Karl Bömelburg

Karl Bömelburg joined the Gestapo in 1933 and in 1938 became part of the staff of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Paris. After a short stint in Prague, and following Germany’s invasion of France in spring 1940, SS-Sturmbannführer (major) Bömelburg returned to Paris as the Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei (KdS, Commander of Security Police). By August 1940, he was named head of the Gestapo in France, Section IV (Amt IV) of the_ Sicherheitsdienst_ (SD). In that position, he oversaw the interrogation and torture of numerous prisoners and acted as overseer of the French transit camp (Durchgangslager) Drancy. SS-Sturmbannführer Stindt replaced him in November 1943. In June 1944, Bömelburg was transferred to Vichy where he again worked as a Gestapo chief. Bömelburg participated in several planning meetings for the confiscation of the Schloss Collection in April 1943. Göpel alluded to the role of the SD, and therefore Bömelburg, in the confiscation process in an April 1943 letter to Martin Bormann. On 10 May 1943, Werner Gerlach, consul at the German Embassy in Paris, notified Rudolf Schleier that Bömelburg had been instrumental in helping to secure the collection, as well as in facilitating the arrest of Henry and Lucien Schloss. In 1945, Bömelburg fled with Heinrich Müller, the Gestapo chief in Berlin. He died in an accident in 1946 after living under an assumed identity near Munich for a year.

Literature: Thalmann, Rita. “La traque des Juifs: Dans le contexte de la ‘mise au pas’ de la France.” Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, Vol. 48, Issue 3, June 1993 , pp. 595 - 604.

Othen, Christopher. The King of Nazi Paris. Henri Lafont and the Gangsters of the French Gestapo. Biteback Publishing, 2020.

Lehrer, Steven. Wartime Sites in Paris 1939-1945. Createspace Independent Pub, 2013.