Felix Landau

Austrian SS officer (1910–1983)

This article is about an SS officer. For the American art dealer, see Felix Landau (art dealer).

Felix Landau

Born| (1910-05-21)May 21, 1910

Vienna, Austria-Hungary

Died| April 20, 1983(1983-04-20) (aged 72)

Vienna, Austria

Occupation| SS Hauptscharführer
Known for| Documenting his activities in the Einsatzkommando in his diary
Criminal status| Deceased
Conviction| Murder
Criminal penalty| Life imprisonment with hard labour

Felix Landau (May 21, 1910 – April 20, 1983) was an SS Hauptscharführer, a member of an Einsatzkommando during World War II, based first in Lwów, Poland (today Lviv, Ukraine), and later in Drohobycz. Landau was a participant in numerous mass shooting of Galician Jews. He is known for his daily diary and for temporarily sparing the life of the Jewish/Polish artist Bruno Schulz in 1942. Landau liked Schulz's art and supplied him with protection and extra food. In return, he ordered the artist to paint a set of murals for his young son's bedroom, depicting scenes from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Landau also was the SS officer assigned to watch over Maria Altmann, the subject of the 2015 film Woman in Gold.[1]

## Early career

[edit]

Born as the illegitimate child of Paul Stipkowich and Maria Maier, Felix Richard Landau received the surname of his Jewish stepfather after his mother had married Jakob Landau in 1911.[2] In 1925, Landau joined National Socialist Youth and was expelled from apprentice boarding school (run by a Catholic lay order) for active recruitment activities. In 1930 he joined Austrian Bundesheer (2nd Dragoner Squadron). In March 1931 he joined NSDAP and in May became a political leader of a local Nazi army district. In June 1933 was expelled from Bundesheer for Nazi activities. From June 1933 to April 1934, Landau was a member of Sturmabteilung, after that in SS. During the July Putsch in 1934, Landau was a member of the group which stormed the Federal Chancellery of Austria, holding several staff members under guard with a submachine gun. After the coup's failure, Landau was arrested and sent to Wöllersdorf detention camp. Landau was conditionally released under an amnesty on February 17, 1937. The conditions of his release were stringent, requiring him to report to the authorities on a daily basis, not go outside after 8:00 PM, not use a telephone or any kind of transportation. He was also not allowed to hold a job and was prohibited from receiving unemployment benefits. As a result, Landau fled from Austria to Germany in April 1937. He became a naturalized German citizen, got married, and worked as a police assistant in the Gestapo.[3]

## World War II and service in Einsatzkommando

[edit]

In 1940, Landau transferred to KdS/SD in Radom governed by the General Government where he met typist Gertrude, to whom he later addressed his letters.

In June 1941, Felix Landau volunteered for Einsatzkommando service. He began his diary in July 1941, interspersing sentimental letters to his fiancée with detailed records of his participation in actions related to the Holocaust. He describes "shooting exercises" and "wild actions", shooting sprees wherein he and his men would pick off random Jews who worked nearby or passed by on the street. In one such event in November 1942, Landau killed the personal dentist of a fellow officer, Karl Günther. In revenge, Günther caught up with Bruno Schulz, then under the protection of Landau, and shot him twice in the head. According to Schulz's friend Izydor Friedman, who witnessed the death, this happened at the corner of Czacki and Mickiewicz Streets. Later, Günther told Landau: "You killed my Jew - I killed yours."

At the end of 1941, he lived with Gertrude in an aristocratic villa. He divorced his first wife in 1942 and married Gertrude in 1943 (divorced in 1946). Until May 1943, Landau was in charge of organizing Jewish labor.

## After World War II

[edit]

In 1946, a former worker recognized him in Linz. Landau was arrested by the Americans but escaped from Glasenbach prison camp in August 1947. Under the name of Rudolf Jaschke, he started an interior decorating company in Bavaria.[4]

In August 1958, Landau was arrested and accused of participating in massacres. In 1962, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Stuttgart Assize Court. Landau was released from prison in 1973, and died in 1983.[5] He was buried in the Hernalser Cemetery in Vienna, Austria.[6][7]

## Quotes from the diary

[edit]

* Lwow - 5 July 1941... There were hundreds of Jews walking along the street with blood pouring down their faces, holes in their heads, their hands broken and their eyes hanging out of their sockets. They were covered in blood. Some were carrying others who had collapsed. We went to the citadel; there we saw things that few people have ever seen. At the entrance to the citadel there were soldiers standing guard. They were holding clubs as thick as a man's wrist and were lashing out and hitting anyone who crossed their path. The Jews were pouring out of the entrance. There were rows of Jews lying one on top of the other like pigs, whimpering horribly. The Jews kept streaming out of the citadel completely covered in blood. We stopped and tried to see who was in charge of the Kommando. Nobody. Someone had let the Jews go. They were just being hit out of rage and hatred...
* Drohobycz - 12 July 1941... At 6:00 in the morning I was suddenly awoken from a deep sleep. Report for an execution. Fine, so I'll just play executioner and then gravedigger, why not?... Twenty-three had to be shot, amongst them ... two women ... We had to find a suitable spot to shoot and bury them. After a few minutes we found a place. The death candidates assembled with shovels to dig their own graves. Two of them were weeping. The others certainly have incredible courage... Strange, I am completely unmoved. No pity, nothing. That's the way it is and then it's all over... Valuables, watches and money are put into a pile... The two women are lined up at one end of the grave ready to be shot first... As the women walked to the grave they were completely composed. They turned around. Six of us had to shoot them. The job was assigned thus: three at the heart, three at the head. I took the heart. The shots were fired and the brains whizzed through the air. Two in the head is too much. They almost tear it off...

## See also

[edit]

* List of prison escapes

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Kun, Josh. "The Art of Memory". BSLaw. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
2. ^ Felix Landau: Biography of a mass murderer
3. ^ Stieber, Robert (2016-04-01). Vom eigenen Tagebuch überführt. Der Wiener NS-Täter Felix Landau (in German). GRIN Verlag. ISBN 978-3-668-19226-3.
4. ^ The Lost. Searching for Bruno Schulz by Ruth Franklin (The New Yorker, December 16, 2002)
5. ^ Bert Hoppe, Hildrun Glass (Bearbeiter): Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933 - 1945. Bd. 7: Sowjetunion mit annektierten Gebieten. Teil 1: Besetzte sowjetische Gebiete unter deutscher Militärverwaltung, Baltikum und Transnistrien. Oldenbourg Verlag, München 2011. ISBN 978-3-486-58911-5. S. 155.
6. ^ GRIN - Vom eigenen Tagebuch überführt. Der Wiener NS-Täter Felix Landau.
7. ^ Hernals Cemetery Gravesite Location Gruppe:38 B; Reihe:1 B; Nummer:6

## Further reading

[edit]

* Love letters of a Nazi murderer in Lemberg and Drohobycz by Felix Landau (Yad Vashem), 1987 ASIN B0007C502 O
* The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation and Aftermath (Rewriting Histories) by Omer Bartov (pp. 185–203 contain excerpts from Felix Landau's diary and a biographical note)
* Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust by Richard Rhodes (Vintage, 2003 reprint ed.) ISBN 0-375-70822-7
* The Second World War: A Complete History by Martin Gilbert
* The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh
* The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 by Michael Burleigh (Cambridge University Press, 1991 reprint ed) ISBN 0-521-39802-9

## External links

[edit]

* Faces in the Textual Neighborhood: Two Poles and a Lithuanian by Adam Zachary Newton, University of Texas, Austin
* Finding Pictures
* (in German) Austrian Holocaust
* Ukraine - Jewish Art (PBS-NPR)
* Yad Vashem not displaying Bruno Schulz Holocaust art Archived 2006-06-24 at the Wayback Machine by Amiran Barkat (Ha'aretz April 7, 2005), (International Survey of Jewish Monuments)

* v
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The Holocaust in Ukraine

Main article
The Holocaust
Related articles by country
Belarus
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Norway
Poland
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People|

| Perpetrators|

* Gheorghe Alexianu
* Ion Antonescu
* Paul Blobel
* Werner Braune
* Kurt Eberhard
* Hermann Fegelein
* Lothar Fendler
* Hans Frank
* Günther Herrmann
* Friedrich Jeckeln
* Ernst Kaltenbrunner
* Fritz Katzmann
* Erich Koch
* Felix Landau
* Gustav Adolf Nosske
* Hans von Obstfelder
* Otto Ohlendorf
* Hans-Adolf Prützmann
* Paul Otto Radomski
* Otto Rasch
* Walter von Reichenau
* Walter Schimana
* Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
* Heinz Schubert
* Erwin Schulz
* Heinrich Seetzen
* Hans Graf von Sponeck
* Otto Wächter
* Dieter Wisliceny

|

Collaborators|

* John Demjanjuk
* Feodor Fedorenko
* Anatoliy Kabayda
* Vladimir Katriuk
* Vasyl Meleshko
* Hryhoriy Vasiura
* Petro Voinovsky
* Petro Zakhvalynsky

Victims|

* Tatiana Markus

Rescuers|

* Ukrainian Righteous Among the Nations
* Aleksei Glagolev
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Organizations|

| Perpetrators|

* Einsatzgruppen
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|

Events|

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Places|

* Bogdanovka concentration camp
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Evidence|

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* The Last Jew in Vinnitsa
* Deutsche Volksliste

Trials|

* Einsatzgruppen trial
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Books & films|

* Luboml: My Heart Remembers
* No Place on Earth
* She Paid the Ultimate Price
* The Lemberg Mosaic
* The White Hotel
* Word of the Righteous

See also
History of the Jews in Carpathian Ruthenia
Transnistria Governorate

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Holocaust in German-occupied Poland

Main article
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Camps|

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|

Concentration|

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Mass shootings|

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Pogroms|

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Ghettos|

* Będzin
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Other atrocities|

* Action T4
* Grossaktion Warsaw
* Human medical experiments
* Heidelager

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Perpetrators, participants, organizations, and collaborators

Perpetrators|

| Organizers|

* Viktor Brack
* Josef Bühler
* Adolf Eichmann
* Theodor Eicke
* Ludwig Fischer
* Hans Frank
* Odilo Globocnik
* Richard Glücks
* Arthur Greiser
* Heinrich Himmler
* Hermann Höfle
* Fritz Katzmann
* Wilhelm Koppe
* Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger
* Franz Kutschera
* Erwin Lambert
* Ernst Lerch
* Georg Michalsen
* Oswald Pohl
* Heinz Reinefarth
* Julian Scherner
* Arthur Seyss-Inquart
* Jakob Sporrenberg
* Bruno Streckenbach
* Richard Thomalla
* Otto Wächter
* Dieter Wisliceny

|

Camp command|

* Hans Aumeier
* Richard Baer
* Wilhelm Boger
* Hermine Braunsteiner
* Irmfried Eberl
* Theodor van Eupen
* Kurt Franz
* Karl Frenzel
* Karl Fritzsch
* Amon Göth
* Maximilian Grabner
* Otto Hantke
* Fritz Hartjenstein
* Gottlieb Hering
* Rudolf Höss
* Franz Hössler
* Karl-Otto Koch
* Josef Kramer
* Arthur Liebehenschel
* Maria Mandl
* Heinrich Matthes
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* Johann Niemann
* Josef Oberhauser
* Franz Reichleitner
* Heinrich Schwarz
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* Franz Stangl
* Gustav Wagner
* Christian Wirth

Gas chamber
executioners|

* Erich Bauer
* Kurt Bolender
* Lorenz Hackenholt
* Josef Klehr
* Hans Koch
* Herbert Lange
* Otto Moll
* Ludwig Plagge
* Adolf Theuer

Physicians|

* Franz von Bodmann
* Carl Clauberg
* Karl Gebhardt
* Horst Fischer
* Fritz Klein
* Josef Mengele
* Horst Schumann
* Alfred Trzebinski
* Eduard Wirths

Ghetto command|

* Heinz Auerswald
* Hans Biebow
* Josef Blösche
* Franz Bürkl
* Heinrich Klaustermeyer
* Franz Konrad
* Alexander Palfinger
* Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg
* Jürgen Stroop

Einsatzgruppen|

* Wolfgang Birkner
* Helmut Bischoff
* Lothar Beutel
* Paul Blobel
* Karl Brunner
* Ernst Damzog
* Gerhard Flesch
* Ludwig Hahn
* Felix Landau
* Josef Meisinger
* Bruno Müller
* Erich Naumann
* Emanuel Schäfer
* Hermann Schaper
* Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
* Udo von Woyrsch

Personnel|

| Camp guards|

* Hans Anhalt
* Jenny-Wanda Barkmann
* Herta Bothe
* Juana Bormann
* Alexander Bülow
* Luise Danz
* John Demjanjuk
* Margot Dreschel
* Feodor Fedorenko
* Hans Hoffmann
* Kurt Gerstein
* Paul Götze
* Irma Grese
* Karl-Friedrich Höcker
* Karl Jeschke
* Oswald Kaduk
* Josef Kollmer
* Hildegard Lächert
* Johanna Langefeld
* Anton Lechner
* Eduard Lorenz
* Erich Muhsfeldt
* Detlef Nebbe
* Alice Orlowski
* Elisabeth Volkenrath

|

By camp|

* Sobibor
* Treblinka

Organizations|

* Einsatzgruppen (SS)
* Order Police battalions (Ordnungspolizei)
* WVHA
* RKFDV
* VoMi
* General Government
* Hotel Polski

Collaboration|

* Schutzmannschaft (Belarusian Auxiliary Police, Estonian Auxiliary Police / 36th Estonian Police Battalion, Latvian Auxiliary Police, Arajs Kommando, Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions, Ypatingasis būrys, Ukrainian Auxiliary Police / Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118)
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Uprisings|

* Ghetto uprisings
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Leaders|

* Mordechai Anielewicz
* Icchak Cukierman
* Mordechai Tenenbaum
* Marek Edelman
* Leon Feldhendler
* Paweł Frenkiel
* Henryk Iwański
* Itzhak Katzenelson
* Michał Klepfisz
* Miles Lerman
* Alexander Pechersky
* Witold Pilecki
* Frumka Płotnicka
* Roza Robota
* Szmul Zygielbojm

Victim lists|

| Ghettos|

* Kraków
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* Warsaw

|

Camps|

* Auschwitz
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* Izbica
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* Soldau
* Stutthof
* Trawniki
* Treblinka

Documentation|

| Nazi sources|

* Auschwitz Album
* Frank memorandum
* Höcker Album
* Höfle telegram
* Katzmann Report
* Korherr Report
* Posen speeches
* Sobibor perpetrator album
* Special Prosecution Book – Poland
* Stroop Report
* Wannsee Conference

|

Witness accounts|

* Graebe affidavit
* Gerstein Report
* Vrba–Wetzler report
* Witold's Report
* Sonderkommando photographs

Concealment|

* Sonderaktion 1005

Technical and logistics|

* Identification in camps
* Gas chamber
* Gas van
* Holocaust train
* Human medical experimentation
* Zyklon B

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Aftermath, trials and commemoration

Aftermath|

* Holocaust survivors
* Population transfers (1944–1946)
* Bricha
* Kielce pogrom
* Anti-Jewish violence, 1944–1946
* Ministry of Public Security

Trials|

| West German trials|

* Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
* Treblinka trials

|

Polish, East German, and Soviet trials|

* Auschwitz trial (Poland)
* Stutthof trials
* Extraordinary (Soviet) State Commission

Memorials|

* Monument to the Ghetto Heroes
* Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
* Majdanek State Museum
* Sobibór Museum
* International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim/Auschwitz
* March of the Living

Righteous Among the Nations|

* Polish Righteous Among the Nations (List)
* Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust
* Garden of the Righteous

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Einsatzgruppen and Einsatzkommandos

People|

| Director|

* Reinhard Heydrich
* Ernst Kaltenbrunner

|

Commanders of
Einsatzgruppen|

* Humbert Achamer-Pifrader
* Walther Bierkamp
* Horst Böhme
* Erich Ehrlinger
* Wilhelm Fuchs
* Heinz Jost
* Bruno Müller
* Erich Naumann
* Arthur Nebe
* Otto Ohlendorf
* Friedrich Panzinger
* Otto Rasch
* Heinrich Seetzen
* Franz Walter Stahlecker
* Bruno Streckenbach
* Max Thomas
* Josef Witiska

Commanders of
Einsatzkommandos,
Sonderkommandos|

* Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski
* Gerhard Bast
* Rudolf Batz
* Ernst Biberstein
* Wolfgang Birkner
* Helmut Bischoff
* Paul Blobel
* Walter Blume
* Friedrich-Wilhelm Bock
* Otto Bradfisch
* Werner Braune
* Karl Brunner
* Friedrich Buchardt
* Ernst Damzog
* Gerhard Flesch
* Ludwig Hahn
* Erich Isselhorst
* Karl Jäger
* Friedrich Jeckeln
* Waldemar Klingelhöfer
* Wolfgang Kügler
* Walter Kutschmann
* Rudolf Lange
* Josef Meisinger
* Gustav Adolf Nosske
* Hans-Adolf Prützmann
* Walter Rauff
* Martin Sandberger
* Emanuel Schäfer
* Hermann Schaper
* Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
* Erwin Schulz
* Franz Six
* Eugen Steimle
* Eduard Strauch
* Martin Weiss
* Udo von Woyrsch

Other members|

* August Becker
* Lothar Fendler
* Joachim Hamann
* Emil Haussmann
* Felix Landau
* Heinz Schubert
* Albert Widmann

Collaborators|

* Viktors Arājs
* Herberts Cukurs
* Antanas Impulevičius
* Konrāds Kalējs
* Algirdas Klimaitis

Groups|

| German|

* Schutzstaffel (SS)
* Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA)
* Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo)
* Sicherheitsdienst (SD)
* Ordnungspolizei (Orpo)
* 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
* Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz
* Sonderdienst

|

Non-German|

* Schutzmannschaft (Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
* Arajs Kommando
* Lithuanian Security Police
* Rollkommando Hamann
* TDA
* Ypatingasis būrys

Crimes|

| Belarus|

* Łachwa Ghetto
* Minsk Ghetto
* Slutsk Affair

|

Estonia|

* Kalevi-Liiva

Latvia|

* Burning of the Riga synagogues
* Dünamünde Action
* Jelgava
* Pogulianski
* Rumbula
* Liepāja (Šķēde)

Lithuania|

* Ninth Fort
* Kaunas June 1941
* Kaunas 29 October 1941
* Ninth Fort November 1941
* Ponary

Poland|

* Operation Tannenberg
* Intelligenzaktion
* AB-Aktion

Russia|

* Gully of Petrushino
* Zmievskaya Balka

Slovakia|

* Kremnička and Nemecká

Ukraine|

* Babi Yar
* Drobytsky Yar
* Drohobycz
* Kamianets-Podilskyi
* Lviv pogroms
* Mizocz Ghetto
* Odesa

Records|

* List of Einsatzgruppen
* The Black Book
* Commissar Order
* Einsatzgruppen trial
* Jäger Report
* Korherr Report
* Special Prosecution Book-Poland
* Einsatzgruppen reports

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* Poland
* Israel

People|

* Deutsche Biographie

Other|

* Yale LUX

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