Hellmuth Reinhard

A member of the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) from a young age, Reinhard became a member of the SS (serial number 121174) in March 1933 and a member of the NSDAP (serial number 2.382.157) in May of the same year.[2][4][5] The SS was at that time an organisation which recruited younger men distancing themselves from the "hoodlum character of the SA and the party and who looked upon the SS as an elite order, spiritually and politically."[6]

Reinhard served in the Sicherheitsdienst from 1935 in Leipzig and Berlin.[1][3] In September 1938, he was given the title Regierungsassesor and became the head of the Historical Commission for the Reichsführer-SS in Vienna and Prague.[2] He was transferred to the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) in September 1939, where he was tasked with investigating the assassination of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss.[1] During this time, Reinhard wished to join the Waffen-SS but was permanently excluded as a candidate after breaking his leg in the Netherlands.[4] On 8 August 1940, he became leader of the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung in Amsterdam until 3 November 1941, when he became deputy commander for the Gestapo in Kiev.[1][2][3]

On 28 January 1942, Reinhard was sent to Norway.[2] By 1943, he had been given the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer and made head of SiPo's Abteilung IV (the Gestapo), stationed at Victoria Terrasse in Oslo. He was placed there on personal orders from Heinrich Himmler.[2][4] Under the command of Heinrich Fehlis, he led the fight against the Norwegian resistance and oversaw the torture of prisoners.[2][3] He was even feared by his own men, who after the war claimed that he had threatened to send them to northern Norway or to concentration camps if they disobeyed orders.[2][3] In the summer of 1944, following an order from Hitler, the fate of SiPo priosners was no longer decided in court, but rather by an assessment made by Reinhard. Later that year, a group of Norwegians were secretly executed at Trandum leir as a result of what was called "kontordom" (office judgement) by Norwegian prisoners.[2] During his time in Norway, Reinhard was also involved in the deportation of Jews and a series of murders carried out as part of Operation Blumenpflücken.[1][2][3]

Near the end of the war, Reinhard started inviting young male prisoners to dinner in his home, where he would hold conversations on philosophy, literature, and politics. In some occasions, this enabled the invitees to have other prisoners freed. It is unknown what Reinhard's purpose was in hosting these meals; he would drink heavily towards the end and sometimes mentioned death sentences for which he had a bad conscience.[2]

On 1 February 1945, Reinhard was transferred from Norway to the Sudetenland. Here he became leader of the Gestapo in Reichenberg, a role he would hold until the Nazi capitulation.[2]