Emil Mazuw

{{Short description|German Nazi, Ostsee Higher SS and Police leader, SS-Obergruppenführer}}{{Infobox military person

| name = Emil Mazuw

| image = File:Emil Mazuw.jpg

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1900|9|21}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1987|12|11|1900|9|21}}

}}

Emil Mazuw, formerly Emil Maschuw (21 September 1900 – 11 December 1987) was Landeshauptmann (nominal governor) of the Province of Pomerania from 1940 to 1945. He was a member of the Schutzstaffel beginning in 1933. He held the ranks of SS-Obergruppenführer, General of the Waffen-SS (1944), General of Police (1942) and Ostsee Higher SS and Police leader (1939–1945). He had involvement with the euthanasia that was used during World War II. After the war, he was convicted of crimes associated with abuse of political prisoners and Jews. He was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.

Life

Mazuw, the son of a factory worker, was a trained metal worker. In 1918 he voluntarily joined the Imperial German Navy, and saw service in the First World War. After the armistice, his ship along with the rest of the German High Seas Fleet was interned by the British at Scapa Flow. After the German Sailors scuttled their ships, they were held in English prisoner of war camps. Mazuw was returned to Germany in 1920.

He remained in the Reichsmarine until 1921, then worked as a factory worker until 1925. He remained unemployed until 1932, when he worked as a truck driver in Coburg. His 1932 marriage granted him three children. In 1928 he joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Nazi Party (member number: 85231),{{cite web|url=http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb00000146/images/index.html?nativeno=312|title=Digitale Bibliothek - Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum|publisher=Bavarian State Library|language=German|accessdate=2009-09-22}} changing to join the SS in 1930 (member number: 2556).

Mazuw was head of SS-Abschnitt XVIII from November 1933 until the beginning of September 1934, when he subsequently became leader of SS-Abschnitt XIII until April 1936.{{cite web|url=http://www.dws-xip.pl/reich/biografie/2556.html|title=Emil Mazuw|publisher=www.dws-xip.pl|language=Polish|accessdate=2009-09-22}} In 1936, he was elected as a deputy of the Reichstag from electoral constituency 6 (Pomerania). He was reelected in 1938, retaining this seat until the fall of the Nazi regime.[https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/selectmaske.html?name=Emil+Mazuw&geschlecht=&ort=&beruforg=&BERUF=&BERUFSFELDER%5B%5D=&KONFESSION%5B%5D=&WP%5B%5D=&PARTEI%5B%5D=&schlu=reichstag24&recherche=ja Emil Mazuw entry] in the [https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/ Reichstag Members Database] From April 1936 until the beginning of May 1945, Mazuw was leader of the Ostsee SS-Oberabschnitt, and from August 1938 to the end of the same period, he was Higher SS and Police leader (HSSPF) in the district Nord ("North"), in 1940 renamed Ostsee ("Baltic Sea"), with his office in Stettin.{{cite web|url=http://territorial.de/pommern/prpommer.htm|title=Provinz Pommern|publisher=territorial.de|language=German|accessdate=2009-09-22}} Of eighteen HSSPFs in Nazi Germany, Mazuw was the only one who held this position more than five years.Koehl (1983), p.354

From 1940 to 1945, he was Landeshauptmann (nominal governor) of the Province of Pomerania. In this position, together with Pomeranian Gauleiter Franz Schwede-Coburg, he was engaged in the "Aktion T4" euthanasia action, aiding the dispatchment of some 1,400 mental care clients from Pomeranian sanatoria in Stralsund, Ueckermünde, Treptow an der Rega (today, Trzebiatów), Lauenburg and Meseritz-Obrawalde (today, Międzyrzecz) to an execution site in Piasnitz (today, Wielka Piaśnica) in Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, where they were shot.Browning (2007), p.187

Himmler, however, thought that Mazuw was not active enough, and in December 1944 sent him a letter of reprimand (..."you are a representative of the SS and not that of the local mayor or of the local party offices working against the SS"...).Longerich (2012), p.337

Writer Igor Witkowski has speculated that Mazuw was involved in secret programs to develop a Wunderwaffe, a new type of weapon supposed to change the course of World War II.Farell (2006), pp.145-147, citing and referring to Witkowski (2003), pp.236-237

After the war, Mazuw was held captive. In 1948, he was prosecuted relating to denazification proceedings and was sentenced to eight years in prison. On the basis of severely abusing political prisoners and Jews in 1933, he received another {{frac|8|1|2}} year prison sentence in 1951.Birn. Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer. p.340. Mazuw was released from prison in December 1951. He later found employment, and he died in December 1987 in Karlsruhe.Klee. Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich p. 398.

References

Bibliography

Birn, Ruth Bettina. Die Höheren SS- und Polizeiführer. Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1986, {{ISBN|3-7700-0710-7}}
{{cite book|title=The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942|first=Christopher R.|last=Browning|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8032-5979-9}}
Klee, Ernst. Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-596-16048-8}}. (Revised 2nd edition)
{{cite book|title=The Black Corps: the structure and power struggles of the Nazi SS|first=Robert Lewis|last=Koehl|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=1983|isbn=0-299-09190-2}}
{{cite book | author = Longerich, Peter | title = Heinrich Himmler | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford, UK | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-0-19-965174-0 }}
{{cite web|publisher=Volksbund Deutscher Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.|first=Roland|last=Pfeiffer|year=2003|title=Lexikon der Wehrmacht. Zur Geschichte der Ordnungspolizei.IV. Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer HSSPF und Befehlshaber der Ordnungspolizei BdO im Reichsgebiet.|url=http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Zusatz/SS/Ordnungspolizei-R.htm|accessdate=2009-09-29|language=German}}
{{cite book|title=Truth about the Wunderwaffe|first=Igor|last=Witkowski|publisher=European History Press|year=2003|isbn=83-88259-16-4}}

External links

{{ReichstagDB|130521221}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20110722235354/https://portal.d-nb.de/opac.htm?query=atr%3D130521221+OR+nid%3D130521221&method=simpleSearch Literature about Emil Mazuw] in the catalogue of the German National Library

Category:1900 births

Category:1987 deaths

Category:German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom

Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Germany

Category:Imperial German Navy personnel of World War I

Category:Members of the Reichstag 1936–1938

Category:Members of the Reichstag 1938–1945

Category:Military personnel from Essen

Category:Nazi Party officials

Category:Nazis convicted of crimes

Category:People from the Rhine Province

Category:Prisoners and detainees of Germany