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Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives and invite open debate. |
Brad
Allan
of USA, inquires
on Thursday, November 16, 2000
Whatever happened to Heinz von Pannwitz?
ARE
you aware of the fate of Heinz Pannwitz (or von
Pannwitz)? As you may recall, Pannwitz and Karl
Hermann Frank led the investigation into the
assassination of Heydrich (right). Pannwitz was
the head of the anti-sabotage section of the Prague
Gestapo.
While Frank was hanged in Prague in 1946, I have no information concerning the ultimate fate of Pannwitz. Callum MacDonald, in his book "The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich" (my edition: De Capo Press, New York, 1998) details the murder investigation, but leaves the question of Pannwitz unresolved.
DAVID
IRVING writes: If readers will reply to me and this
correspondent I will post their replies here:-
Jordan
Hoffmann reports Saturday, November 18, 2000: "He
died about 1980. Pannwitz investigated Heydrich's killing
and reported to Hitler the results of his investigation.
This report, with a supplement added by him as late as
1959 is found in University College London in the School
of East European and Slavic Studies collection.
Stanislav Berton published Pannwitz's account in
the late 1980s.
Miguel
Angel Prada-Krackow has this information:
"Heinz Pannwitz (1911-?1981) (real name
Paulsen) was born in Berlin. In 1940 he became
criminal commissioner heading Department GII of the
Prague Gestapo in German occupied Czechoslovakia. On 27
May 1942 an assassination attempt was made on the life of
Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) which resulted in his death
on 4 June. Heydrich was head of the Nazi security police
and governor of Bohemia-Moravia. The assassins were
intelligence agents sent by Czech military intelligence
in exile in Britain, aided by the Special Operations
Executive. Pannwitz was appointed head of a special
commission to investigate the killing. His final report
was submitted to Hitler and found its way to the Archives
of the Institute for Jewish Research, New York (YIVO). In
1959 Pannwitz wrote his account of the investigation
found in this collection. He would have had to rely on
his memory as few books had been published on the subject
at that time. In the early 1980s, Pannwitz's widow
allowed Stanislav Berton access to the account and
he later published it. Pannwitz was kept in prison about
25 years. When he was captured (in the final days of the
WW II) he was brutally tortured by the US Army."
David Irving