Back وليام هارتر ARZ Wilhelm Harster German Wilhelm Harster Spanish Wilhelm Harster French Wilhelm Harster Italian Wilhelm Harster Dutch Wilhelm Harster Polish Харстер, Вильгельм Russian Wilhelm Harster Swedish Вільгельм Гарстер Ukrainian
Wilhelm Harster | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Harster in 1942 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 July 1904 Kelheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died | 25 December 1991 (aged 87) Munich, Germany |
| Alma mater | University of Munich |
| Occupation | Lawyer Civil servant |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Weimar Republic Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service | Freikorps Reichswehr Schutzstaffel German Army |
| Years of service | 1920–1926 1933–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei |
| Unit | Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) |
| Commands | Commander, SiPo and SD (Krakow, 1939; Netherlands, 1940–1943; Italy, 1943–1945) |
| Awards | German Cross in gold Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with swords |
| Criminal conviction | |
| Conviction(s) | War crimes Crimes against humanity |
| Criminal penalty | 12 years imprisonment (1949) 15 years imprisonment (1967) |
Wilhelm Harster (21 July 1904 – 25 December 1991) was a German lawyer, police official and convicted war criminal. An SS-Gruppenführer in the Schutzstaffel (SS), he commanded German security police and intelligence services in Kraków, the Netherlands and northern Italy during the Second World War. A Holocaust perpetrator, he was convicted by a Dutch court and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. After an early release, he returned to Germany and was employed by the state government of Bavaria as a civil servant but was dismissed after a public outcry, though he retained his full pension. He was again tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years for complicity in the murder of 83,000 Dutch Jews.