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A 21-year-old student from HINDENBURG who has become a pathological anti-Nazi. He is careless and inattentive and claims to be a deserter*.
– 15.06.1944, assigned to the Interpreter Command Vienna.
– 30.10.1944, transferred to the 130th Grenadier Replacement Battalion I in Krumau/Moldau.
Kania volunteered for “special interpreter duties” with an unspecified unit on the Western Front. According to the prisoner, he did this with the intention of deserting at the first opportunity.
– 09.11.1944, arrival in Grafenwöhr – south camp. Kania was not in Friedenthal.
In the period that followed, Kania was with Einheit Stielau and then with Einheit Grabowski.
– 21.12.1944, captured by US troops.
Kania (Oberschütze) confirmed, to the extent he was informed, the persons and information given in report M. 1010. He was however unable to provide further information about Einheit Stielau.
(Note: Kania was employed for most of the time in the replacement company as a guard and KP**).
Between 5 and 10.12.1944, 15 men were transferred from Einheit Stielau to Einheit Grabowski, as interpreters and “speakers”.
In the book History of the CIC by John Mendelsohn, it is briefly mentioned that Josef Kania was a member of Einheit Stielau. Kania was said to have been captured together with 2 soldiers of the third Kampfgruppe (meaning here Kampfgruppe III of Panzer Brigade 150, also known as “Z”). Lt. Grabowski is indeed to be found in this Kampfgruppe (Hardieck/Fölkersam).
Zwischen Ritterkreuz und Galgen, Michael Schadewitz, page 23, organisational chart 2 “Dachau structure”, 4th Company Fallschirm-Jäger-Battalion 600.
The interrogation protocol does not only record the interrogation of Kania. Two further prisoners — Grenadier Joachim Jannek, 19 years old, from Upper Silesia, and Corporal Theofiel Mory, from Mecklenburg — made statements about Einheit Stielau and Panzer Brigade 150.
The protocol reveals neither whether these two soldiers were captured together with Josef Kania, nor how they were dressed.
Whether the three were brought before a court is also unknown. It is stated that the three were apprehended on 21.12.1944 in/near Malmedy. According to the interrogation protocol, only Kania and Jannek belonged to Einheit Grabowski.
Mory, born in 1921, belonged to the 5th Company Fallschirm-Regiment z.b.V. It is also worth mentioning that Mory appeared as a witness in the later trial against Skorzeny (M1106-NARA). In the interrogation (M1106-Fiche 7), Mory stated at the time that he had been a member of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion (Y/Scherf) of Panzer Brigade 150.