Friedrich Schmidkonz

* " 7 December 1912" – Weiden in der Oberpfalz (Bavaria)
† " 2 October 1944" – Lagaro (Bologna)

In the summer of 1944, Friedrich Schmidkonz took over command of the 3^rd company of SS Panzer Reconnaissance battalion 16. The company participated in massacres in the Apuan Alps and on Monte Sole. His men were responsible for the murder of 85 persons in the cemetery of Casaglia.

Schmidkonz was an orphan. He held various jobs before beginning work in 1932 as a Bavarian State Police candidate. In 1936, he moved to the Schutzpolizei and became an officer. In 1940, with others in the Police Division of the Waffen-SS he fought first on the Western Front, then, starting in 1941, in Russia. He became company commander, taking over leadership positions in two SS divisions – ‘Das Reich’ and ‘Totenkopf’.

On 2 Oct. 1944, Schmidkonz was mortally wounded by artillery fire south of Bologna.

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Nationality: German
Formation: Bavarian State Police; Schutzpolizei
Army branch: Waffen-SS
Joined the NSDAP: Not verified
Armed force: Waffen-SS
Unit: SS Police Division
SS Division ‘Das Reich’,
SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Totenkopf’
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’
Years of service: 1939-1944
SS-Obersturmführer
Offensive: France 1940
Soviet Union 1941-42
Occupation of Italy 1944
Confirmed Massacres: Valla and Bardine di San Terenzo
Vinca
Monte Sole
Post war period: (Died 2. October 1944)

Training and war experience

Early years: Bavarian police candidate

Friedrich (Fritz) Schmidkonz was born on 7 Dec. 1912 in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate, Bavaria. His father worked in agriculture and industry. Both of Schmidkonz’s parents died early – his father in an auto accident shortly after returning from the First World War.

Schmidkonz attended primary school in Grafenwöhr, secondary school first in Landshut, then in Weiden. But because of his guardian’s financial difficulties, he had to leave school in the late 1920s.

Over the next several years Schmidkonz held various jobs, until becoming a candidate at the Bavarian State Police on 1 Oct. 1932. Then, in 1935, he became an administrative employee in a Wehrmacht office in Munich. The following year, he returned to the Schutzpolizei and was accepted into the police school in Fürstenfeldbrück near Munich. At this time, he distanced himself from Catholicism and began to describe himself as Gottgläubig. On 20 April 1939, as a Schutzpolizei lieutenant, he was transferred to that force’s headquarters in Frankfurt/Oder.
At the Western and Eastern Fronts

Following the war’s outbreak, Schmidkonz was incorporated into the Police Division of the Waffen-SS, serving in 1940 as an SS commander on the Western Front and later in Russia. In August 1941, he was wounded, returning to the front near Leningrad after his recuperation. After taking a company-leadership course, he took on command positions in two SS divisions, ‘Das Reich’ and ‘Totenkopf’.

Participation in massacres of civilians

In the summer of 1944, Schmidkonz was transferred to the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’, where he took over command of the 3^rd Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion. The massacres at Casaglia and Caprara on Monte Sole are ascribed to his company.

Vinca and Monte Sole

In the summer of 1944, Schmidkonz was transferred to the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’, where he took over command of the 3^rd Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion. He was with Reder in the Apuan Alps and on Monte Sole. In the Vinca operation, his men surrounded the mountains and advanced from Pizzo d'Uccello into the village. The massacres of Casaglia and Caprara on Monte Sole are ascribed to his company.

On 2 Oct. 1944 he was killed by artillery fire on the street of Val di Setta near Lagaro (Bologna). He was the only company commander in the reconnaissance battalion to be killed in the war. Initially, he was buried in Fornace (Badolo), then reinterred after the war by British troops in the division’s cemetery in Pontecchio Marconi. In Jan. 1959, he was reinterred once again in the German military cemetery of Costermano.

Sources

Schmidkonz’s SS-personnel files are kept in the German Federal Archives, Berlin (VBS 1069 (R 19)/ZM 0351 A. 08 und R 9361-III/180359). Some information can be found in cards for the Reder trial kept in the military court in Rome.

Literature

Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg: Italien 1943-1945, Paderborn, 2012, Ferdinand Schöningh, pp. 244, 248, 276, 283.

Joachim Staron, Fosse Ardeatine und Marzabotto. Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen und Resistenza. Geschichte und nationale Mythenbildung in Deutschland und Italien (1944-1999), Padeborn etc., Schöningh, 2002, p. 94.

Authorship and translation

Author: Carlo Gentile

Translated from German by: Joel Golb

2023

Text: CC BY NC SA 4.0

Friedrich Schmidkonz

Training and war experience

Early years: Bavarian police candidate

At the Western and Eastern Fronts

Participation in massacres of civilians

In the summer of 1944, Schmidkonz was transferred to the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’, where he took over command of the 3rd Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion. The massacres at Casaglia and Caprara on Monte Sole are ascribed to his company.

Vinca and Monte Sole

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In the summer of 1944, Schmidkonz was transferred to the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’, where he took over command of the 3^rd Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion. The massacres at Casaglia and Caprara on Monte Sole are ascribed to his company.