Albert Hartl at the Nuremberg trials, 1945–1946

Albert Hartl (1904–1982) was a former Catholic priest in Germany who joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) in 1933 and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, an intelligence agency) the following year.[1]

Early life and education

Hartl studied for the priesthood from 1916 to 1929 at a seminary in Freising and the University of Munich. He was ordained in 1929 by the Archbishop of Munich Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber and began teaching, including at the Freising seminary.[2]

Career with SD

While teaching at Friesing, Hartl became involved with a group of priests who had joined the Nazi Party, and in 1933 he signed up as a paid SD informant. He reported Father Josef Rossberger, apparently his best friend, for anti-Nazi activity, which led to Rossberger's trial and imprisonment, and Hartl becoming a protégé of Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SD. Consequently Hartl renounced the priesthood and joined the SD himself.[2][3] In 1935, according to Gitta Sereny, he became the SD's Chief of Church Information, [4] and was tasked with the collection of information about party members that had close association with the church and collecting information from them.[5] In March 1941, when the Reich Security Head Office was reorganized, he was placed in charge of a Gestapo office known as IV B ("Sects"). Department IV B4, led by Adolf Eichmann, was the office responsible for the deportation of Jews outside Poland.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Longerich 2012, p. 221.
  2. 1 2 Alvarez & Graham 2003, p. 52.
  3. ↑ David Alvarez; Revd Robert A., SJ Graham (5 November 2013). Nothing Sacred: Nazi Espionage Against the Vatican, 1939-1945. Routledge. pp. 89–. ISBN 978-1-135-21714-3.
  4. ↑ Sereny 1995, p. 65.
  5. ↑ Eric Frattini (25 November 2008). The Entity: Five Centuries of Secret Vatican Espionage. St. Martin's Publishing Group. pp. 235–. ISBN 978-1-4299-4724-4.
  6. ↑ Hilberg 2003, p. 425.

Works cited

  • Alvarez, David; Graham, Robert A. (2003). Nothing Sacred: Nazi Espionage Against the Vatican, 1939–1945. London and Portland: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-4302-5.
  • Hilberg, Raul (2003). The Destruction of the European Jews. Vol. II (3rd ed.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09587-2.
  • Longerich, Peter (2012). Heinrich Himmler. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-959232-6.
  • Sereny, Gitta (1995) [1974]. Into That Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-7447-8.
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