Franz Magill

Franz Hermann Anton Magill (August 22, 1900 – April 14, 1972) was a German riding instructor, SS officer and war criminal of the Nazi era.

Background

Franz Magill was the son of a day laborer. His father bought a small farm in Zuchen in 1908, where Magill graduated from elementary school. He was called up at the end of the First World War and after the end of the war in 1919 he became a volunteer in the Hussar Regiment No. 5 of the Reichswehr. In 1923 he was promoted to sergeant, and again in 1928. In 1929 he passed the riding instructor examination at the riding school in Belgard and, after leaving the Reichswehr, went to the private "German riding school" at Gut Düppel in Berlin as a qualified riding instructor.

After the National Socialists took power in 1933, Magill joined the SS and directed the riding instruction of an SS Reitersturms. In March 1935 he became a full-time SS leader riding instructor at the SS Junker School in Braunschweig and made a career there. At the end of 1935 he was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer and, after he joined the NSDAP in 1937 (membership number 4.137.171), to SS-Sturmbannführer on April 20, 1938.

Shortly after the attack on Poland, Magill received the order to set up SS cavalry squadrons in Gut Düppel and, in September 1939, in Lodsch in occupied Poland, then two months later in the Lublin district. There, the basis of the SS skull rider standards (two regiments) formed. In May 1940, Magill received an order from Hermann Fegelein to set up the 2nd SS-Totenkopf-Reiterstandard. Magill was not up to the task. In April 1941 he was recalled as leader of the 2nd regiment and commander of a cavalry division with four squadrons. The regimental leader of the 1st regiment was Hermann Fegelein and the 2nd regiment SS-Sturmbannführer was Heimo Hierthes (1897-1951). In the 1st regiment, Magill's position was held by SS-Sturmbannführer, Gustav Lombard.

References

Martin Cüppers: Wegbereiter der Shoah. Die Waffen-SS, der Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS und die Judenvernichtung 1939−1945. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005

LG Braunschweig, 20. April 1964. In: Justiz und NS-Verbrechen. Sammlung deutscher Strafurteile wegen nationalsozialistischer Tötungsverbrechen 1945–1966, Bd. XX, bearbeitet von Irene Sagel-Grande, H. H. Fuchs, C.

F. Rüter. Amsterdam: University Press, 1979, Nr. 570, S. 23–105 Verfahrensgegenstand: Massenerschiessung tausender Juden im Pripjetgebiet, darunter mindestens 4500 Juden aus dem Ghetto Pinsk

Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, 2007, S. 386