Wilhelm Fritz von Roettig (25 July 1888 – 10 September 1939) was a German general in the Waffen-SS who participated in the invasion of Poland. He was the first general to be killed in World War II.[1] Roettig held the ranks of Generalmajor der Ordnungspolizei and SS-Brigadeführer.

Death

Roettig was killed at about 14:15 on 10 September 1939 aged 51, near Opoczno, Poland. He was killed when his staff car was ambushed by Polish troops armed with heavy machine guns (elements of the 19th Infantry Division under Colonel Jan Kruk-Śmigla). Roettig was badly wounded and subsequently shot in the head.[2][3] He was the first general to be killed in World War II.[1] The next general to die after Roettig was the Polish general Józef Kustroń, who died on 16 September. Subsequently, the next German general to die was Generaloberst Werner von Fritsch, who was killed on 22 September.

Two days after his death, German troops killed twenty Jews in a nearby town of Końskie (in what is known as the Końskie massacre), with some sources calling that massacre a retaliation for the death of Roettig and his entourage, also related to the rumours that the German dead have been mutilated by the "Polish partisans".[4][5][6][7]

As a memorial to him, a street in occupied Prague was named for him during the German occupation of the city.[8]

Sources

  1. 1 2 Hischak, Thomas S. (2017-06-16). 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-4422-7805-9.
  2. ↑ Zinke, Dieter. Die Generale der Waffen-SS und der Polizei
  3. ↑ Forczyk, Robert (2019-10-31). Case White: The Invasion of Poland 1939. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-3494-2.
  4. ↑ Petropoulos, Jonathan (2014-11-28). Artists Under Hitler: Collaboration and Survival in Nazi Germany. Yale University Press. pp. 252–253. ISBN 978-0-300-21061-3.
  5. ↑ Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939: operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. p. 119. ISBN 978-83-7629-063-8.
  6. ↑ Böhler, Jochen (2009). Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu w Polsce: wrzesień 1939, wojna totalna (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Znak. pp. 211–213. ISBN 978-83-240-1225-1.
  7. ↑ Lemay, Benoît (2010-07-27). Erich von Manstein: Hitler's Master Strategist. Casemate. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-1-935149-55-2.
  8. ↑ Čarek, Jiří (1958). Ulicemi města Prahy od 14. století do dneška: názvy mostů, nábřeží, náměstí, ostrovů, sadů a ulic hlavního města Prahy, jejich změny a výklad (in Czech). Orbis. p. 196.


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