Walter Bellwidt
Walter Bellwidt, SS-Obersturmbannführer, was born in Frankfurt on May 5, 1900. A Protestant, he was married, serving in the guard forces at Buchenwald in 1938 t0 1939. He then was assigned to the 3rd SS Division “Totenkopf“, where he later served in the division’s replacement battalion as commander and participated in the destruction of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Bellwidt died on October 13, 1965 in Frankfurt. (The Camp Men: The SS Officers Who Ran the Nazi Concentration Camp System)
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Originally, Operation Citadel, the 1943 German attack against the Kursk salient in Russia, was timed to begin in the first half of May 1943, when the ground would be sufficiently dry from the spring thaws and when – according to von Field Marshal von Manstein – the Soviets would still not have finished refitting their armor units. Seeing numerous problems, on April 26 the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) agreed to postpone the start of the operation until May 5, 1943. (Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2, & 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943)