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Franz BohmeAustro-German officer, general of the mountain troops, war criminal
Date of Birth: 15.04.1885
Country:  Germany |
Content:
- Early Life and Military Career
- World War I
- Interwar Period
- World War II
- Atrocities in Serbia
- Post-War and Prosecution
Early Life and Military Career
At 18, Franz Böhme became an orphan following the loss of his mother (his father had died the previous year) and embarked on an officer's career in the Austro-Hungarian Army.
World War I
From 1914 to 1916, Böhme fought in Galicia, and in 1917, he saw action in Volhynia, Courland, and Dünaburg. He concluded the war on the Isonzo Front in 1917-18.
Interwar Period
Before the Anschluss, Böhme headed Austrian military intelligence as a major general of the General Staff. Following the German-Austrian Berchtesgaden Agreement of 1938, he became Chief of the General Staff on February 17, succeeding Lieutenant Field Marshal Alfred Jansa, an opponent of the annexation.
World War II
In the early stages of World War II, Böhme commanded the 32nd Infantry Division during the Polish and French campaigns.
Atrocities in Serbia
From September 16 to December 2, 1941, Böhme acted as Commissioner of the General Command in Serbia. Hitler tasked him with forcefully restoring order in the region. Böhme's orders dictated the arrest of communists, suspected men, all Jews, and pro-democracy and nationalist figures as hostages. For every slain German soldier, 100 hostages were to be shot, and for every wounded soldier, 50. Mass executions of Serbs, Serbian Jews, and Roma ensued.
Units of the 717th Infantry Division committed mass shootings in the cities of Kragujevac and Kraljevo, killing over 4,000 civilians after fierce battles with partisans and Chetniks.
Post-War and Prosecution
In December 1941, Böhme was recalled from Serbia. His tenure resulted in 160 German soldiers killed and 278 wounded in 3,562 battles with partisans. German forces had executed an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 locals.
Böhme received the German Cross in Gold on February 10, 1944. As commander of the 2nd Panzer Army in Yugoslavia, he became commander-in-chief of all German troops in the region from June to July. During this time, he was injured in a plane crash.
Soon after the war, Böhme was arrested in Norway. In 1946, he was held in Prisoner of War Camp 198 near Bridgend. He was then transferred to Nuremberg for the Trial of the Generals, which commenced on May 13, 1947. On May 29, before the trial's conclusion, Böhme jumped to his death from the window of his fourth-floor solitary confinement cell. He was buried in the St. Leonhard Cemetery in Graz, Austria.
