Fritz Maria Josef Dietrich (6 August 1898 – 22 October 1948) was an Austrian SS officer and member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. He held a doctoral degree in chemistry and physics. His name is also seen as Emil Dietrich. After the war, Dietrich was tried as a war criminal by the

Dachau Military Tribunal The Dachau trials, also known as the Dachau Military Tribunal, handled the prosecution of almost every war criminal captured in the U.S. military zones in Allied-occupied Germany and in Allied-occupied Austria, and the prosecutions of military ...

for ordering the killings of 7 American prisoners of war. He was found guilty of these murders and executed. It is now known that Dietrich was responsible for organizing the Liepāja massacres, in which over 5,000 Jewish men, women, and children were massacred by the Germans and Latvian collaborators. Lesser numbers of Roma, Communists, and mentally ill people were also killed.

Nazi war crimes

After school, Dietrich fought in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He then completed a degree in chemistry, which he completed with a doctorate. In 1930, Dietrich became involved in

. Dietrich joined the

in 1933, and the SS in 1936. In 1934, he played a leading role in the July Putsch. In 1941 Dietrich held the rank of SS-'' Obersturmbannführer''. From September 1941 to November 1943 he served as the local SS and police chief in

Liepāja Liepāja () (formerly: Libau) is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Courland region and the third-largest in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an ...

(''Libau'' in German),

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. Police units under his command carried out a number of massacres of civilians in Liepāja, for the most part of Jewish ethnicity. The largest of the Liepāja massacres took place over three days from December 15 to December 17, 1941. On December 13, the newspaper ''Kurzemes Vārds'' published an order by Dietrich which required all Jews in the city to remain in their residences on Monday, December 15 and December 16, 1941, thus facilitating the killing operations. From April 1944 to the end of the war, Dietrich was the police chief of

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

War crimes trial

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Dietrich was not prosecuted for his actions in Latvia, which were not known at the time. Instead, he was tried by an American military court for ordering the executions of seven downed American airmen who had parachuted from disabled airplanes. The men had been killed after surrendering. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. In 1948, Dietrich was hanged at

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a prison in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, after the ...

, coincidentally the same prison where

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

had been incarcerated for his involvement in the

Beer Hall Putsch The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch,Dan Moorhouse, ed schoolshistory.org.uk, accessed 2008-05-31.Known in German as the or was a failed coup d'état by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff and other leaders i ...

of 1923. The trials of Dietrich and others were known as the "Flyers Cases" and were part of what has since become known as the

Dachau Trials The Dachau trials, also known as the Dachau Military Tribunal, handled the prosecution of almost every war criminal captured in the U.S. military zones in Allied-occupied Germany and in Allied-occupied Austria, and the prosecutions of military ...

for war crimes. When asked if he had any last words, Dietrich showed a lack of remorse:

"In the conviction that my death for my passionately beloved fatherland, for which I worked and fought my entire life, will ultimately be of service, I go this last walk of sacrifice with a proud heart because I know that my sacrifice will contribute to fill the measure of suffering that has been imposed by a cruel victor over the German people without compelling reason."

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dietrich, Fritz 1898 births 1948 deaths People from Trentino People from the County of Tyrol Italian people of Austrian descent SS-Obersturmbannführer Police of Nazi Germany Austrian Nazis executed for war crimes Austrian police officers convicted of murder Austrian people executed abroad Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Nazis who participated in the July Putsch People of Generalbezirk Lettland Holocaust perpetrators in Latvia Romani genocide perpetrators Executed Austrian mass murderers Dachau trials executions Police officers executed for murder