Georg Leibbrandt Was Another Enigma

Not Georg Leibbrandt per se (there was nothing enigmatic about him as an individual or as a Nazi official), but his presence at the Wannsee Conference. To put it simply: what the hell he was doing there – and why? Especially given the fact that there was another – more senior – representative of the same office – so Leibbrandt’s presence was redundant.

This is a highly valid question, because Wannsee Conference was all about “Holocaust by Gas” (more precisely, about creating the infrastructure for the latter and making it happen).

More specifically, it was all about deporting the Polish and other European Jews to SS killing centers in occupied Poland and their subsequent serial mass murder in stationary gas chambers (mobile gas chambers in Chelmno were used to mass murder almost exclusively Polish Jews).

Georg Leibbrandt was Ministerialdirektor in Ostministerium which had no jurisdiction over occupied Poland – or any other European country under German control, for that matter.

It had jurisdiction only over German-occupied territories of the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia – and in those territories all Jews were destined to be mass murdered locally – by mass shootings. And were.

Still, he was there, although the Wannsee Protocol does not include any comments or suggestions from him.

There is only one logical explanation: Wannsee Conference was about the whole “Holocaust Project”, not just the “Holocaust by Gas” and that the former was so important that Heydrich invited two representatives of Ostministerium.

Leibbrandt was born to ethnic German parents in Hoffnungstal (today, Tsebrykove, Ukraine), near Odesa, in the Russian Empire. He excelled at foreign languages, learning Greek, Latin, Russian, Ukrainian and, later, French and English. In 1918, he served as an interpreter for German occupation troops in Ukraine.

In Germany, Leibbrandt studied theology, history and philosophy at the universities of Marburg, T;bingen and Leipzig where he ultimately was awarded a doctorate in 1927.

He wrote and published a book on German emigrants which got the attention of his compatriot Alfred Rosenberg (also born in the Russian Empire), the Nazi Party’s chief ideologist who headed the Party’s Foreign Policy Office.

Rosenberg offered Leibbrandt a position of head of the Eastern Division of the APA on condition that he becomes a Party member (which made sense). In September 1933, he became one – and got the job.

After Ostministerium was established in July of 1941, Leibbrandt was appointed Hauptabteilungsleiter (Main Department Leader) of its Political Department. By January 1942, Rosenberg recommended him for a promotion to Ministerialdirektor, which took effect in May. Leibbrandt served as the Ministry’s liaison for Ukrainian, Caucasian, Russian and other groups of ;migr;s.

What he had to do with the Shoah (except attending Wannsee Conference which was a conspiracy to commit genocide), is unknown. Probably did, because he previously wrote numerous speeches for Rosenberg containing strong antisemitic themes, which he also incorporated into his own speeches and writings.

On October 31, 1941, Leibbrandt had sent a letter to Hinrich Lohse, the Reichskommissar for Ostland, requesting an explanation for Lohse’s order forbidding the execution of Jews in Liep;ja.

After the war, Leibbrandt was arrested by the British, and was interned at the former Stalag XI-B. Released in July 1947, he was arrested again two months later and compelled to testify as a witness at the Ministries Trial of former Nazi foreign policy officials.

Interrogated by Robert Kempner, U.S. Assistant Chief Counsel, Leibbrandt said he could not remember the Wannsee Conference (how convenient), and alleged telling Rosenberg that he “did not share the lunacy” (not true).

He remained in Allied custody until he was finally released in May 1949. In January 1950, he was formally investigated for being an accessory to murder by the Nuremberg-F;rth public prosecutor’s office but the case was dismissed in August 1950. In 1951, he underwent denazification proceedings at Kiel and he was classified as Category V, “exonerated”.

He died in 1982 at the ripe old age of 82 in Bonn of natural causes.