14, 1946, Ritterbusch was executed at an unknown place.[2][3]
In November 2002, his trial was revisited by the Main Military State's Attorney of Russia and the sentence was confirmed.[2]
Awards[]
References[]
- ↑ Guṭerman, Belah (2008). A Narrow Bridge to Life: Jewish Forced Labor and Survival in the Gross-Rosen Camp System, 1940-1945. Berghahn Series. Berghahn Books. pp. 112, 113, 132, 156. ISBN 9781845452063.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Communication of the German Red Cross from January 20, 2014, referring to information from the Russian Red Cross Society
- ↑ The information on his death in an NKVD special camp in 1947 given in: Geoffrey P. Megargee: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945: Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe Indiana University Press, 2009, p.777 ISBN 0253003504, cannot be traced to a valid source. The name Ritterbusch is not mentioned in the complete death list of the camp: Initiativgruppe Lager Mühlberg e. V. (eds.): Totenbuch – Speziallager Nr. 1 des sowjetischen NKWD, Mühlberg/Elbe. Mühlberg/Elbe 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-026999-8. Compare also the online version of the death list.
The original article can be found at Fritz Ritterbusch and the edit history here.