Klaus Konrad
* "22 December 1914" –
Charlottenburg, Berlin
† "15 August 2006" –
Scharbeutz (Schleswig-Holstein)
Beginning in Jan. 1944, Klaus Konrad served in the headquarters of Grenadier Regiment 274 of the 94th Infantry Division in Italy. In this role, he participated in the massacre at San Polo.
Konrad came from an upper middle-class family and was a jurist. He joined the SA in 1933 and the Nazi Party in 1937. In 1940, he was drafted and fought in France and on the Eastern Front.
The Giessen prosecutor’s office began investigating Konrad, regiment Kommandeur Ewert, and other officers in 1967; the proceedings were terminated in 1972. At this time Konrad was at the height of his political career as a member of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (the SPD).
In Oct. 2004, Konrad’s participation in the massacre at San Polo became public knowledge through the widely viewed TV-magazine Kontraste. In 2006, the military court in La Spezia opened proceedings against him. But he died that same year, before they were completed.
- Nationality
- German
- Formation
-
1933 SA
1938-1945 Wehrmacht - Army branch
- army
- Joined the NSDAP
- 1937
- Armed force
-
Wehrmacht
- Unit
- Grenadier-Regiment 274, 94. Infanterie-Division
- Years of service
- 1938-1945
- Rank
- First lieutenant (from 1 July 1944)
- Offensive
-
France 1940
Eastern Front 1941-42
Occupation of Italy and deployment at front 1944-45 - Confirmed Massacres
- Post war period
-
SPD politician
Subject of legal proceedings by Giessen prosecutor’s office beginning 1967
Acquittal 1972
Udo Gümpel and Renè Althammer interviewing Klaus Konrad
Training and war experience
-
Early years and legal studies
-
Military career and deployment on the front
-
Deployment on the Italian front
In the framework of investigations in the postwar period, Konrad admitted his presence at the brutal interrogations of both partisans and civilians taken prisoner in Molino dei Falchi and Pietramala. But he denied any participation in their killing.
Participation in the massacre of civilians
-
Role in the massacre at San Polo
The postwar period
-
Denazification; Konrad’s professional and political postwar career
-
Investigation and court proceedings
I found the entire matter most unfortunate. For shooting to death 50 or 60 people is a matter that affects anyone. It’s only that as had been acknowledged partisans were in any case present there. [...] But what are they supposed to do with 50 or 60 people that we can’t guard if we don’t have them in a locked-up space and we don’t know what they’ll do if we simply let them go. That’s also hardly possible. The Oberst decided they had to be shot [...].
Sources
The personnel files of Klaus Konrad are kept in the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv in Freiburg (German Federal Archives - Military Department in Freiburg).
The files of Konrad’s denazification proceedings are kept in the Schleswig-Holstein State Archives in Kiel, Abt. 460.3 Nr. 72.
Additional information on Konrad can be found in the investigation files of the Giessen prosecutor’s office in Hesse: S. 261/04 RNR (San Polo); copies are kept in the archives of the Territorial Military Court in Rome.
Literature
Uwe Danker, Sebastian Lehmann-Himmel, Geschichtswissenschaftliche Aufarbeitung der personellen und strukturellen Kontinuität nach 1945 in der schleswig-holsteinischen Legislative und Exekutive - Drucksache 18/1144 (neu), Husum, Schleswig-Holsteinischer Landtag, 2016.
Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-
Carlo Gentile, Le stragi nazifasciste in Toscana 1943-45. Vol 4. Guida archivistica alla memoria. Gli archivi tedeschi, mit einem Vorwort von Enzo Collotti, Rome, Carocci, 2005, pp. 99-100.
Authorship and translation
Author: Carlo Gentile
Translated from German by: Joel Golb
© Project ‘The Massacres in Occupied Italy (1943-1945): Integrating the Perpetrators’ Memories’
2023