This Date in History: July 29

 

Dr. Heinz Neumann, SS-Hauptsturmführer, was born at Saarbrücken on July 29, 1911.  He served as a camp doctor at the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1939, the Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1940 and on the staff at concentration camp headquarters in Oranienburg later in the war.  (The Camp Men: The SS Officers Who Ran the Nazi Concentration Camp System)

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Friedrich “Fritz” Hitz.  Friedrich Hitz was born on August 23, 1923 in Neustadt/Aisch in Franconia.  Hitz joined the Hitler Youth in 1933.  A mechanic by trade, he stood 5’11” and joined the Waffen-SS on March 15, 1941, and first studied communications; he had blood type O.  On October 15, 1942 he joined the 2nd Company of the Totenkopf panzer detachment, winning the Iron Cross Second Class on March 28, 1943 for his service near Kharkov.  At the Kursk Offensive, SS-Sturmmann Hitz served as a loader on Tiger 901 and Tiger 911 in the 9th (Heavy) Company.  He was awarded the Panzer Battle Badge in Silver on July 29, 1943.  (Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 & 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943)