Werner Horst Szillat

* 6 June 1922 – Tilsit (East Prussia, now Sowetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast)
† 18 July 1995 – Klausdorf/Schwentine

In summer 1944, Werner Szillat led the 2nd Company of SS-Panzer Reconnaissance battalion 16 under Walter Reder. In this function, he was present in the actions in the Apuan Alps and on Monte Sole. Several sources point to the responsibility of his men for the Valla massacre and those of Casone di Riomoneta and Cerpiano on Monte Sole.

Szillat came from East Prussia; he joined the Waffen-SS when he was 18. As a member of the 5^th SS-Panzer Division ‘Wiking’, he participated in Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941.

After the war Szillat held a prominent position in the Schleswig-Holstein state administration and was highly active in associations for ethnic German expellees (so called Heimatvertriebenenverbände).

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Nationality: German
Formation: Hitler Youth 1933-1940
Arny Branch: Waffen-SS
Joined the NSDAP: Not demonstrated
Armed Force: Waffen-SS
Unit: 5th SS-Panzer Division ‘Wiking’
SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 16
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’
Years of Service: 1939 - 1945
Rank: SS-Obersturmführer
Campaign: Soviet Union
Occupation of Italy 1944-45
Confirmed Massacres: Vinca
Monte Sole
Post war period: Official, eventually head administrative director of the Central Data Office of the State of Schleswig-Holstein
Honorary judge of the Kiel Social Court and Schleswig-Holstein State Social Court
Never brought to justice for participation in actions in Italy

Training and wartime experience

Early years in East Prussia

Werner Horst Szillat was born on 6 June 1922 in what was then Tilsit, East Prussia. His parents came from the Memel region and the Tilsit-Ragnit district, where his father was a city official. The family lived in Tilsit between 1919 and 1939.

After attending the Meerwisch Volksschule and the Realgymnasium, Szillat passed his Abitur exam in 1940. He described himself as Gottgläubig. Between 15 Aug. 1933 and 15 Sept. 1940, he was a member of the Deutsches Jungvolk.
Eastern Front

In autumn 1939, aged 17, Szillat was conscripted into the Tilsit SD-section and served in Memel. On 15 Sept. 1940, he joined the Waffen-SS (SS-no. 423894). Initially, he served in the 3^rd SS-Standard ‘Westland’ in Munich. Subsequently, until 30 Sept. 1941 he was a member of the 5th SS-Panzer Division ‘Wiking’, taking part in the invasion of the Soviet Union. On 11 July 1941, his division participated in the massacre of Jews in Zboriv, Ukraine.

Between 1 Nov. 1941 and 30 April 1942, Szillat attended an SS-reserve leadership training course in the SS-Junker School in Braunschweig. On 21 June 1942, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer and transferred to SS-Training Regiment ‘Prag’. Following a course at the infantry school in Döberitz, he became the commander of various training units and on 5 Feb. 1944 was finally assigned to the 2^nd SS-Panzer-Reconnaissance Battalion as platoon leader. On 21 June 1944, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer, taking over the function of company head the following month.

Participation in massacres of civilians

The statement made to American troops by a deserter from Szillat’s company supports the hypothesis that his men were responsible for the Valla massacre on 19 Aug. 1944.

Company leader of Reder’s reconnaissance battalion

Szillat was together with Walter Reder in the Apuan Alps and on Monte Sole. The statement made to American troops by a deserter from Szillat’s company supports the hypothesis that his men were responsible for the Valla massacre on 19 Aug. 1944. In the course of the action against the ‘Lunense’ partisan brigade from 24 to 26 Aug. 1944, the soldiers surrounded the mountains and descended from Monte Garnerone and Monte Grondilice to Vinca. Szillat is also held responsible for the massacres at Casone di Riomoneta and Cerpiano near Monte Sole.

Szillat was gravely wounded in Ca’ del Bocchino (Vado) on 14 Oct. 1944 through the explosion of an artillery shell. Starting in Nov. 1944, he was assigned to SS-Training and Replacement Battalion 16 and no longer took part in fighting. At the end of the war, he was taken prisoner by British forces, probably in northern Germany.

The postwar period

A civil service career

Szillat was released in 1946. For a time he earned money as a pianist, before being employed in office work and then as an official in the Schleswig-Holstein state administration. Here he was eventually elevated to administrative director of the state’s central data office. He was also highly active in associations for ethnic German expellees (so called Heimatvertriebenenverbände).

Szillat died on 18 July 1995 in Klausdorf/Schwentine.

In the sources his name is often misspelled as Sillert, Sillard or even Syiska.

Sources

The SS-personnel files are kept in the German Federal Archives, Berlin (R 9361-III-204900). Information on participation of Szillat’s company in the massacres is found in the Rome military court’s Reder-trial files.

For information on participation of Szillat’s company in the Valla massacre, see US National Archives, RG 153, Entry 143, Box 528, Case 16-73 (Massacciuccoli), statement of Josef Diederichs. German Federal Archives, Ludwigsburg, Verfahren no. IV 401 AR 1714/67, Befehlsnotstand.

Literature

Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg: Italien 1943-1945, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012, pp. 276, 282, 293.

Joachim Staron, Fosse Ardeatine und Marzabotto. Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen und Resistenza. Geschichte und nationale Mythenbildung in Deutschland und Italien (1944-1999), Paderborn u.a., Schöningh, 2002, p. 98.

Barbara Tóth, Der Handschlag. Die Affäre Frischenschlager-Reder, mit einem Nachwort von Friedhelm Frischenschlager, Innsbruck, Studien-Verlag, 2017.

Authorship and translation

Translated from German by: Joel Golb

2023

Text: CC BY NC SA 4.0

Werner Horst Szillat

Training and wartime experience

Early years in East Prussia

Eastern Front

Participation in massacres of civilians

The statement made to American troops by a deserter from Szillat’s company supports the hypothesis that his men were responsible for the Valla massacre on 19 Aug. 1944.

Company leader of Reder’s reconnaissance battalion

The postwar period

A civil service career

Information on data protection

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