Willfried Segebrecht

* 20 December 1919 – Anklam (Pomerania)
† 8 January 1993 – Kirchheim unter Teck (Baden-Württemberg)

Willfried Segebrecht led the 1st Company of the Reconnaissance battalion of the ‘Reichsführer-SS’ division. The massacres in Vinca and in the area of Cadotto near Monte Sole are attributed to his men.

Segebrecht became a member of the Nazi Party and the Waffen-SS in 1939.

In the postwar period, he lived a normal life in Kirchheim unter Teck and was an active member in the ‘comradeship association’ of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division.

Following his death, he received the Badge of Honour of the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Citizens' Medal of the town of Kirchheim for his postwar civic engagement.

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Nationality: German
Arny Branch: Waffen-SS
Joined the NSDAP: Member no. 7.156.365 (1 Sept. 1939)
Armed Force: Waffen-SS
Unit: SS Mountain Division ‘North’
SS Panzer Reconnaissance Division 16
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’
Years of Service: 1939-1945
Rank: SS-Obersturmführer
Campaign: Balkans, Soviet Union
Occupation of Italy 1944-45
Confirmed Massacres: Vinca
Monte Sole
Bardine
Valla
Post war period: Entrepreneur in Kirchheim unter Teck
Civic engagement
Never brought to justice for participation in actions in Vinca and Monte Sole

Nazi influence and war experience

Early years: school and Nazi groups

Willfried Segebrecht was born on 20 Dec. 1919 in Anklam, Pomerania. His father was the manager of a firm. Segebrecht attended his town’s humanistic gymnasium, graduating on Easter 1939.

He described himself as Gottgläubig and was a member of the Deutsches Jungvolk - the Hitler Youth’s organization for boys between 10 and 14 - from 1934 until 1939. He participated in the Nuremberg Rallies in 1936, 1937, and 1938. In 1939, he joined the Nazi Party.
With the Waffen-SS in Norway and Finland

From April until 30 Sept. 1939, he was a member of the Reich Labour Service. On 1 Oct. 1939, he joined the Waffen-SS. After attending the SS Junker School in Braunschweig between May and Sept. 1941, he was transferred to SS Mountain Division ‘Nord’ in Norway and Finland. He was promoted to SS Untersturmführer on 1 Oct. 1941.

For six months he was a member of his division’s replacement unit, probably active as a trainer. Between Aug, 1942 and 1 June 1943, he served in the SS ‘Totenkopf’ Reconnaissance Battalion of the SS ‘Totenkopf’ Division. Later, he participated in further courses in Ellwangen, in the school for armoured command at Krampnitz near Potsdam, and in Putlos (Holstein).

Beteiligung an Massakern an Zivilisten

Segebrecht fought with the Reconnaissance Battalion in the Apuan Alps and Monte Sole. On 24 Aug. 1944, his soldiers moved along the street of Monzone directly to Vinca. In Monte Sole, the massacre in the Cadotto region is attributed to them.

Segebrecht’s role in the massacres of Vinca and Cadotto

At the start of 1944 in the vicinity of Ljubljana, Segebrecht became leader of the 1^st Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division 'Reichsführer-SS'. He held this position until the capitulation.

Segebrecht fought with the Reconnaissance Battalion in the Apuan Alps and Monte Sole. On 24 Aug. 1944, his soldiers moved from Monzone to Vinca and were responsible for the operation’s first killings there. At Monte Sole, the massacres in the area of Cadotto are attributed to them. Segebrecht’s men suffered heavy losses fighting partisans of the ‘Stella Rossa’ group. The massacre at Monte Sole is the worst war crime perpetrated by German troops on Italian soil and at the entire Western Front.

Segebrecht was taken prisoner on 8 May 1945 in Austria. Initially he was interned in the Bad Aibling POW camp, then moved to Dachau, and finally to a civilian internment camp from where he was released on 14 Oct. 1946.

The postwar period

Between civic engagement and old loyalties

Following the war, Segebrecht lived in Kirchheim unter Teck in Baden-Württemberg. In 1948, he took over management of a furniture factory in one of the town’s suburbs. The factory had been founded shortly beforehand by Willi Achim Fiedler, an aeronautical engineer who during the war had worked on developing jet planes and, especially, the V1 flying bomb. Afterwards Fiedler emigrated to the USA to continue his career as a rocket engineer. Segebrecht led the firm until its liquidation.

Segebrecht’s company had participated in at least two massacres and thus, he was heavily incriminated but he still led a normal life after the war. As a member of the Kirchheim/Teck city council, he was active in the local gymnastics club (VfL) and on behalf of relations with the partner towns of Kalocsa and Rambouillet. His profession was listed as technician. He died on 8 Jan. 1993, aged 72. After his death he was awarded the Badge of Honour of the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Citizens' Medal of the town of Kirchheim for his postwar civic engagement.

He was an active member of the ‘comradeship association’ of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division.

Sources

Segebrecht’s SS-personnel files are kept in the German Federal Archives in Berlin (R 9361-III/191417 und R 9361-III/556275). Information about his company’s role in the massacres can be found in cards concerning the Reder trial kept in the military court in Rome. For losses suffered by his unit see: Bundesarchiv in Berlin (German Federal Archives in Berlin), PA (Personenbezogene Auskünfte - Personal information), Berlin. For information on his business relations with Willi A. Fiedler, see papers of Fiedler kept in the Stanford Univ. Library.

Literature

Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Partisanenkrieg: Italien 1943-1945, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2012, pp. 242f., 248, 276, 293.

Joachim Staron, Fosse Ardeatine und Marzabotto. Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen und Resistenza. Geschichte und nationale Mythenbildung in Deutschland und Italien (1944-1999), Padeborn etc., Schöningh, 2002, pp. 86, 93.

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

Willfried Segebrecht

Nazi influence and war experience

Early years: school and Nazi groups

With the Waffen-SS in Norway and Finland

Beteiligung an Massakern an Zivilisten

Segebrecht fought with the Reconnaissance Battalion in the Apuan Alps and Monte Sole. On 24 Aug. 1944, his soldiers moved along the street of Monzone directly to Vinca. In Monte Sole, the massacre in the Cadotto region is attributed to them.

Segebrecht’s role in the massacres of Vinca and Cadotto

The postwar period

Between civic engagement and old loyalties

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