SD Men in Poland, September 1939
Helmut Bischoff, SS-Obersturmbannführer, was born on March 1, 1908 in Glogau. A member of the legal profession, he was married and professed himself to be agnostic. He joined the Nazi Party on March 1, 1930 with Party Number 203122. Bischoff joined the SS and received SS Number 272403. During the 1939 Polish Campaign, he commanded Einsatzkommando 1/IV (Operation Tannenberg; Einsatzkommando IV was commanded by SS-Brigadeführer Lothar Beutel.)
Helmut Bischoff
He later received the War Service Cross First Class and worked in the SD Magdeburg and the SD Posen. Bischoff also received the Iron Cross Second Class. Helmut Bischoff died in Hamburg on January 5, 1993. (The Field Men: The SS Officers Who Led the Einsatzkommandos – the Nazi Mobile Killing Units)
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Michael Wittmann
SS-Brigadeführer Theodor Wisch presented Wittmann with the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on January 16, 1944 near the front.
By the end of the month, Wittmann’s total of destroyed enemy tanks reached the century mark and on January 30, 1944 Adolf Hitler sent him a congratulatory telegram announcing the award of the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. The same day, he was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer. He left command of the company on February 1, 1944 and on February 2, 1944 hopped on a transport plane and flew to the “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters at Rastenburg in East Prussia, where the Führer presented him with the award.
Remaining in Germany the rest of the month, Michael Wittmann married his nineteen year old fiancée Hildegard Burmester at Lüneburg on March 1, 1944. On March 20, 1944 the 13th (Heavy) Company was assigned to the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Detachment. Wittmann assumed command of the detachment’s 2nd Company, which was then around Mons, Belgium. (Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 & 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943)
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Chicago Crime Calendar
On March 1, 2021, Officer James Daly, who had been a Chicago cop since October 1999, committed suicide by gunshot in a locker room at the Town Hall station, 850 West Addison Street.