Felber, Hans Gustav.

Felber, Hans Gustav, born 08-07-1888, in Wiesbaden, three months after Adolf Hitler (did you know) (see parents) (Paula) and (see Alois Hitler) (see William Hitler/Stuart Houston), in Wiesbaden, joined the Army as a Fahnenjunker, age 18, on 17-03-1908 in the 3^rd Großherzoglich Hessisches Infanterie-Leibregiment “Großherzogin” Nr. 117 under command of Oberst Ferdinand von Schlutterbach . He was with this Regiment on the front during World War I and was allowed in the new 100.000 men Reichswehr after the war. Promoted to Generalmajor on 01-10-1937 and to Generalleutnant on 01-10-1939, he was the commander of the 2^nd Army with the outbreak of World War II. He became a General on 01-08-1940 and as commander of the XIII Army Corps on the Eastern Front, he succeeded Generaloberst der Panzertruppe, Oberbefehlhaber Südwest, Heinrich von Vietinghoff,   Felber ordered the deportation of the Jews (see Simon Wiesenthal) from the Ghetto Lodz earlier as Reinhard Heydrich gave his order for this deportation.

On 17-08-1944, The Gestapo announced the exclusion of the following streets from the ghetto: Wolborska, Nad Łódką, Zgierska, Dolna, Łagiewnicka, Brzezińska, Smugowa and the Old Market Square, Kościelny Square and Bałucki Rynek. The presence of Jews in these areas was punishable by death.A handful of people were left alive in the ghetto to clean it up. Others remained in hiding with the Polish rescuers.[45] When the Soviet army entered Łódź on 19-01-1945, only 877 Jews were still alive, 12 of whom were children. Of the 223,000 Jews in Łódź before the invasion, only 10,000 survived the Holocaust in other places.

A trial in 1949 for his war crimes was luckily for him not continued and he went home free. Awarded with the Ritterkreuz he lost his Command on 17-09-1941 to Generalleutnant der Infanterie, Otto Ernst Ottenbacher,   and landed in the Reserve. Ottenbacher died old age 86, on 07-01-1975, in Stuttgart. On 01-04-1942 assigned as commanding General vom Höheres Kommando XXXXV in the West. End May 1942 Commanding General of the LXXXIII Armeekorps or Armeegruppe Felber. He takes the Military Command of Region Südost in Belgrade, on 15-08-1943. Felber is assigned as highest commander of the Army District Serbian in September 1944, Operation Market Garden over Holland started soon (see About). When this district is disbanded he becomes the command General in the Vosges, also named the Corps Group Felber. He is involved in the Battle of the Bulge, Ardennes Offensive and at the beginning of 1945 assigned to commanding General of again the XIII Army Corps, now succeeded General der Infanterie, Arthur Hauffe, Hauffe was captured by Soviet troops on 22-07-1944 and died later, age 51, the same day when he stepped on a land mine. Transferred again to the 7^th Army , succeeded here General Erich Brandenburg,   on the picture with Generalfeldmarschall der Infanterie, OB Heeresgruppe Sud, Erich von Manstein

and lands in the Führer Reserve and US captivity on 08-05-1945. Brandenburg died age 62, on 21-06-1955, in Bonn. The 7^th Army surrendered to U.S. 3^rd Army  under General Georg Smith Patton   in the area of the Bavarian Forest and western Bohemia on 08-05-1945.

Released on 08-05-1948, Felber lived in Frankfurt am Main, where he died at the age of 72, on 08-03-1962. He is buried with his wife Hanni, born Hallwachs, who died age 87, on 12-06-1994, on the Hauptfriedhof of Frankfurt with his fellow WWII Generalmajor der Flieger, Special Duties with Air Fleet Command Reich, Herbert Schröder, Generalmajor der Artillerie, Artillery Commander 141, Friedrich Kunze  and Generalleutnant der Panzertruppe, Küstenverteidigungsabschnitts Friesland, der ehemaligen Division zbV. 172, Hans Boelsen.