World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseFranz Kutschera was born in Oberwaltersdorf, Austria during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a young boy, he worked on a naval ship in the Austro-Hungarian fleet. After WW1, he became a gardener in Czechoslovakia. He joined the Nazi Party in late 1930, and about a year later became a member of the SS organization. Between 1935 and Mar 1938, he was the leader of the 90th SS Standard Carinthia based in the namesake state in southern Austria. After Austria was annexed by Germany, he served as the Gauleiter of Carinthia between Feb and May 1938. After the annexation was completed, he arrived in the German capital Berlin as a member of the Reichstag and remained a member until his death in 1944. In early 1939, he was named a honorary judge at the People's Court. In 1940, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer. In late 1942, he was given the rank of major general in the police force. In Apr 1943, he was assigned as the head of police of Mogilev, Byelorussia, and in Sep 1943 the head of police of Warsaw, Poland. For atrocities committed against the Polish civilians, he was sentenced to death by a court of the underground Armia Krajowa resistance group, and the sentence was approved by the Polish government in exile based in Britain. The assassination was carried out by three members of the Armia Krajowa; it was codenamed Operation Kutschera. At 0850 hours on 1 Feb 1944, Kutschera had just departed from his Warsaw home, traveling in a vehicle for the SS headquarters. One of the assassins blocked his vehicle with another, and the other two machine-gunned Kutschera's vehicle, killing him. 300 Polish civilians were killed by the SS as retribution.

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