Wilhelm Karl Johannes Rosenbaum (27 April 1915 – 4 April 1984) was a German SS officer who was involved in numerous murders and other

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

committed during

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 ...

at the

Sipo-SD Academy The Sipo-SD Academy was an SS training school established by former Einstatzgruppen '' SS-Brigadeführer'' Bruno Streckenbach designed to train students in various torture and execution methods as well as to provide continuing education to the sen ...

where he maintained a leadership role through a majority of its earlier years.

Family

Wilhelm Rosenbaum was born on 27 April 1915 in

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. His father, Peter Rosenbaum, was a municipal worker at the markets of

Alexanderplatz (, ''Alexander Square'') is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. The square is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander I, which also denotes the larger neighbourhood stretching from in the north-ea ...

. His biological mother died when he was just one year old. His father re-married, which resulted in a stepbrother named Wilhelm Franz. The second marriage was dissolved after about three years. In about 1917-18, his father married a third time. From this marriage comes another stepbrother, Kurt, who was born in 1919. He lives in Freyburg. Wilhelm's stepmother is said to have died on 4 April 1955, in a state of psychological confusion.

Service history

In November 1932, he joined the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

(Hitler Jugend) and in April of the following year, 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 ...

. In 1933 he joined the SS and worked as an SS Clerk and then by 1936, was made an

Unterscharführer ''Unterscharführer'' (, ) was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1934 and 1945. The SS rank was created after the Night of the Long Knives. That event caused an SS reorganisation and the creati ...

In 1939, he was promoted to Oberschaführer and sent to Opeln and Krakau as part of a Sipo contingent under the command of

Obersturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party ( NSDAP) which was used by the SA (''Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ' was juni ...

Otto Sens December 1939, he was commissioned

Untersturmführer (, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of '' Sturmführer'', which had existed since the founding of the SA in 192 ...

and sent to the SD Academy June 1941, Rosenbaum was ordered to join Karl Eberhard Schöngarth's

Einsatzkommando During World War II, the Nazi German ' were a sub-group of the ' (mobile killing squads) – up to 3,000 men total – usually composed of 500–1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to exterminate Jews, Polish intellect ...

In August 1943, he was transferred to

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

where he remained until April 1945 as the Russian troops were advancing on the city

After World War II

Rosenbaum worked on a farm as a transport manager in the eastern Zone, but after a few months moved to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

where he was worked various jobs such as an Insurance Agent, Private Detective and a Traveling Salesman. In 1949, he purchased a sweet shop in Hamburg, and then moved into the Wholesale Confectionery business where he had annual sales of approximately 1.3 million DM.

War Crimes

In 1961, Rosenbaum was arrested as a suspected war criminal. In 1968, he was found guilty of ordering mass executions of 159 Jews in the Cracow district and of having himself shot at least 10 persons, including children. The prosecution alleged that Rosenbaum ordered the shootings and hangings of Jews as his own "private affair" and not on the orders of superiors. Rosenbaum was sentenced to life in prison, but released in 1982 due to chronic

rheumatic disease Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including ar ...

. He died in 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenbaum, Wilhelm 1915 births 1984 deaths Einsatzgruppen personnel Hitler Youth members German murderers of children German police officers convicted of murder German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment People convicted of murder by Germany Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Germany Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Sturmabteilung personnel Nazis convicted of war crimes Deaths from vasculitis People with vasculitis