Theodor Heinrich Bongartz, born 25-12-1902, in the tiny city of Krefeld. 
In his early years he was trained and worked as a plasterer from 1922 to 1930. After passing his examination, Theodor joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) 
in 1928, and then the SS 
in 1932 (NSDAP member #1,270,287).
The Sturmabteilung ‘Storm Division’ or ‘Storm Troopers’), under command of then Hauptman Ernst Julius Röhm 
was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler‘s rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Roter Frontkämpferbund of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) 
and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold 
of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and especially Jews. 
In 1939, he joined the SS-Totenkopfverbände. From 1940 he was a member of the command staff of the Dachau concentration camp 
and was initially used in the guard battalion. In 1941, Bongartz’s wife, with whom he had four daughters, took her own life. Bongartz later headed the “Crematorium Command” at Dachau 
and worked his way up through the ranks, finally obtaining the senior NCO rank of SS-Oberscharführer 
(Sergeant 1st class). In that capacity he also served as an executioner and was responsible for the execution of numerous VIP prisoners, including failed Hitler assassin, Georg Elser, 
and Lieutenant General Charles Delestraint 
the French head of Armée Secrète. Charles Delestraint (12-03-1879 / 19-04-1945) was a French Army Lieutenant General and member of the French Resistance during World War II. He also befriended General Charles de Gaulle.
After the surrender of France on 25 June, he retired to Bourg-en-Bresse where Henri Frenay recruited him into the French Resistance. Delestraint began to organize resistance in Lyon. He clandestinely visited Charles de Gaulle in London and agreed to lead the Armée Secrète. He returned to France on 24-03-1943. However, he was arrested by the Gestapo on 9 June and interrogated by Klaus Barbie. 
He was taken as special prisoner (Nacht und Nebel) to Natzweiler-Struthof and then to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was executed on 19 April, only a few days before the camp was liberated and the war ended. Klaus Barbie survived all and died 25-09-1991 (age 77) in Lyon, Departement du Rhône, Rhône-Alpes, France.
Death and burial ground of Bongartz, Theodor Heinrich.
Sometime in the evening of 09-04-1945, Bongartz, under orders, executed Georg Elser with a single shot to the back of the neck. While the order had come from Adolf Hitler personally; it was ordered that the camp paperwork should reflect that Elser had been killed in an air raid. After the evacuation of the prisoners, Bongartz, who had disguised himself as a German Army soldier, was captured on 28-04-1945 with other SS personnel from the Dachau Labor camp, fleeing from the approaching U.S. Army.
SS men confer with Brigadier General Henning Linden 
during the capture of the Dachau concentration camp. Pictured from left to right: SS aide, camp leader SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Wicker 
(mostly hidden by the aide), Paul M. G. Lévy, a Belgian journalist (man with helmet looking to his left), Dr. Victor Maurer (back) 
, Brigadier. Generaal Henning Linden (man with helmet, looking to his right) and some U.S. soldiers. SS Heinrich Wicker was exucuted on 29-04-1945 (age 23) in Camp Dachau,
Bongartz was later discovered by U.S. soldiers in Württemberg and taken to the prisoner of war camp in the Allied occupied German city of Heilbronn-Böckingen. There, while in captivity, he died 15-03-1945, age 42 The official cause of death was listed as tuberculosis, but Bongartz had also been suffering from hepatitis and/or liver cirrhosis.
Bongartz is buried at the Friedhof Böckingen, Heilbronn, Stadtkreis Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Heidelberger Street., 74080 Heilbronn. His headstone marker was removed by cemetery administration and put on display in the Georg Elser Memorial” in Königsbronn..
Leave a Reply