Kurt Bruno Pompe (March 4, 1899 in Schmiedeberg,

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a historical and geographical region mostly located in Poland with small portions in the Czech Republic and Germany. It is the western part of the region of Silesia. Its largest city is Wrocław. The first ...

, German Empire – August 1, 1964 in Schweinfurt, West Germany) occupied important positions in several forced labor camps for Jews in

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

(German until 1945) during World War II, part of a network of over 160 camps run by an SS organization, Dienststelle Schmelt. The existence of this group of camps is largely unknown to the general public.

Military career

Pre World War II

Pompe was severely wounded at

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

(Belgium) close to the end of World War I on October 25, 1918. His left leg was amputated below the knee and fitted with a prothesis. In 1922 he and his family moved to the city of

Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (; ; ; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

World War II

In 1942, Pompe, who was often nicknamed "the limper," was feared by the inmates of Blechhammer (Upper Silesia), but nowhere else did he commit as many atrocities as at Brande (Upper Silesia), where he was the commander of the guards ("Wachhabender") from fall 1942 to August 1943. The German-Jewish camp physician Hans-Werner Wollenberg has written a harrowing account of Pompe's activities at this camp. Numerous interviews with survivors contain memories of the terrible conditions at Brande, for which Pompe bore a major responsibility. After the closure of Brande he commanded the guards in the women's section of the Blechhammer camp, and from November 1943 to April 1944, he was camp commander ("Lagerführer') at the Schmiedeberg forced labor camp, which was located near his city of birth in the village of Buschvorwerk. In both camps he terrorized the inmates and committed several murders.Hermann F. Weiss, Buschvorwerk im Riesengebirge. Eine Gemeinde in Niederschlesien von den Kriegsjahren bis zur Vertreibung. Herbolzheim, 2006. , pp. 176-187.

Post war life

In his de-Nazification application of April 23, 1946, he indicated that he was a member of

Organisation Todt Organisation Todt (OT; ) was a Civil engineering, civil and military engineering organisation in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior member of the Nazi Party. The organisation was responsible ...

and, from fall 1943, a member of Transportkorps Speer, with the rank of ''Obertruppführer''. He classified himself as innocent ("unbelastet") and continued to live under his real name. In 1951 Pompe moved from Höchberg near

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a town#Germany, city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding Schweinfurt (district), district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultur ...

where he was employed by Vereinigte Kugellager Fabriken AG as a laborer.Weiss: "Reichsautobahnlager ...". pp. 113-114. In the 1970s, a West German court became aware of some of Pompe's war-time deeds in the context of investigating members of Dienststelle Schmelt, but he was not identified until 2008.

References

Bibliography

* Hans-Werner Wollenberg, ... und der Alptraum wurde zum Alltag. Autobiographischer Brief eines jüdischen Arztes über NS-Zwangsarbeiterlager in Schlesien (1942–1945) Pfaffenweiler, 1992. , pp. 75–115. * Hermann F. Weiss, Buschvorwerk im Riesengebirge. Eine Gemeinde in Niederschlesien von den Kriegsjahren bis zur Vertreibung. Herbolzheim, 2006. , pp. 157–200. * Hermann F. Weiss: From Reichsautobahnlager to Schmelt Camp: Brande, a Forgotten Holocaust Site in Western Upper Silesia 1940–1943. In: Yad Vashem Studies., 39.2 (2011) ISSN 0084-3296, pp. 98–114 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pompe, Kurt 1899 births 1964 deaths People from Karkonosze County People from the Province of Silesia German Army personnel of World War I Nazi concentration camp commandants German amputees