Letter from Fritz Katzmann (1906-1957)

Authors

Object ID

2015.2.169

Object Name

Letter

Date

1-3-1943

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Front: Tan paper with "Higher SS and Police Leader" letterhead in upper left corner, and typewritten message. Includes additional writing in pencil, as well as blue and red crayon, and date stamp in green.Back: Continuation of typewritten message, and signature in blue from Fritz Katzmann with his name printed in pencil beneath.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Typed letter signed by Katzmann on "Higher SS and Police Leader" letterhead. Danzig, January 3, 1943. Sent to Maximilian von Herff, Chief of SS Personnel Main Office. Katzmann reports on an SS-Standartfuhrer named Alfons Graf regarding the latter's promotion. Katzmann was an SS-Gruppenfuhrer and police leader who perpetrated genocide in Danzig, Lvov (Lemberg), and Galicia. He took part in the assassinations of the Night of the Long Knives. After the invasion of Poland, he established the Radom Ghetto. With the advent of Operation Barbarossa, he was transferred to Lvov, and was promoted to Brigadier General. He ordered the murder of approximately 60,000 Jewish men, women and children. In 1941, 80,000 Jews were relocated to the Ghetto he established in Lvov. A kindergarten had been set up for children who were all secretly murdered. In Galicia he ordered transports from Lvov to the Belzec extermination center. By the end of 1942, only 40,000 Jews remained in the Lvov Ghetto. In January 1943, another 15,000 Jews were murdered including members of the Judenrat. By the end of June 1943, after the liquidation of another 140,000 Jews and yet another promotion, Katzmann was able to declare that Galicia was Judenfrei. Transferred to Danzig, he was responsible for the liquidation of the Stutthof concentration camp and its sub-camps. After Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, Katzmann disappeared, escaping prosecution for his crimes and living until 1957 in Darmstadt, apparently without having communicated his existence to his wife and five children.

Dimensions

11 3/4 x 8 1/4"

Keywords

SS, Secret Police, Danzig, Lvov, Lamberg, Galicia, Night of the Long Knives, Radom, Ghetto, Belzec, Damstadt, Katzmann

Subcollection

Bullets

Recommended Citation

"Letter from Fritz Katzmann (1906-1957)" (1943). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.169.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/257