FELIX STEINER

FELIX STEINER
(1896-1966) Waffen-SS Obergruppenfuhrer and Knight's Cross recipient who contributed significantly to the development and transformation of the Waffen-SS into a combat force made up of volunteers and conscripts. During the Battle of Berlin, he was ordered to envelope the 1st Belorussian Front through a pincer movement, advancing from the north of the city. However, as his unit was outnumbered by ten to one, Steiner made it clear that he did not have the capacity for a counter-attack, thus ensuring the fall of Berlin. STEINER REPORTS THE DEATH IN COMBAT OF DACHAU'S FIRST COMMANDANT Fine content T.L.S. as commander of the SS-'Wiking Division', 1p. 4to., [n.p.], July 2, 1941 to Reichsfuhrer-SS HEINRICH HIMMLER, reporting the death in combat of SS-Standartenfuhrer HILMAR WACKERLE (1899-1941), the first commandant of Dachau, that same day. Steiner's letter reads, in part: '...I have the painful duty to inform you, that the commander of the 4-Regiment 'Westland' SS-Standartenführer Wäckerle, on 2.7 has met his heroic death in the fighting east of Lemberg. On 1.7 he led a battle group of the division, the main part of which was the regiment 'Westland'. The regiment defeated the enemy confronting him. It was the 102nd Inf. Rain. of the 41st division from Rewa-Ruska. The evening of 1.7. was a complete success for the Regt. 'Westland'. I spoke to Wäckerle on July 1st late in the evening and congratulated him wholeheartedly...for all his dedicated work on this regiment. This morning he was shot dead by a...Tartar while he was running the fuses. He is buried in the park of the Slowita Manor 50 km east of Lemberg...The leadership of the Regt. 'Westland' has today taken over SS-Standartenfuhrer Diebitsch..." File holes and dockets, light soiling, overall very good. HILMAR WACKERLE served in World War I, and was severely wounded at the front. He was an early member of the Nazi Party, and was present during the Beer Hall Putsch. In 1933 he was picked by his old ally Himmler to be commandant of the newly established Dachau concentration camp. Under orders from Himmler, he established 'special' rules for dealing with prisoners, and ordered the execution of prisoners for 'violent insubordination' and 'incitement to disobedience'. Following Wäckerle's death, his widow Elfriede moved in with another man, instead of mourning her dead husband. Outraged by this break from protocol, Himmler had the man sent to a concentration camp.