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Friedrich Schubert

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Fritz Schubert during the occupation

Friedrich (Fritz) Schubert (Template:Lang-el; 21 February 1897, Dortmund – 22 October 1947, Heptapyrgion) was a Greek-speaking German NCO Oberfeldwebel (Sergeant) of the Nazi Wehrmacht. As head of the Jagdkommando Schubert, a semi-independent paramilitary force he terrorized the civilian population during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II and he committed numerous atrocities in Crete and Macedonia. [1] [2]

Tried by a special court for war criminals in Athens, he was found guilty over the killing of over 250 civilians, sentenced 27 times to death and executed.

Earlier life

Few details of Schubert's pre-WWII life have been verified. Some Cretans believed that Schubert was born as Petros Konstantinidis (Template:Lang-el) (the name he used when he was arrested by the Greek Police), son to a rich tobacco merchant in Smyrna and a Turkish mother and emigrated to Germany at a young age. There, he joined the National Socialist Party and became a dedicated Nazi.

However, it is verified that Schubert was German, born in Dortmund in 1897.[1] During WW I He served in the Imperial German Army, and possibly fought in Turkey. He claimed that he was decorated with the Iron Crescent medal and he was proudly displaying it. In 1918 he possibly returned to Dortmund and became machine fitter (machinen monteur). He returned to Turkey in 1920s, where he worked for the Turkish authorities.[1] Schumbert in 1925 married an Italian woman in Smyrna and emigrated in Alexandria, Egypt where he stayed for about fifteen years. He became a member of NSDAP in January 1934 and after the outbreak of WW II, Schubert returned to Dortmund, Germany. [1] In April 1941 when Germany invaded Greece he joined the Ersatzheer, he was trained as an military interpreter (he already spoke Greek, Turkish, Italian and Arabic) during April and May 1941 and he promoted to Unteroffizier (corporal) in June 1941. [1]

As a Wehrmacht officer

Detachment from Schubert's Jagdkommando in Tzermiado, ca. 1943
Detachment from Schubert's Jagdkommando in Tzermiado, ca. 1943

Schubert made his first appearance on Crete in summer 1941 as military interpreter to the Local German Command (Ortskommandatur) in Chania under general Alexander Andrae commander of occupied Crete. Possibly during August 1941 he was transfered to the Regional German Command (Kreiskommandatur) in Rethymno. [1] In autumn 1941 Schubert was transfered again to Heraklion to the Abwehr (counter-espionage) detachment under the command of greek speaking major Hartmann (first name unknown).

Later, he succeeded Hartmann as the head of the German counter-espionage network. As he could speak Turkish and had a strong Turkish accent when speaking Greek, Cretans nicknamed him "the Turk". In 1943, after recruiting several convicted Greek criminals and Germanophiles (e.g., members of the Tzoulias family from Krousonas), he established his notorious Jagdkommando (Template:Lang-el - ΕΑΚΚ) in eastern Crete.[1]

The Jagdkommando Schubert was an anti-communist militia unit intended to capture local resistance fighters and those who helped them. Its conscripts, who were dressed in Wehrmacht uniforms, become known among Cretans as the Schuberai or Schubertiani (Template:Lang-el).[3] They were notorious for their sadistic practices during attacks against civilians that involved beating, torture, shootings and the destruction of numerous villages (e.g., Oropedio Lasithiou, Rodakino, Kali Sykia, Kallikratis, etc.).[4][5] Even today, calling someone a Schuberai is considered in Crete to be a serious insult synonymous to treachery and cruelty.

These events had enraged the local resistance fighters and made them want to eliminate the Schuberai at all costs. Soon, Schubert's unit lost its effectiveness as it could not operate away from Chania without the escort of a large Wehrmacht protective force. Hence, in 1944 Schubert and his unit were transferred to Macedonia where they reinforced the collaborationist battalion of G. Poulos (a.k.a. Poulos Verband).[6] While in Macedonia, Schubert's group continued their hideous activities, being responsible for the massacres of Chortiatis and Giannitsa, among others.

After World War II

After the war, Schubert attempted to return to Greece. On 4 September 1945 he was arrested in Eleusina on board a plane repatriating ex-concentration camp prisoners back to Greece. On August 5, 1947 he was found guilty of 271 murders and several other crimes including arson, burned numerous villages, rapes, murder of women and children in cold blood, spoils of war, and thefts. For these, Schubert was convicted 27 times to death and several thousand years of imprisonment. He was executed in Eptapyrgio, Thessaloniki on October 22, 1947.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Αθανάσιος Σ. Φωτιου (Αthanasιοs S. Fotiou) (2006). Η Ναζιστική τρομοκρατία στην Ελλάδα, Η αιματηρή πορεία του Φριτς Σούμπερτ και του ελληνικού "Σώματος Κυνηγών" στην κατοχική Κρήτη και Μακεδονία (The Nazi terror in Greece, The bloody path of Fritz Schubert and the greek "Hunter Group" in occupied Crete and Makedonia) (in Greek). Θεσσαλονίκη (Salonika): Επίκεντρο (Epikentro).
  2. ^ Αλ. Ασωνίτης (28 October 2001). "Σας αρέσει ο κ. Σούμπερτ;". Ελευθεροτυπία - Απογευματινή Εφημερίδα. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  3. ^ "Οι δίκες των Γερμανών κατακτητών της Κρήτης". Εφημερίδα Πατρίς. 7 July 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  4. ^ Beevor, Antony. Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, John Murray Ltd, 1991. Penguin Books, 1992
  5. ^ Kiriakopoulos, G.C. The Nazi occupation of Crete, 1941-1945, Praeger Publishers, 1995
  6. ^ Mazower, Mark. Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44, Yale University Press, 1995.
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