Max Adam Saalfrank

* "21 September 1911" – Hof/Saale (Bavaria)
† "19 June 1993" – Bad Tölz (Bavaria)

In 1944, Max Saalfrank was commander of the 5th Company of SS-Panzer Reconnaissance battalion 16. When deployed in the Marzabotto area in late Sept. 1944, he took over from the wounded Walter Reder as combat-group leader. His role in the massacre at Monte Sole has received little attention.

Until 1934, Saalfrank was a typesetter for the Nazi Party’s official newspaper in Bavaria. In the ‘Totenkopf’ Division of the SS, he initially fought on the Eastern Front.

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Nationality: German
Joined the NSDAP: 1 May 1937 (no. 5020895)
Armed force: Waffen-SS
Unit: SS Totenkopf formations
SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Totenkopf’
SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 16
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’
Years of service: 1939-1945
Rank: SS-Obersturmführer
Offensive: Soviet Union
Occupation of Italy 1944-45
Confirmed Massacres: Monte Sole
Post war period: Saalfrank’s role in the massacre of Monte Sole remained overlooked. He was never brought to justice.

Training and war experience

Nazi Party typesetter and SS-member

Max Adam Saalfrank was born on 21 Sept. 1911 in Hof an der Saale (Bavaria) as the son of a carpenter. Following Volksschule, he began an apprenticeship as a typesetter for the local paper, the Hofer Anzeiger. On 15 March 1933, he joined the Nazi Party; in Oct. he was hired as a typesetter by the printers for the party’s official organ in the region, the Bayerische Ostmark.

A few months earlier, on 15 Aug. 1933, Saalfrank had joined the Allgemeine-SS, receiving SS-no. 109 866. At the same time, he moved away from Protestantism, henceforth describing himself as Gottgläubig. On 20 April 1934, he joined the SS Wachsturmbann at Dachau, the camp’s guard unit, responsible for carrying out corporal punishments and executions. Soon after, in June 1934, his unit, under the command of Theodor Eicke, was active in the killing of the entire SA-leadership around Ernst Röhm.
With the Totenkopf Division from Dachau to Russia

Following the integration of the concentration camp SS guard units into the Waffen-SS, Saalfrank was a member of the SS Totenkopf units, serving for many years under Max Simon and Walter Reder. After a course for SS-leaders in Bad Tölz, on 21 Dec. 1942 he was made an SS Untersturmführer. Heading a company of the SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Totenkopf’, in 1943 Saalfrank fought in Kharkov, Belgorod, and on the Mius Front. On 21 June 1943, he was promoted to SS Obersturmführer.

Participation in massacres of civilians

Max Saalfrank was a confidant of Walter Reder, with whom he shared many war experiences. In the massacres at Monte Sole on 29 and 30 Sept. 1944, he was the commander’s deputy in the deployment-area.

Head of the 5th Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion

In Jan. 1944, Saalfrank was transferred to the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’. Until late May, he participated in various courses for continued training. In Italy between June and Oct. 1944, he led the 5^th Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion in fighting. In late June, fighting broke out in the south of Tuscany, in Belvedere, and, on July 7 and 10, in Rosignano, as well as later in the Apennines near Monterumici and around Ca' del Bocchino. On Walter Reder’s recommendation, Saalfrank was awarded the German Cross in Gold for these operations.

Max Saalfrank was a confidant of Reder, with whom he shared many war experiences. In the Monte Sole massacre on 29 and 30. Sept. 1944, he was the injured commander’s deputy in the deployment-area. Until now, in reconstructing the massacre his role as leader of the Reconnaissance Battalion has not been sufficiently examined.

The postwar period

A life in the shadows

In May 1945 Max Saalfrank became a prisoner of war. During this time, he offered statements incriminating Max Simon and Walter Reder, but later retracted them. Because of his position as Reder’s deputy, he was himself strongly incriminated but was not brought to justice by either the Italian or German authorities.

Otherwise, Saalfrank led an uneventful life after he was released. Aside from what we know about his active role in the ‘comradeship association’ of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division, there is very little available information about his life after the war. He died on 19 June 1993 in Bad Tölz.

Sources

Max Saalfrank’s SS-personnel files are kept in the Bundesarchiv in Berlin (German Federal Archives in Berlin) (R 9361-III/170055 und R 9361-III/551794). Further information is found in the files of the 1951 Reder trial, kept in the Rome military court.

Literature

Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg: Italien 1943-1945, Paderborn, 2012, Ferdinand Schöningh, S. 240f., 248, 274, 276, 289, 293.

Joachim Staron, Fosse Ardeatine und Marzabotto. Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen und Resistenza. Geschichte und nationale Mythenbildung in Deutschland und Italien (1944-1999), Paderborn etc., Schöningh, 2002, pp. 85, 93, 98, 186, 199.

Barbara Tóth, Der Handschlag. Die Affäre Frischenschlager-Reder, with an afterword by Friedhelm Frischenschlager, Innsbruck, Studien-Verlag, 2017.

Authorship and translation

Author: Carlo Gentile

Translated from German by: Joel Golb

2023

Text: CC BY NC SA 4.0

Max Adam Saalfrank

Training and war experience

Nazi Party typesetter and SS-member

With the Totenkopf Division from Dachau to Russia

Participation in massacres of civilians

Max Saalfrank was a confidant of Walter Reder, with whom he shared many war experiences. In the massacres at Monte Sole on 29 and 30 Sept. 1944, he was the commander’s deputy in the deployment-area.

Head of the 5th Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion

The postwar period

A life in the shadows

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