Today I show you guys one of the new additions to my collection, the story isn’t a very uplifting but those that take the time to read the thread will no doubt find it interesting.
Before I start telling the story, I want to thank “Hambone” for the assistance in shipping this grouping from the USA to Belgium.
Egon Erzum (1906-1974) was born in Prikule (Latvia), he was one of the many ethnic Germans living in the Baltic states.
In 1925 he does his final exam at a local high school and become a civil servant for the ministry of the interior of Latvia, in 1928 he is drafted and joins an officers training program at the war academy, in 1930 he gets his officers commission as a lieutenant, in 1931 he is promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to the “Ordnungspolizei” in Riga, in 1936 he is promoted to the rank of captain and finally in 1938 he is promoted to the rank of major and becomes the police chief of the harbor police in Riga.
When WW2 breaks out in 1939 and Latvia is occupied by the Soviets Egon Erzum is one of the Baltic refugees in Germany, in 1940 we can pick up his story again with documented evidence and it is now that it starts to become interesting.
Egon Erzum fabricates a law degree, he falsely claims to have obtained a PhD from the university of Riga in 1932; with the aid of this fake law PhD he manages to get a job with the “Treuhandstelle Ost, nebenstelle Posen”, this Nazi organization is part of the four year plan lead by H.Göring and it is responsible to confiscate businesses and property of Poles and Jews that are expelled from those parts of Poland that are to be Germanized. Also now although he isn’t a member of the NSDAP he applies for membership of the SA.
In September 1940 he joins the German police force in Posen and after a four week work in period he becomes the local police chief; in February 1941 he is assigned to the police force of Wüppertal but in August 1941 he once again is chief of police in Posen.
In March 1942 he is assigned to the office of “SS und Polizeiführer Weißruthenien”, the SS police chief of Belorussia, a month later he attends a training class in Berlin and in May 1942 he rejoins the office of the SS and Police in Belorussia.
In June 1942 he becomes the liaison officer of the “18 lettisches schutzmannschafts bataillon“, the 18th Latvian Police Btl, he is the German officer assigned to this Latvian volunteer force and he is also their unofficial CO, he calls the shot in the unit.
The 18th Latvian Police Battalion is infamously known for its cruelty in the dirty anti-partisan war that is fought in the occupied parts which were previously in Soviet control, their nick name in Belorussia, the part where they mainly operated was: the green death, green being the color of their uniform.
Besides regular military operations against the partisan groups, they also participated in numerous punitive missions against the local population, these mission always ended with the murder of entire village populations and the destruction of their homes, also they destroyed Jewish ghetto’s.
I will not go in to much detail about the war- and crimes against humanity that were committed by Egon Erzum and his band of killers, I will just give some examples.
In early 1943 they participated in opeation “Hornung”, the goal of this operation was to clear the swamps south of Sluzk, in the village Lenin they murdered 1046 civilians, in total all the units involved in this operation murdered 12718 civilians, from which 3300 were Jews.
On of the most cruel actions of which testimony was gathered after the war was the destruction of the village of Pusitschi, their they drove 700 civilians, women and children included in to a barn which they then set on fire, burning to death all those inside.
Egon Erzum was the CO, if he didn’t give the orders for these cruel actions he certainly condoned them.
In June 1943 the Baltic volunteer militias are disbanded and reformed in to Waffen SS units, the 18th Latvian Police Btl becomes the second battalion of the Latvian volunteer regiment; Egon Erzum will command this unit only for a short while, he is transferred to the office of the chief of the police for Latvia.
In July 1944 he becomes an officer in the SS Police Regiment 17, with this unit he fought in Slovenia.
At the end of the war he is with SS Police Regiment 25, with this unit he will surrender himself to the allies in Klagenfurt.
But the story doesn’t end here, just before he goes in to allied captivity he issues himself a new Soldbuch, he keeps his real name but changes his birthday, he makes himself two years older, he also removes all the entries that connect him with the anti-partisan warfare operations and punitive mission he has participated in.
The allied officers that check his story buy his BS and he is soon released from captivity and with his false identity he settles in the Bavarian town of Leuterhausen.
He not only settles in Letterhausen, he also joins the local political scene and becomes a member of the CDU (Christen Democratic Union) is elected in to the local parliament of Bavaria and final also becomes the mayor of Leuterhausen.
In 1965 someone tips an investigating Journalist of the political magazine “Der Spiegel” that the mayor of Leuterhausen isn’t exactly who he pretends to be.
This journalist starts digging in the past of Egon Erzum and finds out that none of the three PhD’s he claims (law, philosophy and theology) are genuine, the next thing that comes to the surface is that he got a death sentence in a post war trial which was held in Riga.
Now that the journalist of Der Spiegel has made a commotion, he has written three articles about himin which he gets the nickname: Doctor Police because when he is confronted with the facts that his name isn’t on any university list, he finally claims that he was awarded his PhD degree by SS General Daluge, which is such an obvious BS story that it becomes a joke.
Because of these articles in the German press the West-German justice system starts to investigate him too, the first fact for which he is prosecuted are the fake PhD’s for this he is sentenced to a 500RM fine.
The next thing the public prosecutor jumps on are his war crimes, his defense tactics is twofold, first he will claim that it is all Soviet propaganda and secondly he claims to be in such bad health that he can’t go to trial; he will die of an heart attack in 1974 and this will end all legal actions against him.
In 2013 the well known and respect German historian Stefan Klemp, the author of several books about the German Police on the Eastern front, will write an article about him and his Latvian unit and he will come to the conclusion that the evidence is there and that the Soviets didn’t need any false evidence to make a case against him and his Latvian volunteers.
Before I start telling the story, I want to thank “Hambone” for the assistance in shipping this grouping from the USA to Belgium.
Egon Erzum (1906-1974) was born in Prikule (Latvia), he was one of the many ethnic Germans living in the Baltic states.
In 1925 he does his final exam at a local high school and become a civil servant for the ministry of the interior of Latvia, in 1928 he is drafted and joins an officers training program at the war academy, in 1930 he gets his officers commission as a lieutenant, in 1931 he is promoted to first lieutenant and assigned to the “Ordnungspolizei” in Riga, in 1936 he is promoted to the rank of captain and finally in 1938 he is promoted to the rank of major and becomes the police chief of the harbor police in Riga.
When WW2 breaks out in 1939 and Latvia is occupied by the Soviets Egon Erzum is one of the Baltic refugees in Germany, in 1940 we can pick up his story again with documented evidence and it is now that it starts to become interesting.
Egon Erzum fabricates a law degree, he falsely claims to have obtained a PhD from the university of Riga in 1932; with the aid of this fake law PhD he manages to get a job with the “Treuhandstelle Ost, nebenstelle Posen”, this Nazi organization is part of the four year plan lead by H.Göring and it is responsible to confiscate businesses and property of Poles and Jews that are expelled from those parts of Poland that are to be Germanized. Also now although he isn’t a member of the NSDAP he applies for membership of the SA.
In September 1940 he joins the German police force in Posen and after a four week work in period he becomes the local police chief; in February 1941 he is assigned to the police force of Wüppertal but in August 1941 he once again is chief of police in Posen.
In March 1942 he is assigned to the office of “SS und Polizeiführer Weißruthenien”, the SS police chief of Belorussia, a month later he attends a training class in Berlin and in May 1942 he rejoins the office of the SS and Police in Belorussia.
In June 1942 he becomes the liaison officer of the “18 lettisches schutzmannschafts bataillon“, the 18th Latvian Police Btl, he is the German officer assigned to this Latvian volunteer force and he is also their unofficial CO, he calls the shot in the unit.
The 18th Latvian Police Battalion is infamously known for its cruelty in the dirty anti-partisan war that is fought in the occupied parts which were previously in Soviet control, their nick name in Belorussia, the part where they mainly operated was: the green death, green being the color of their uniform.
Besides regular military operations against the partisan groups, they also participated in numerous punitive missions against the local population, these mission always ended with the murder of entire village populations and the destruction of their homes, also they destroyed Jewish ghetto’s.
I will not go in to much detail about the war- and crimes against humanity that were committed by Egon Erzum and his band of killers, I will just give some examples.
In early 1943 they participated in opeation “Hornung”, the goal of this operation was to clear the swamps south of Sluzk, in the village Lenin they murdered 1046 civilians, in total all the units involved in this operation murdered 12718 civilians, from which 3300 were Jews.
On of the most cruel actions of which testimony was gathered after the war was the destruction of the village of Pusitschi, their they drove 700 civilians, women and children included in to a barn which they then set on fire, burning to death all those inside.
Egon Erzum was the CO, if he didn’t give the orders for these cruel actions he certainly condoned them.
In June 1943 the Baltic volunteer militias are disbanded and reformed in to Waffen SS units, the 18th Latvian Police Btl becomes the second battalion of the Latvian volunteer regiment; Egon Erzum will command this unit only for a short while, he is transferred to the office of the chief of the police for Latvia.
In July 1944 he becomes an officer in the SS Police Regiment 17, with this unit he fought in Slovenia.
At the end of the war he is with SS Police Regiment 25, with this unit he will surrender himself to the allies in Klagenfurt.
But the story doesn’t end here, just before he goes in to allied captivity he issues himself a new Soldbuch, he keeps his real name but changes his birthday, he makes himself two years older, he also removes all the entries that connect him with the anti-partisan warfare operations and punitive mission he has participated in.
The allied officers that check his story buy his BS and he is soon released from captivity and with his false identity he settles in the Bavarian town of Leuterhausen.
He not only settles in Letterhausen, he also joins the local political scene and becomes a member of the CDU (Christen Democratic Union) is elected in to the local parliament of Bavaria and final also becomes the mayor of Leuterhausen.
In 1965 someone tips an investigating Journalist of the political magazine “Der Spiegel” that the mayor of Leuterhausen isn’t exactly who he pretends to be.
This journalist starts digging in the past of Egon Erzum and finds out that none of the three PhD’s he claims (law, philosophy and theology) are genuine, the next thing that comes to the surface is that he got a death sentence in a post war trial which was held in Riga.
Now that the journalist of Der Spiegel has made a commotion, he has written three articles about himin which he gets the nickname: Doctor Police because when he is confronted with the facts that his name isn’t on any university list, he finally claims that he was awarded his PhD degree by SS General Daluge, which is such an obvious BS story that it becomes a joke.
Because of these articles in the German press the West-German justice system starts to investigate him too, the first fact for which he is prosecuted are the fake PhD’s for this he is sentenced to a 500RM fine.
The next thing the public prosecutor jumps on are his war crimes, his defense tactics is twofold, first he will claim that it is all Soviet propaganda and secondly he claims to be in such bad health that he can’t go to trial; he will die of an heart attack in 1974 and this will end all legal actions against him.
In 2013 the well known and respect German historian Stefan Klemp, the author of several books about the German Police on the Eastern front, will write an article about him and his Latvian unit and he will come to the conclusion that the evidence is there and that the Soviets didn’t need any false evidence to make a case against him and his Latvian volunteers.