by Cindy K. Stewart
On July 26, 1942, an unusual confrontation took place between German Wehrmacht officers and SS troops in the city of Przemysl in southern Poland.
General Curt L. Freiherr von Gienanth, district commander of the Wehrmacht (regular German troops) had just appointed Major Max Liedtke to command the German garrison in Przemysl. Liedtke was the son of a Lutheran pastor and was opposed to the Nazis and their treatment of the Jews. He’d served in the German army during WWI but later, in civilian life, had lost his post as editor-in-chief of a daily German newspaper and was blacklisted because of his stand against the Nazis. In spite of this, in 1939, he was recalled to serve as a major in the Wehrmacht. Liedtke had most recently served in Greece.
At
Przemysl, Major Liedtke promoted the humane treatment of Jews. General von
Gienanth supported Liedtke’s position and had also put four thousand Jews from
Przemysl to work in local armament factories, which protected them and their
families from the SS.
Major
Liedtke ordered Battel to take Wehrmacht troops, break into the Jewish ghetto,
load the Jewish workers and their families onto trucks, and bring them to the
Wehrmacht garrison for protection. Battel succeeded in moving more than one
hundred families before new orders came in from headquarters. General von
Gienanth had argued with the high command that the Jews were needed for war
labor, but Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler overruled him.
SS troops arrived at the Przemysl Ghetto the next day and deported more than fourteen thousand Jewish men, women, and children to death camps. Eventually the Jews at the Wehrmacht garrison were shipped to death camps as well.
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Przemysl, Poland. Courtesy of Author Ferdziu and Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons |
Poland
became a killing ground for both Jewish and non-Jewish citizens during WWII,
but the Germans especially targeted Poland’s three million Jews. Those who
weren’t immediately shot during the German invasion in 1939 were relocated from
the countryside and placed in dozens of ghettos in cities all over Poland.
Gradually the SS death squads emptied the ghettos by deporting the residents to
death camps or by shooting them on the spot.
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Curt von Gienanth on the far right. Bundesarchiv, picture 121-0272 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 Courtesy of Wikipedia. |
On July 26, 1942, an unusual confrontation took place between German Wehrmacht officers and SS troops in the city of Przemysl in southern Poland.
General Curt L. Freiherr von Gienanth, district commander of the Wehrmacht (regular German troops) had just appointed Major Max Liedtke to command the German garrison in Przemysl. Liedtke was the son of a Lutheran pastor and was opposed to the Nazis and their treatment of the Jews. He’d served in the German army during WWI but later, in civilian life, had lost his post as editor-in-chief of a daily German newspaper and was blacklisted because of his stand against the Nazis. In spite of this, in 1939, he was recalled to serve as a major in the Wehrmacht. Liedtke had most recently served in Greece.
![]() |
Major Max Liedtke Courtesy of Wikipedia |
Liedtke’s
adjutant, Oberleutnant Albert Battel, also despised the Nazi persecution of
Jews. Battel was a middle-aged attorney and veteran of WWI who’d been
reprimanded by the Nazis for befriending Jews and for treating the Jewish
leaders of the Przemysl ghetto with respect. On July 26, 1942, Battel informed
Liedtke that a large death squad of SS troops was approaching the bridge over
the San River for the purpose of rounding up Jews.
Liedtke
and Battel devised a plan to delay the SS long enough to rescue the Jewish
workers and their families and to obtain General von Gienanth’s support. Liedtke
hoped that "the general would agree that the Wehrmacht should not cooperate
with SS death squads." Under
Liedtke’s orders, Battel sent Wehrmacht troops to the bridge, erected
barricades, mounted heavy machine guns, and put a tough army sergeant major in
command.
Truckloads
of SS troops arrived at the bridge and were brought to a halt. After their
commanding officer was told that no traffic would be admitted because the city
was under a military emergency, he protested and ordered that the barricade be
removed, but the sergeant major stood firm. He informed the SS officer, that he
would order his troops to fire on anyone attempting to break through the
roadblock. The SS left.
![]() |
Heinrich Himmler. Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S72707 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 Courtesy of Wikipedia. |
Himmler’s response was
ominous. "'I have ordered that ruthless steps be taken against all those who
think that they can use the interest of war industry to cloak their real
intentions to protect the Jews.'"
SS troops arrived at the Przemysl Ghetto the next day and deported more than fourteen thousand Jewish men, women, and children to death camps. Eventually the Jews at the Wehrmacht garrison were shipped to death camps as well.
General
von Gienanth was forced to retire, Oberleutnant Albert Battel was discharged
from the Wehrmacht and drafted into the German homeguard, the Volkssturm. Major
Liedtke was sent to the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union. He was captured in
1944, declared a war criminal, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in a
Soviet labor camp. The stand taken by these officers is the only known time that German regular army
troops stood down SS troops to protect the Jews.
******
Source: Gragg, Rod. My Brother's Keeper. Center Street, 2016.
******
Cindy Stewart, a high school social studies teacher, church pianist, and inspirational historical fiction author, semi-finaled in the American Christian Fiction Writer’s 2017 Genesis contest, and won ACFW’s 2014 First Impressions contest in the historical category. Cindy is passionate about revealing God’s handiwork in history. She resides in North Georgia with her college sweetheart and husband of thirty-seven years and near her married daughter, son-in-law, and four adorable grandchildren. She’s currently writing a fiction series set in WWII Europe.
Thank you for highlighting these brave men. They are an example we need right now!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Connie! I agree!
DeleteThank you for sharing this inspiring example of daring greatly in the face of enormous odds. I'm bookmarking this for future reference because it's exactly the sort of thing I need for a future book. thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi, MaryAnna! Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. I love to find stories about those who took a stand against evil during the war. They give us courage.
Deletehe was released after the war, did not die in a soviet camp, he died in Hattersheim am Main, Germany
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading my post and for leaving a comment. I cross-checked my research by consulting the Yad Vashem website. Max Liedtke died in a Soviet prison camp in the Ural Mountains in 1955. However, Albert Battel was captured and later released from Soviet custody and died in Hattersheim near Frankfurt. Here are the links to my research: 1) https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/battel.html
Delete2) https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4016118&ind=NaN
Shame this story of true courage is not more widely known. This is a movie waiting to be made.
ReplyDelete