Max Liedtke

Max Liedtke (; 25 December 1894 – 13 January 1955) was a German journalist and army officer. He was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations for his resistance against the "liquidation" of the entire Jewish population (including slave labor) of the ghetto in Przemyśl in eastern Poland.

Liedtke was born in Preussisch Holland, East Prussia (today Pasłęk, Poland) to a Lutheran Vicar. He passed his Abitur in Gumbinnen (today Gusev, Russia) and started to study Lutheran theology at the University of Königsberg, but volunteered for the German Imperial Army at the outbreak of World War I. After the war, he worked as a journalist and became the chief editor of a local newspaper in Greifswald. He was dismissed as editor in 1935 because of his critical attitude towards the Nazis. Liedtke was conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1939. He was deployed in Poland, Belgium and Piraeus (Greece).

Przemyśl deportations

In July 1942, Liedtke became the military commander of Przemyśl. On 26 July 1942, the SS, Gestapo and the GPK (Grenzpolizeikommissariat – Frontier Police Authority) prepared to launch their first large-scale "resettlement" action against the Jews from the ghetto in Przemyśl, part of Operation Reinhard, the most deadly phase of the Holocaust.

Liedtke's adjutant, Oberleutnant Albert Battel, requested that those working for the Wehrmacht be retained

Liedtke was dismissed as military commander of Przemyśl on 30 September 1942,

Literature