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Richard Nitsch
(Richard Heinrich Georg)

∗ 01-11-1908 Todtgüslingen (Niede     † ? Bad Bentheim ?
- Police - Sipo/SD - NSDAP - War Criminals - Survivors -

Richard Nitsch was one of the notorious sadists of the SiPo in Maastricht [1], which was subordinate to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office) of Reinhard Heydrich [2]. He went so far in his cruelty that his boss Max Strobel [3] occasionally had to stop him, otherwise he would have murdered important witnesses. And this, although Strobel was really not squeamish either. To illustrate follows just one of many examples. Those who can’t stand this kind of thing should stop reading here.
Early in the morning of February 18, the Sipo surrounded Janssen’s house. The L.O. man tried in vain to escape via the roof. Nitsch immediately asked for the schoolbag. Janssen initially denied everything, but the Sipo found the schoolbag. Nitsch, Ströbel and Klonen went on a rampage of the most disgusting atrocities. They worked Janssen over with a boxing ring and an iron ruler, stuffed a ball of paper down his throat, squeezed his larynx, burned his nose with a cigar, and hit him on the Adam’s apple. Although the Sipo members repeatedly kicked and beat Janssen, he remained silent even after Nitsch smashed his right little finger in two with the ruler. After three days of torture, during which Janssen repeatedly fell unconscious, Ströbel ordered to break it off because the L.O. man was about to die. [4]
On November 15, 1948, the trial of Nitsch began amid great interest before the Special Court in Maastricht, in which he had to account for the shooting without trial of the following persons:
1) Derk van Assen, bailiff of the Maastricht tax office. 2) The H.H. Scheepers case (shot in a pub). 3) The murders of M.P. Pereira and A.H. Ummels. 4) The deaths of the Sittard boys Schadron, Clemens and Eyck. 5) The Silbertanne case [5] of H.J. Korrel and 6) the death of three unknown persons. In the indictment, 14 persons are listed for physical injury, some of whom are to be examined as witnesses themselves. [6]
The death penalty was requested against him and he was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was commuted to 22 years and nine months in April 1959. The following year he was released and deported to West Germany as an undesirable alien. This was in accordance with Dutch policy, according to which most war criminals were released prematurely. [7]
He died peacefully in his bed.
After Nitsch was free again Rosalie Sprooten, author of Bericht aan Hare Majesteit, about the resistance in the southeast of South Limburg, tried to contact him as part of her historical research. He replied to her as follows:

Dear Mrs. Sprooten!

It is impossible for me to help you in this matter. My memory has deteriorated so much over the past 40 years that the names and incidents you mentioned mean nothing to me. Moreover, I drew a line under the past and do not want to be reminded of it anymore.

With kind regards
R. Nitsch [8]

Footnotes

1. SiPo/SD Maastricht
2. Reinhard Heydrich, Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • English • Français • Português
3. Max Strobel
   Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch
4. Dr. F. Cammaert, Het Verborgen Front – Geschiedenis van de georganiseerde illegaliteit in de provincie Limburg tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Doctorale scriptie 1994, Groningen
   6. De Landelijke Organisatie voor hulp aan onderduikers • VIII-IX, p.649
5. Operation Silbertanne, Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch • English
6. Limburgsch dagblad 16-11-1948
7. Richard Nitsch, Wikipedia • Nederlands • Deutsch
8. Rosalie Sprooten, Bericht aan Hare Majesteit p.145
   index
9. https://beeldbankwo2.nl/nl/beelden/detail/96001f28-025a-11e7-904b-d89d6717b464/media/32fc5a1b-8d5c-8f6c-1d43-7a54d2698349