Johann-Georg Richert

Johann-Georg Richert
Born	14 April 1890 Liebau, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	30 January 1946(1946-01-30) (aged 55) Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
Criminal status	Executed by hanging
Motive	Nazism
Conviction	War crimes
Trial	Minsk Trial
Criminal penalty	Death
Military career
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic Nazi Germany
Service years	1909–1945
Rank	Generalleutnant
Commands	286th Security Division 35th Infantry Division
Conflicts	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves

Johann-Georg Richert (14 April 1890 – 30 January 1946) was a German general during World War II. He commanded the 286th Security Division whose personnel committed numerous war crimes in occupied Belarus, in the Army Group Center Rear Area.

The 35th Infantry Division also committed war crimes during early 1944 while Richert was its commanding officer. The division's operations against "partisans" (who were often civilians) became more frequent and brutal after Richert assumed command. Richert also ordered that all of his soldiers who were in hospitals without injuries or a diagnosed illness be executed, and threatened units and commanding officers who were defeated in battle with severe penalties.

With the help of troops from Sonderkommando 7b of Einsatzgruppe B, Richert forced at least 40,000 civilians into the Ozarichi death camps, makeshift camps which had been established by Josef Harpe. Dieter Pohl has called the establishment of the camp "one of the worst crimes the Wehrmacht ever committed against civilians". By the time troops of the 65th Army of the First Belorussian Front liberated those in camps on 19 March 1944, at least 9,000 people had died. The troops freed 33,480 people, including 15,960 children under the age of 13, from the Ozarichi death camps.

Richert was taken prisoner by Soviet troops; he was tried in the Minsk Trial, a war crimes trial held in front of a Soviet military tribunal in 1945–1946 in Minsk. The tribunal heard the case against 18 German military, SS, and police officials accused of crimes committed during the occupation of Belarus. Alongside a Wehrmacht and a police general, Richert was the highest-ranking official of the occupying force on trial. Richert, along with 14 other defendants, was sentenced to death and executed by hanging on 30 January 1946.

Awards and decorations

• Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (20 September 1939) & 1st Class (3 October 1939)
• German Cross in Gold on 1 December 1941 as oberst in 23rd Infantry Regiment
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
  • Knight's Cross on 17 March 1944 as generalleutnant and commander of 35th Infantry Division
  • Oak Leaves on 18 October 1944 as generalleutnant and commander of 35th Infantry Division

References

Bibliography

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Heer, Hannes (2004). "The Logic of the War of Extermination". In Hannes Heer; Klaus Naumann (eds.). War of Extermination: The German Military In World War II. Berghahn Books. ISBN 1-57181-232-6.
• Heer, Hannes (1995). "Der Minsker Prozess". Hannesheer.de.
• Matthäus, Jürgen (2008). Patricia Heberer; Jürgen Matthäus (eds.). Atrocities on Trial: Historical Perspectives on the Politics of Prosecuting War Crimes. Washington, D.C.: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-1084-4. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
• Patzwall, Klaus D.; Scherzer, Veit (2001). Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941 – 1945 Band II [The German Cross 1941 – 1945 Volume 2] (in German). Norderstedt, Germany: Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. ISBN 978-3-931533-45-8.
• Thomas, Franz (1998). Die Eichenlaubträger 1939–1945 Band 2: L–Z [The Oak Leaves Bearers 1939–1945 Volume 2: L–Z] (in German). Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7648-2300-9.
• Wildermuth, David W. (October 2019). ""I am fully aware of my guilt...": Insights from a Soviet Military Tribunal's Investigation of the German Army's 35th Division, 1946-47". The Journal of Military History. 83 (4): 1189–1213.

Further reading

• Beorn, Waitman Wade (2014). Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674725508.