Hermann Behrends

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Hermann Behrends (11 May 1907 in Rüstingen, Oldenburg – 4 December 1948 in Belgrade) was a Nazi Party and SS official, obtaining the rank of Brigadefuehrer in the latter organisation.[1]

Born the son of a provincial innkeeper, he was educated to doctorate level in law at Marburg University but struggled to find employment in an economically depressed Weimar Germany.[2] He joined the Nazi Party in January 1932 and the SS the following month.[3] With no military experience he initially floundered but soon attracted the attentions of Reinhard Heydrich, who valued academic expertise, and he was transferred to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD).[4]

Becoming a close friend of Heydrich, Behrends was the first chief of the SD in Berlin.[1] He also served as Chief of Staff to Werner Lorenz in his capacity as head of the Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VOMI).[5] During the Second World War he was sent to Yugoslavia to lead the regional arm of the VOMI.[1] His star had fallen somewhat after Heydrich's death as Heinrich Himmler was unimpressed by him, sensing that he was too ambitious.[4]

He was hanged in Belgrade in 4 December 1948.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Louis Leo Snyder, Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 1998, p. 21
  2. ↑ Valdis O. Lumans, Himmler's Auxiliaries: The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle and the German National Minorities of Europe, 1933-1945, UNC Press Books, 1993, p. 50
  3. ↑ Lumans, Himmler's Auxiliaries, p. 50-1
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lumans, Himmler's Auxiliaries, p. 51
  5. ↑ Lumans, Himmler's Auxiliaries, p. 45
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