Franz Böhme

Franz Böhme
Franz Böhme in March 1943
Born	15 April 1885 Zeltweg, Styria, Austria-Hungary
Died	29 May 1947(1947-05-29) (aged 62) Nuremberg, Bavaria, Allied-occupied Germany
Buried	St. Leonhard-Friedhof, Graz, Austria
Allegiance	Austria-Hungary (to 1918) First Austrian Republic (to 1938) Germany
Service / branch	Austro-Hungarian Army Bundesheer Wehrmacht
Years of service	1900–1938 (Austria) 1938–1945 (Germany)
Rank	Generalmajor (Austria) General der Gebirgstruppe (Germany)
Commands	32nd Infantry Division XVIII Mountain Corps 20th Mountain Army
Battles / wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Franz Friedrich Böhme (15 April 1885 – 29 May 1947) was an Army officer who served in succession with the Austro-Hungarian Army, the Austrian Army and the German Wehrmacht. He rose to the rank of general during World War II, serving as Commander of the XVIII Mountain Corps, Hitler's Plenipotentiary Commanding General (Bevollmächtigter Kommandierender General) in the Balkans, and commander-in-chief in German-occupied Norway during World War II. After the war, Böhme was transferred to U.S. custody as a defendant in the Hostages Trial on charges of having massacred thousands of Serbian civilians. He committed suicide in prison.

Biography

Early career

Franz Böhme was born in Zeltweg in Styria, Austria on 15 April 1885. He entered the Austro-Hungarian Army in October 1900 as a cadet and was commissioned as a lieutenant in an infantry regiment in 1905. He served in World War I and remained in the Austrian Bundesheer after 1918, transferring to the Wehrmacht on the Anschluss with Germany in 1938, replacing Alfred Jansa as the Austrian Chief of Staff.

During the opening years of World War II, Böhme held command of the 30th Infantry Division and 32nd Infantry Division, taking part in the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and in the Battle of France in May and June 1940. On 29 June 1940, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

In Serbia

Between 16 September 1941 and 2 December 1941, as Commanding General and Commander of Serbia, Böhme ordered the reprisal executions of 2,000 civilians in Kragujevac after a partisan assault on 22 soldiers of the 421 Korps-Nachrichten-Abteilung. On the suggestion of Harald Turner, head of the German military administration's staff in occupied Serbia, Böhme ordered the Mačva operation of September-October 1941 to "cleanse Podrinje" as retaliation to the Uprising in Serbia of July to November 1941. Böhme ordered that all villages that shot at the German Army or that had weapons found in them should be razed, and the male population between 15 and 60 arrested. On September 25, 1941, he issued an additional order: that the operation had to be ruthless to show an example to the rest of Serbia. In response to the death of 21 German soldiers near Topola on October 2, Böhme ordered that 100 prisoners be shot for every dead German soldier. From concentration camps in Šabac and Belgrade 2000 prisoners were selected (mostly Jews and communists) and executed on locality between Jabuka and Pančevo on October 9. On October 14 Böhme issued an order to arrest family-members of insurgents - wives and male relatives over the age of 15. Böhme was replaced by Paul Bader as commander of Serbia on December 5, 1941.

After Serbia

In December 1943, Böhme was appointed Deputy Commanding General of the XVIII Corps and Commander of Wehrkreis XVIII, Salzburg. On 4 June 1944, he was delegated with the leadership of the Second Panzer Army in the Balkans, succeeding Generaloberst Lothar Rendulic.

In July 1944, Böhme was transferred to the Army's High Command Leader Reserve, giving up control of the 2nd Panzer Army to General Maximilian de Angelis. Between 8 January 1945 and 8 May 1945, he served as Armed Forces Commander of Norway and Commander-in-Chief of the 20th Mountain Army.

Trial and suicide

After being captured in Norway, he was brought before the Hostages Trial, a division of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, and charged with war crimes committed in Serbia during his control of the region in 1941. At that time, he had increased the scale of retaliatory strikes against Serbs, killing a hundred Serbs for every German killed, and fifty for every German wounded; this resulted in the massacre of thousands of civilians. When his extradition to Yugoslavia seemed imminent, Böhme committed suicide by jumping from the fourth story of the prison in which he was being held. His body was interred at St. Leonhard-Friedhof in Graz, Austria.

Awards and decorations

• Iron Cross (1914)
  • 2nd Class (1916)
  • 1st Class (12 June 1917)
• Iron Cross (1939)
  • 2nd Class (12 September 1939)
  • 1st Class (25 September 1939)
• Order of the Cross of Liberty 1st Class with Oak leaves and Swords (Finland)
• German Cross in Gold on 10 February 1944 as General der Infanterie in the XVIII. (Gebirgs) Armeekorps
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 29 June 1940 as Generalleutnant commander of 32. Infanterie-Division

References

Bibliography

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — Die Inhaber der höchsten Auszeichnung des Zweiten Weltkrieges aller Wehrmachtteile [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945 — The Owners of the Highest Award of the Second World War of all Wehrmacht Branches] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Lucas, James (1980). Alpine Elite: German Mountain Troops of World War II. Jane's Publishing. ISBN 0531037134.
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Geschichte und Inhaber Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 History and Recipients Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
• Scherzer, Veit (2007). Die Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives [The Knight's Cross Bearers 1939–1945 The Holders of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939 by Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and Allied Forces with Germany According to the Documents of the Federal Archives] (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Militaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
• Weiner, Hana; Ofer, Dalia; Barber, Anne (1996). Dead-end Journey: the Tragic Story of the Kladovo-Šabac Group. University Press of America. ISBN 0761801995.
• Glišić, Venceslav (1970). Teror i zločini nacističke Nemačke u Srbiji 1941–1945 [Terror and Crimes of Nazi Germany in Serbia 1941–1945] (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade: Rad. OCLC 9151138.