Gustav Lombard

Gustav Lombard (10 April 1895 – 18 September 1992) was an SS Brigadeführer (General) who served in World War II. During World War II, Lombard commanded the 8. SS-Division Florian Geyer and the 31. SS-Volunteer Grenadier Division. He was also a winner of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

Early life
Lombard was born in Klein Spiegelberg, near Prenzlau, Province of Brandenburg. After his father's death in 1906 he visited his relatives in the USA (it's claimed he was an Uncle of Hollywood actress Carole Lombard. However, Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters and none of her ancestors were named Lombard. Additionally, Lombard was her stage name. All of her immediate ancestors were born in the USA.   ) in 1913, where he passed his High School exam and started studying Modern Languages at the University of Missouri. After the end of World War I he returned to Germany in Autumn 1919 and worked for American Express and the Chrysler Motor Company in Berlin.

SS career
Lombard joined NSDAP and SS quickly after the Nazi takeover of power in 1933 and became a member of SS – Cavalry. After a short time in the Wehrmacht throughout the German invasion of Poland Lombard was promoted as Commander of the 3. Schwadron (Squadron) of the SS Totenkopf-Reiter-Standarte in December 1939 and in this function he was ordered on 7 April 1940 to occupy and hunt the district of Krolowiec (Poland) near Warsaw, where he gave order to kill any non-German male person between 17 and 60 years of age in the case of resistance. Hermann Fegelein, the Commander of the 1. SS Totenkopf-Reiter-Standarte afterwards reported 250 executed persons throughout this deployment.

In the end of July 1941 Lombard was commander of the Mounted Branch of 1. SS Cavalry Regiment deployed in the Pinsk Marshes east of Brest-Litovsk, where he allegedly first used the term ”Entjudung” (De – jewification), his directive was: ” No male Jew survives, no leftover - families will stay in the villages.” Throughout the next weeks members of the SS Cavalry Regiment under Lombards command allegedly murdered estimated more than 11,000 Jews and more than 400 dispersed Soviet Soldiers.

After 1945
Lombard became a Prisoner of War in the Soviet Union in April 1945 and was sentenced as a war criminal to 25 years in prison in 1947, in 1955 he was amnestied after West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer organized the return of the remaining German POWs from the Soviet Union. He was subsequently tried as a war criminal in Germany and found not guilty.

Lombard worked for the Allianz Insurance company in Munich and died in Mühldorf am Inn at the age of 97.

SS Ranks

 * SS membership : May 1933 (No. 185.023)
 * NSDAP membership : 10 February 1933 (No. 2.649.630)


 * 1 May 1933 SS-Anwärter
 * 1933 SS-Mann
 * 28 April 1933 SS-Mann mit Wirkung
 * 21 November 1933 SS-Scharführer
 * 15 June 1934 SS-Oberscharführer
 * 7 September 1934 SS-Truppführer
 * October 1934 Unteroffizier d. R. und Reserve-Offizier-Anwärter
 * 1 November 1934 SS-Hauptscharführer
 * 9 November 1934 SS-Hauptscharführer mit Wirkung
 * 1 April 1935 Wachtmeister d. B.
 * 20 September 1935 SS-Untersturmführer
 * 15 September 1935 SS-Untersturmführer mit Wirkung
 * 13 September 1936 SS-Obersturmführer
 * 11 September 1938 SS-Hauptsturmführer
 * 1 March 1940 SS-Hauptsturmführer der Reserve in der Waffen-SS
 * 21 June 1941 SS-Sturmbannführer der Reserve
 * 16 March 1943 SS-Obersturmbannführer der Reserve ( retroactive 1 March 1942)
 * 30 January 1943 SS-Standartenführer der Reserve
 * 13 March 1944 SS-Oberführer
 * 20 April 1945 SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS

Awards

 * Sudetenland Medal
 * Iron Cross II. Class - December 15, 1940
 * Iron Cross I. Class - September 3, 1941
 * German Cross, 11 February 1943
 * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, 10 March 1943
 * Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen in Silver
 * Eastern Front Medal
 * SA-Sportabzeichen in Bronze
 * Ehrendegen des Reichsführers-SS
 * SS-Ehrenring
 * Bandenkampfabzeichen in Silber
 * Deutsches Reiterabzeichen in Silber
 * SS-Zivilabzeichen (Nr. 72 723)
 * Julleuchter der SS

Commands

 * 6 December 1940 - 25 February 1941 I./SS-Totenkopf-Cavalry-Regiment 1
 * 25 February - 19 August 1941 Mounted Branch/SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandarte
 * 15 October - 20 November 1941 Commander of the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade as a substitute of Hermann Fegelein.
 * 18 August 1941 - 22 October 1943 SS-Totenkopf-Kavallerie-Regiment 1 (renamed to SS-Kavallerie-Regiment 1 on 1 September 1941)
 * 28 October - 6 December 1943 Commander of Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade of the SS (1st Italian)
 * 14 April - 1 July 1944 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer
 * 14 July - 23 August 1944 12th Divisions-Führerlehrgang in Hirschberg
 * 23 August - 1 September 1944 6th SS Mountain Division Nord ( not assumed )
 * September 1944 Führerreserve (Reserve)
 * 1 October 1944 - April 1945 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division.

Literature

 * Martin Cüppers: Wegbereiter der Shoah. Die Waffen-SS, der Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS und die Judenvernichtung 1939-1945. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005. ISBN 3-534-16022-3
 * Martin Cüppers: Gustav Lombard. Ein engagierter Judenmörder der Waffen-SS. in: Klaus-Michael Mahlmann, Gerhard Paul (Hrsg.): Karrieren der Gewalt. Nationalsozialistische Täterbiographien. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-16654-X, S. 145-155.