Rolf Czurda

Rolf Czurda (born 22 May 1899 in Haida) was an SS-Obersturmführer of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) who served in Occupied Poland during the Second World War.

Nazi and SS membership
Little is known of Czurda's early life, with Nazi records simply reporting his birthplace as "Haida-Süd" and listing his commissioning as an SS officer occurring in early 1940. His SS number was 359,504. His first officer assignment was as an SD-officer attached to Danzig (SD-Leitabschnitt Danzig). On April 20th 1941, he was promoted to Obersturmführer.

In 1943, Czurda was transferred to the staff of the SS and Police Leader of Krakow. While deployed to Poland, his permanent address in Danzig was listed as "Danzigerstr. 2/15" with the phone number 269. In January 1945, as Poland fell to the advance of the Red Army, Czurda was reassigned and posted to the Prague SD Office (SD-Leitabschnitt Prag) which appears to have been his final assignment. His fate after the war is unknown.

Portrayal in Schindler's List
Czurda is mentioned in both the Thomas Keneally novel Schindler's Ark and the subsequent motion picture Schindler's List. In both the book and movie, Czurda was incorrectly stated to have been a senior official of the Sicherheitspolizei with the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer and is stated to have been in Poland much earlier than the historic Czurda. The book further suggests that Czurda was the direct superior to Amon Göth, which was not the case. In the film, Czurda was portrayed by Austrian actor Friedrich von Thun.