Edmund Veesenmayer

Edmund Veesenmayer
Vessenmayer as SS-Oberführer
Born	12 November 1904 Bad Kissingen
Died	24 December 1977 Darmstadt
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Waffen SS
Rank	Brigadeführer
Other work	Bore a major responsibility for the deaths approximately 300,000 Hungarian Jews.

Edmund Veesenmayer (12 November 1904, Bad Kissingen – 24 December 1977 in Darmstadt) was a German politician, officer (SS-Brigadeführer) and war criminal. He significantly contributed to The Holocaust in Hungary and Croatia. He was a subordinate of Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Joachim von Ribbentrop; and collaborated with Adolf Eichmann.

Nazi career

Veesenmayer joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1925. In 1932 he became a member of economic circles and had a lot of important friends in high places. At the beginning of 1941 he was attached to the German diplomatic staff in Zagreb (Croatia). He played an important role in the persecution and murder of Croatian and Serbian Jewry. On March 19, 1944 he became Reich plenipotentiary in Hungary after the German occupation.

War crimes trial

Mug shot of Edmund Veesenmayer, ca 1946.

In the Ministries Trial in 1949 received the sentence of 20 years' imprisonment, which was reduced to 10 years in 1951. He was released on December 16 of the same year.

Later life

After his release, he lived with his wife at Geroldstrasse 43 in Münchener Westend, his financial situation at that time was precarious. Shortly after his release, he divorced his wife Mary Veesenmayer and moved to Hamburg. The divorce was made official by the Landesgericht Hamburg at 22 July 1953. They didn't have any children. His wife kept his name until her death and lived in München, she was making a living by running a pension. Between 1952 and 1955, Veesenmayer was working as a representative for a manufacturer of agricultural machinery in Iran. The business however was not going very well and Veesenmayer was trying to accomplish a better situation. At the end of his life, he lived in Darmstadt at the Rosenhöhweg 25. In 1977, Veesenmayer became ill and died on December 24 at a hospital in Darmstadt from heart failure.

References

• Reitlinger, Gerald, The SS -- Alibi of a Nation, Viking (Da Capo reprint), New York 1957 ISBN 0-306-80351-8