Franz Six
Basic Information
Education
- Full name: Dr. Franz Alfred Six
- Born in Mannheim, Germany on August 12, 1909
- Ranked SS-Brigadeführer
- Came from a strong academic background
- Dr. Franz completed his classical high school in 1930 and proceeded to the University of Heidelberg to study sociology and politics
- He had a late graduation due to dropping out from time to time to earn money to graduate
- He later graduated with a degree of Doctor in Philosophy in 1934
- In 1936, Six earned the high degree of Dr.phil.habil. and began teaching at the University of Königsberg
- By 1939, he had become chair for Foreign Political Science at the University of Berlin and was its first Dean of the faculty for Foreign Countries
Franz's part in the party
Nazi Official
- On September 17 1940, the same day on which Hitler abandoned the idea of an invasion of Great Britain, Heydrich charged Six to plan the elimination of anti-Nazi elements in Britain
- Some other of his responsibilities included the detention of some 2,300 individuals immediately after the conquest of Britain by Germany
- Franz Six was also charged with the creation of six Einsatzgruppen that were to be located in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and either Edinburgh or Glasgow
- These death squads would be charged with the elimination of civilian resistance members and Jews all over Great Britain
- After the Battle of Britain, Hitler gave up on his attempts to invade Great Britain and thus Six's plans came to nothing
- On June 20 1941, Six was assigned as chief of Vorkommando Moscow a unit of Einsatzgruppe B in the Soviet Union
- Six was promoted on 9 November 1941 to SS-Oberführer for exceptional service in the Einsatz and again on January 31, 1945, to SS-Brigadeführer
- Six joined the Nazi party in 1930 with member number 245,670 and the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1932
- Six joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in 1935 with a SS membership number of 107,480
- Impressed by his academic achievements and outstanding curriculum, Reinhard Heydrich appointed him as head of Amt VII, Written Records of the RSHA which dealt mainly with ideological tasks
- Some of these tasks included the creation of anti-semitic, anti-masonic propaganda, the sounding of public opinion and monitoring of Nazi indoctrination by the public
- He held this post until 1934
Nuremberg Trials
Death
- Franz Six retired to Friedrichshafen in southwest Germany
- He worked as a publicity/advertising executive for Porsche
- In 1960, he was interviewed by British journalist Comer Clarke for his book "England Under Hitler"
- Six was called as one of four witnesses by defense attorney Robert Servatius in the 1961 trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann, another major Nazi organizer
- Six's testimony was introduced in Eichmann's defense, but proved to be of more help to the prosecution
- Franz Six later died in 1975
- Six was tried as a war criminal at Nuremberg in the Einsatzgruppen Trial of 1948
- As a result, the trials were unable to link him directly to any atrocities, and the tribunal sentenced him to 20 years' imprisonment
- A clemency court commuted this sentence to 10 years, and he was released on September 30, 1952
- CIA files suggest Six joined the Gehlen Organization, the forerunner to the Bundesnachrichtendienst, in the 1950s