Hans Dietrich Wittsack

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NSDAP
In the Bundesarchiv Berlin, in the holdings of the former Berlin Document Center, the membership cards of the NSDAP were established for Otto Wittsack and his son Dietrich Wittsack. On the NSDAP membership cards, as was also the case with the Krause family, the date of the membership application is given at a later point in time than the actual entry into the party.

The application for membership by Otto Wittsack was submitted according to the membership card on 15.12.1937. The application by Dietrich Wittsack to join the NSDAP was submitted according to the index card on 19.12.1938. Furthermore, there is for each of them a questionnaire for a party statistical survey for the year 1939.

The questionnaire of Dietrich Wittsack was signed by his father. The form provides information on membership of individual NS organisations and associations.

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Otto Wittsack held the SA Sports Badge (Military Sports Badge)

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The data regarding entry into the NSDAP were taken in this table from the two questionnaires for the party statistical survey.

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Education
In the case of Dietrich Wittsack we have the good fortune that his daughter — she was born half a year after the death of Dietrich Wittsack — learned of the research and got in touch with me.

It could thus be learned that Dietrich Wittsack completed grammar school in Berlin-Hermsdorf with good results. Hence also his knowledge of English. From the Berlin population registration card index at the Landesarchiv Berlin and an entry in the family register of the Wittsack family it emerges that Dietrich Wittsack was a mechanical fitter by profession.

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Dietrich Wittsack must, according to information from his daughter, have been in Africa for a period. With which unit, or during what period, is entirely unknown. The only evidence for this is a photograph of Dietrich Wittsack in tropical uniform.

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Dietrich Wittsack in tropical clothing. The location and time of the photograph are unknown.
Source: Family collection.

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There is a record of a hospital stay at the Deutsche Dienststelle.

27.01.1942 Luftwaffe Hospital St. Gilles (Brussels) – Due to illness (pyelonephritis)
Admitted: from the unit
Discharged: 02.02.1942 fit for duty to the unit.

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The family history

The daughter of Dietrich Wittsack knows very little about her father. The information she received came from her mother. Persons who could have told her more about her father remained silent. No living persons who had known her father were found during the research. It was unsatisfying for us that we could tell the daughter only little that was new.

Dietrich Wittsack knew, when he went to the Ardennes, that his wife Ruth was pregnant.

Bundesarchiv Department PA, formerly Deutsche Dienststelle Berlin (WASt)
The personnel index card* of the former Deutsche Dienststelle which we consulted states that Dietrich Wittsack, according to the report of 22.01.1945, had been listed as missing in the Malmedy area since 23.12.1944. The report was not added to the index card until 22.03.1945. The card cannot in any way be described as orderly bookkeeping. The earliest report dealing with the death of Dietrich Wittsack is dated 07.01.1948. The card states: “23.12.44, captured, Geromont (Malmedy). 30.12.44, shot on the orders of the Military Commission for attacking a soldier in US uniform in Henri-Chapelle – Belgium”. The sentence was crossed out on the card. The grave location at the cemetery in Henri-Chapelle is then given. Not until a report of 10.01.1952 are the reinterment and the grave location at the cemetery in Lommel noted. A report of 25.10.1950 states that a translation of the photocopy (which can only refer to the death certificate) was transmitted to the wife. It appears that someone realised that the first translation was incorrect. Where the incorrect information came from is not apparent. According to the report of 28.03.1951, the wife of Dietrich Wittsack was informed of the unit designation on personal application. Which unit was communicated to her is not stated. It is worth mentioning that the card gives the Weather Platoon Air Fleet II as the unit. In 2009 the Deutsche Dienststelle wrote only Air Fleet as the unit. Air Fleet II also yields no new insights however. This is once again evidence that the information from the Deutsche Dienststelle was anything but complete. And even today we dare to doubt it.
_{*Reference number see Sources}

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Information from the International Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva

(International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC)

In our archive there is a copy of the death certificate from the possession of the daughter of Dietrich Wittsack.
The copy is the same size as the certificate available for Erhard Miegel. Both certificates, approximately postcard size, are negatives, i.e. carbon copies.

The death certificate must also have passed through the Red Cross in Geneva since it too bears a RAD number: RAD-95744. Since the certificate was available, no research was conducted into whether it is currently held in the archive of the Red Cross in Geneva. It is notable that the death certificate states not Dietrich but Hans. Had the personal details come from Dietrich Wittsack’s own statements, his known name would certainly have appeared there. The date of marriage is also incorrectly given as 1939. This can be clearly established by a copy of the family register. All other details are identical to the death certificates of the other “spies” and have brought nothing new to light.

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The American death certificate as held by the family. Source: Family collection.

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German Military Cemetery Lommel. Photo: © Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers.