Heinz Pannwitz

Heinz Michael Pannwitz (née Heinz Paulsen; 28 July 1911, Berlin – 8 August 1975, Ludwigsburg) was a German war criminal, Nazi Gestapo officer and later Schutzstaffel (SS) officer. Pannwitz was most notable for directing the investigation into the assassination of Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich on 27 May 1942 in Prague. In the last two years of the war, Pannwitz ran the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle, a combined Abwehr and Gestapo counterintelligence operation against the Red Orchestra espionage network, in France and the Low Countries.

Life As a child, Pannwitz belonged to the Christliche Pfadfinderschaft Deutschlands scout association. As a youth Pannwitz was a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany but left due to divisions in the church over their stance towards Hitler and the Nazis.

Military career In February 1932, Pannwitz joined the Hitler Youth. After the Nazi rise to power (Machtergreifung), Pannwitz joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in August 1933, and transferred in 1939 to the Schutzstaffel (SS). In 1935, he did one year of military service in the Wehrmacht and was discharged as Lieutenant.

Heydrich assassination Following the assassination attempt on the Deputy Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich on 27 May 1942 in Prague, Pannwitz was immediately assigned to lead the special commission investigating the Heydrich assassination. Pannwitz was the author of the official final report on the assassination. Pannwitz wrote the report in two parts. The first part contained the exact timeline of facts of the assassination and Gestapo operation, while the second part was critical of Heydrich's policies in Czechoslovakia, constructed as an examination of the assassins motives. When the report was submitted, it caused an immediate scandal amongst the Schutzstaffel who saw it as impinging the memory of the revered Nazi and he was ordered back to Berlin. Pannwitz remained with the unit for 4 months until the end of 1942. In September 1942, Pannwitz was promoted to Kriminalrat,

CIA and Gehlen Organization Pannwitz returned to Germany with Friedrich Panzinger, a former SS officer who was also a Soviet agent. Panzinger's purposes in Germany were to penetrate the Gehlen organisation through his old Gestapo contacts. Panzinger's actions drew suspicion on Pannwitz from the Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst; BND) who suspected Pannwitz was also a Soviet agent.

In August 1956, the BND organisation hired Pannwitz, perhaps to keep him away from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). Although the BND was planning to interrogate Pannwitz, whom they considered a potentially important source, the BND failed to learn anything and, in turn, failed to send any reports to the CIA, as promised. Pannwitz through these proceedings seemed to be more concerned with money, insisting throughout his employment with the Gehlen Organization that his previous wartime Gestapo service as a Regierungsrat and his years in Soviet captivity should be recognised for pension purposes. By February 1958, Pannwitz had effectively achieved this.

War crimes Pannwitz would have faced charges of war crimes at the end of the war had he stayed in Germany. The evidence for this involves the killing of Suzanne Spaak and part of her family. Spaak was a member of the French Resistance, and later the Trepper Group, who was arrested on 9 November 1943 in Brussels. After being tortured in January 1944, Spaak was sentenced to death.

Pannwitz ordered her murder when the liberation of Paris was only a few days away in August 1944. She was shot by Pannwitz in her cell at Fresnes Prison. To hide his crimes he had the corpse buried in a cemetery at Cimetière parisien de Bagneux with the words A Belgian. At the same time, he sent a letter to Belgian Foreign Minister-in-exile, Paul-Henri Spaak, falsely assuring him that his sister-in-law, Suzanne, had been taken to Germany and was safe.