Jürgen Stroop (born Josef Stroop, 26 September 1895 – 6 March 1952) was a German SS commander and perpetrator of the Holocaust during the Nazi era, who served as SS and Police Leader in occupied Poland and Greece from 1942–1943 (in Poland) and 1943–1944 (in Greece). He held the rank of SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei from 1942–1945 (equivalent to a Heer Generalleutnant/Lt-Gen in the Wehrmacht). He led the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and wrote the Stroop Report, a twelve-page account of the operation annexed with many original documents and pictures. Following the defeat of Germany, Stroop was prosecuted during the Dachau Trials and convicted of murdering nine U.S. prisoners of war. After his extradition to Poland, Stroop was tried, convicted, and executed for crimes against humanity.
Josef Stroop (he applied to change his first name in 1938, which was authorized in 1941) was born in the Principality of Lippe, in the German Empire. His father, Konrad Stroop, was Lippe's chief of police. His mother, Katherine, was a homemaker. In a conversation with Kazimierz Moczarski while imprisoned in 1949, Stroop recalled his devoutly religious Roman Catholic mother as "a near fanatic", who subjected him to childhood physical abuse.
Both of his parents were enthusiastic monarchists. During parades in Detmold, Konrad Stroop often pointed out Leopold IV, Prince of Lippe and said, "Remember this always. This is our Prince. Obey him and serve him as I have." Young Josef's sense of German patriotism was fostered by growing up in the shadow of the Hermannsdenkmal.
Stroop enlisted in the Prussian Army in 1914 and served in several infantry regiments along the Western Front. He was wounded in action near La Bassée in October 1914. To the outrage of his devout mother, Stroop married Katharina, the daughter of a minister from the Protestant Church of Lippe, on 3 July 1923. Katharina Stroop remained a loyal and obedient wife despite her husband's many infidelities. Their marriage produced a daughter, Renate, in February 1928, and a son, Olaf, in February 1936.
During the early 1920s, Stroop joined the Tannenbergbund and embraced Germanic neo-paganism under the influence of General Erich Ludendorff and his wife Mathilde. He later recalled that Mathilde Ludendorff revealed "the truth about the Catholic Church in Germany and returned us to the true Germanic gods. By recalling the pure, pre-Germanic ways, she pointed out the rottenness of the Judeo-Christian ethic and showed how the organized Church had been strangling the Reich for twelve hundred years." Stroop further recalled, "It was thanks to what I was lucky enough to learn from her books that I was able to rid myself of religious prejudice and mark Gottgläubig in the column concerning belief."
In another conversation with Moczarski, Stroop called Catholicism "a catch-all of religions, infected with Judaism." He further claimed that Christianity was created as a Jewish conspiracy for "the weakening and debasement of man through guilt."
Stroop joined the Nazi Party and SS in 1932. In 1933, he was appointed leader of the state auxiliary police. One year later, he was promoted from the rank of SS-Oberscharführer to SS-Hauptsturmführer. Subsequently, he worked for the SS administration in Münster and Hamburg.
In 1934, Bishop Clemens von Galen of Münster attacked the racist ideologies of the new regime, partly poking fun at it, partly critiquing its ideological basis as published by Alfred Rosenberg. He declared it unacceptable to refuse the Old Testament because of its Jewish authorship, and to limit morality and virtue to the perceived usefulness of a particular race.
In retaliation, Stroop and a von Galen family member of the SS made an official visit to the Bishop. Both were instructed to pressure the Bishop into approving Rosenberg's doctrines. If he refused, they were ordered to threaten him with the confiscation of Church property and an anti-Catholic propaganda campaign.
The visit began well, with the bishop commending Stroop's mother for her devout Catholicism and charitable work in Detmold. However, the Bishop turned the tables on his two visitors. He categorically refused to accept or praise Rosenberg's doctrines of euthanizing or forcibly sterilizing disabled people. To Stroop's further shock, the Bishop denounced the Nazis for trying to introduce Germanic neo-paganism into his diocese. He scoffed at marriage ceremonies and funerals conducted before altars dedicated to Wotan. Stroop, who attended such a ceremony only days before, was stunned that the bishop had learned of it so quickly.
At the end of the meeting, von Galen stated the Church would remain loyal to the State in all lawful matters. He expressed his deep love for Germany and reminded them he was the first Catholic Bishop to publicly acknowledge the new regime.
Stroop lamented the fact that von Galen's German patriotism "was tainted by Papist ideals, harmful to Germany for centuries. Besides, the Archbishop's orders came from outside the Fatherland, a fact which disturbed us. We all know, despite its diverse factions, the Catholic Church is a world community, which sticks together when the chips are down."
In September 1938, Stroop was promoted again, this time to the rank of SS-Standartenführer (colonel), and served near Reichenberg (Liberec), in the Sudetenland. In conversation with Moczarski, Stroop happily reminisced about his many visits to the hot springs at Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary). For this reason, their cellmate, Gustav Schielke, expressed disgust: instead of serving in combat, "Herr General did battle in spas."
After the German invasion of Poland, Stroop served as commander of the SS section in Gnesen (Gniezno). During the occupation of Poland, Stroop was transferred to Poznań as head of Selbstschutz, the notorious "self-defense" formation of the local ethnic Germans.
In May 1941, Stroop changed his forename from Josef to Jürgen for ideological reasons and in honor of his dead infant son. From 7 July to 15 September 1941, Stroop served in combat on the Eastern Front in the SS Division Totenkopf. He was awarded a Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class and an Infantry Assault Badge in Bronze. On 16 September 1942, he was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer and assigned as an Inspector of the SiPo and SD of the Higher SS and Police Leader for Russia South until October 1942, when he took command of an SS garrison in Kherson before becoming the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) for Lemberg (Lviv) in February 1943. Stroop was SS inspector of Durchgangsstrasse IV, a large forced labor project to build a road from Lemberg to Stalino (now Donetsk).
Suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Stroop was involved in the month-long suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an action which cost the lives of just over 57,000 people. He was sent to Warsaw on 17 April 1943 by SS leader Heinrich Himmler, as a replacement for SS-Oberführer Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, who was relieved of duty. Stroop took over as SS and Police Leader of Warsaw from Sammern-Frankenegg on 19 April 1943 following the latter's failure to suppress the uprising. He commented to war crimes investigators:
I had two battalions of Waffen-SS, one hundred army men, units of Order Police, and seventy-five to a hundred Security Police people. The Security Police had been active in the Warsaw ghetto for some time, and during this program, it was their function to accompany SS units in groups of six or eight, as guides and experts in ghetto matters.