Hollidt, Karl Adolf.

Hollidt, Karl Adolf, born 25-04-1891 in Speyer, Rhineland, the son of Karl August Hollidt and Eva Maria Hollidt (born Niemann), was educated in his hometown of Speyer. After finishing school in 1909, Karl enlisted into an 117^th Infantry Regiment in whose third company he was appointed Second Lieutenant in 1910. During the First World War, Hollidt served on the Western Front . Over the course of the war he received a total of two promotions: to First Lieutenant in 1915 and in 1918 to the rank of Hauptmann. He was awarded the Iron Cross 2^nd Class  on 09-09-1914 and the Iron Cross 1^st Class on 18-1-1916. At the beginning of World War II, Karl Hollidt served as a commander of the 52^nd Infantry Division . The 52nd Infantry Division served in southern Poland, close to Katowice and was primarily a training division. Hollidt was commander until 08-09-1939 and was replaced by Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen von Arnim

  . From 01-11-1939, he served as a Chief-of-Staff with Commander-in-Chief Ost, Generaloberst der Infanterie, Johannes Blaskowitz

       Generalleutnant Hollidt promoted 01-04-1940 served from October, 1940 as the commander of the 50^th Infantry Division  in Greece, where he succeeded Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Konrad Sorsche.      Promoted to the rank of General der Infanterie, Hollidt commanded XVII Army Corps which was planned to take part in the relief operation concerning the 6^th Army , then encircled in the Russian city of Stalingrad, with Field Marshal, Friedrich Paulus. After the surrender of the 6^th Army, it was reconstituted in March, and Hollidt was given its command. He here with von Manstein  was promoted to Generaloberst on 01-09-1943. After the battle of Stalingrad, approximately 107.800 soldiers of the 6^th Army entered Soviet captivity; only about 6.000 survived and came home after ten years in Russian prisons, by intervention of the new Chancellor Konrad Adenauer

    . In 1944, Hollidt’s new 6^th Army suffered severe losses during its retreat from its area of operations north of the Dnieper. Hollidt was subsequently dismissed from his command and put into Führer Reserve   (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know).

In late 1943 and early in 1944 the corps was forced to retreat through Bessarabia in northern Romania and were then transferred to the Bukovina region as part of the 8th Army. Subsequently XVII Corps, bolstered by the 8th Jäger Division, under command of General Otto Wöhler   and the 3rd Mountain Division under command of General der Gebirgstruppe Hans Kreysing ,  was positioned to defend passes through the Carpathian Mountains. General Kreysing survived the war and died 14-04-1969, aged 78.

In 1945, Hollidt was captured by US forces. After a trial held at Nuremberg, he was convicted of the unlawful use of prisoners of war and of the deportation and enslavement of civilians. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, of which he served a little less than 14 months, from 27-10-1948 until his release on 22-12-1949.

    He past away  on 22-05-1985, at the very old age of 94, in Siegen and is buried with his wife Trude, born Engelhorn, who died age 79 in 1986, on the Stadtfriedhof of Speyer, only steps from the grave of Generalleutnant der Pioniere, Kommandeur Centraal Baltic, Oskar Cantzler.

 

Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster:    robhopmans@outlook.com