The SS general who commanded the repression of the Warsaw Uprising
In a report during the Warsaw Uprising, Reinefarth wrote: “We have more prisoners than ammunition to kill them.”
Heinz Reinefarth was a lawyer who joined the Nazi Party and the SS before becoming a commander in Germany's occupation war. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, he led a battle group combining combat, police, and security units, playing a central role in the command structure of the 5 August assault on Wola and the mass killing of civilians. Despite Polish demands for his extradition, he escaped prosecution and conviction after the war and served as a mayor and state legislator in West Germany. His career links command responsibility for war crimes with postwar impunity in a single life.
Also known as: Heinrich-Friedrich Reinefarth
Activities and affiliations
- 1944 Military command
- 1932–1945 Military command · Nazi party and regime
Career Timeline
- 1927Completed his law training in Jena and began working in the legal profession.
- 1932Joined the Nazi Party and the SS.
- 1942Served as SS general inspector of civil administration in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
- 1944Became Higher SS and Police Leader in Wartheland.
- 1944.08Commanded Kampfgruppe Reinefarth in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising.
- 1945Commanded the fortress of Küstrin and was captured by U.S. forces.
- 1951–1964Served as mayor of Westerland.
- 1962–1967Served in the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag.
Related historical events
From Nazi movement lawyer to the SS
After completing his law studies at Jena in 1927, Reinefarth entered the legal profession; in August 1932 he joined the Nazi Party and at the end of that year entered the SS. In this period he appeared as defence counsel in numerous trials on behalf of Nazis and SS men. In one notable case, the August 1932 bombing by SS members of "Jüdische Landarbeit", an agricultural training project for Jewish youths at Groß Gaglow, he acted for the SS side. This work brought him to the attention of Kurt Daluege, then leader of SS-Abschnitt Ost and later chief of the Order Police, who induced him to transfer into the SS and became his most important patron. He also held honorary posts as head of the Nazi Party's district legal office, legal adviser in SS-Abschnitt XII, and district group leader of the Nazi lawyers' association (NSRB). In June 1936, connections among senior Nazis helped him obtain a notary's office that had been vacated by displacing its Jewish holder, passing over a better-qualified applicant. He repeatedly declined offers of full-time SS work, since the pay there was considerably lower than the income from his thriving law practice.