Helmuth von Pannwitz

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Helmuth von Pannwitz bigraphy, stories - German general

Helmuth von Pannwitz : biography

14 October 1898 – 16 January 1947

Helmuth von Pannwitz (14 October 1898 – 16 January 1947) was a German general who distinguished himself as a cavalry officer during the First and the Second World Wars. Later he became Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht and Supreme Ataman of the XV. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps. He was executed in Moscow for war crimes in 1947 of which he has been rehabilitated by the military prosecutor in Moscow in April 1996 almost fifty years after his violent death. But in June 2001 it came to an revocation of the same verdict.

World War II

On active service again in World War II, Pannwitz was awarded "bars" to his previous decorations and in August, 1941, was awarded the Knight’s Cross. He received the Oakleaves as a Colonel a year later, when he was in command of a battle group designed to cover the southern flank in the battle of Stalingrad, where he wiped out a Soviet cavalry brigade, a Soviet cavalry division, and an enemy infantry division.

Pannwitz was instrumental in establishing a Cossack volunteer force, the 1st Cossack Division, which was formed on 21 April 1943. The division fought battles against partisans in Ukraine and Belorussia, and was then moved to fight against partisans commanded by Tito in Yugoslavia. During punitive operations in Serbia and Croatia, the Cossack regiments under Pannwitz’s command committed a number of atrocities against the civilian population, including several mass rapes and routine summary executions. An order of General von Pannwitz dated October 20, 1943, made absolutely clear to all under his command that any crime of that kind would result in the death penalty.War diary 1st Cossack Division, National Archives Microcopy No T-315, Roll 2281, Washington 1965

At the award ceremony in Berlin when Pannwitz received the "Oak Leaves" for his Knight’s Cross on January 15, 1943, he told Hitler that the official Nazi policies which caused Slavs to be regarded as subhumans (Untermenschen) were totally wrong.Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.108,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8 The Cossack Division became the XV Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps within the German Wehrmacht in February 1945.

Because of the respect and understanding he always showed for his troops and his tendency to attend Russian Orthodox services with them, Pannwitz was very popular with his Cossack volunteers. Before the end of the war, he was elected Feldataman, the highest rank in the Cossack hierarchy and one that was traditionally reserved for the Tsar alone.Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.164,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8

From February, 1945, the Corps was placed under Waffen-SS administration for replacements and supplies, but without making the Cossack units a part of the Waffen-SS.Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.145,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8Rolf Michaelis: Die Waffen-SS. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 36

Execution

Pannwitz was executed in Moscow on January 16, 1947, having been convicted by a Soviet court of war crimes in Yugoslavia.

Aftermath

Pannwitz surrendered on May 11, 1945, to British forces near Völkermarkt in Carinthia, Austria, and made every effort to ensure that his men would remain in the custody of the Western powers. But by mid-May it was becoming obvious that the Cossacks would be handed over to their deadly enemies, the SMERSH, an action often referred to as The Betrayal of Cossacks. The same fate overtook the members of the Kazachi Stan at Lienz, another 30,000 old folk, women, and children. All were executed, were sent to GULAG prison camps, or committed suicide to avoid being repatriated.

Pannwitz was a German national, and under the provision of the Geneva Convention not subject to repatriation to the SMERSH. But on May 26, he was deprived of his command and placed under arrest while the forceable loading of the Cossacks into trucks began and continued through the following days. Although many escaped from their camps following these actions, General von Pannwitz and many of his German officer cadre did not want to leave their men alone and shared the uncertain fate of the Cossacks who had been comrades in combat for more than two years, so these Germans surrendered with the Cossacks to the NKVD at Judenburg.