Franz Six
| Franz Six | |
|---|---|
Franz Six at the Nuremberg Trials.
|
|
| Born |
12 August 1909 Mannheim, Germany |
| Died | 9 July 1975 (aged 65) Bolzano, Italy |
| Allegiance |
 Nazi Germany
|
| Service/branch |
 Allgemeine SS
|
| Years of service | 1930–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Brigadeführer |
| Commands held |
SS Division Das Reich c.1941 Einsatzgruppe B |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards |
Coburg Badge Blood Order |
Dr. Franz Alfred Six (12 August 1909 – 9 July 1975) was a Nazi official who rose to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer. He was appointed by Reinhard Heydrich to head department Amt VII, Written Records of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA). In 1940, he was appointed to direct state police operations in an occupied Great Britain following invasion.
Franz Six completed his classical High School in 1930, and proceeded to the University of Heidelberg to study sociology and politics. His late graduation was due to the fact he had to drop out of school from time to time to earn the money needed to graduate. He 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 where he also took up the position of Press Director for the German Student's Association. 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.
Six joined the Nazi Party in 1930 with member number 245,670 and the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1932, for whom he was a student organizer. Six joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in 1935 and his SS membership number was 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. These 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 1943 when he was succeeded by Paul Dittel.
On 17 September 1940, the same day on which Hitler abandoned the idea of an invasion of Great Britain, Heydrich charged him to plan the elimination of anti-Nazi elements in Britain following a successful invasion by the Wehrmacht, since this task would be appointed to the RSHA, which included the SD. Among other things, his responsibilities included the detention of some 2,300 individuals immediately after the conquest of Britain by Germany. Their names came from a list previously compiled by Walter Schellenberg, Chief of Amt VI, Ausland-SD that made up the foreign intelligence branch of the SD. This list included British politicians, namely Winston Churchill and other members of the Cabinet, writers like Sigmund Freud, even though he had died in September 1939, the philosopher Bertrand Russell, members of exiled governments, financiers such as Bernard Baruch and many other anti-Nazi elements. According to William L. Shirer's book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Churchill was to be placed into the hands of RSHA Amt VI Ausland-SD, but most of the rest of the people on the list were to be turned over to RSHA Amt IV (Gestapo). A separate list also named many organizations which would have to be dismantled as well, namely the Freemasons, the Jehovah's Witnesses and even the Boy Scouts.
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