on a recommendation for the award of the War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords for a Revier Oberwachtmeister of the Schutzpolizei, dated April 3, 1944. On the front side the recommendation and the signature of the Leutnant d.SchP. u. Schwadronführer, on the reverse “Der SS-und Polizeiführer im Distrikt Lublin” with the endorsement, “Sporrenberg, SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei.”. DIN A4, hole-punched, condition 2.

Jakob Sporrenberg (born September 16, 1902 in Düsseldorf; died December 6, 1952 in Warsaw) was a German SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei as well as member of the Reichstag, who was executed in Poland as a war criminal. From 1919 to 1921 he served as a volunteer with the Grenzschutz Ost and other units.

Sporrenberg participated in the Kapp Putsch in 1920. He joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund in 1921. From there he transferred to the NSDAP in 1922. For “secret organization activities” he was arrested in 1923 during the Ruhr occupation and sentenced in 1924 by a French military court to two years imprisonment and a fine of 1,000 gold marks, but was released again in August 1925. During his imprisonment he joined the Schlageter-Gedächtnisbund. After the party ban he rejoined the NSDAP at the end of 1925 (membership number 25,585) and reactivated his SA membership shortly before. In Düsseldorf he was involved in building up the local party organization, became district leader there and in 1929/30 acting HJ-Gebietsführer. On October 1, 1930 he transferred from the SA to the SS (membership number 3,809), where he initially served part-time and from November 1932 full-time as SS-Führer in Düsseldorf.

From March 1933 to 1945 he was a member of the Reichstag.

From November 1933 to September 1936 he headed SS-Abschnitt XX (Kiel) and also the SS-Kaserne in Kiel. In the interim he was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer at the end of January 1936. Thereafter he was assigned to command SD-Oberabschnitt Nordost (Königsberg) and from September 1938 was also Inspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (IdS) in Königsberg.

After the beginning of World War II, Sporrenberg was Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer (HSSPF) “Rhein” from early October 1939 to mid-June 1940 and was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer in early January 1940. After that he was HSSPF “Nordost” until May 1941. From July to August 1941 Sporrenberg was briefly SSPF Weißruthenien and thereafter assigned to Reichskommissar für das Reichskommissariat Ukraine Erich Koch. In July 1943 he was promoted to Generalleutnant der Polizei. As successor to Odilo Globocnik he was SSPF im Distrikt Lublin from August 1943 to November 1944. There he organized Aktion Erntefest, in which over 43,000 Jews were murdered. From November 21, 1944 to May 1945 he was SSPF Südnorwegen. On May 11, 1945 Sporrenberg was captured there and extradited to Poland. A Polish court sentenced him to death in 1950 for planning and participating in Aktion Erntefest. On December 6, 1952 he was executed by hanging in Warsaw.

488065

€ 420,00

SS Original Signature of SS-Gruppenführer Jakob Sporrenberg, Generalleutnant der Polizei in Minsk, Belarus and Lublin

This historical document from 1944 represents a dark chapter in German history and provides insight into the administrative machinery of the National Socialist terror regime during World War II. It is a proposal for the award of the War Merit Cross Second Class with Swords, dated April 3, 1944, bearing the signature of SS-Gruppenführer Jakob Sporrenberg, who at that time served as SS and Police Leader in the District of Lublin.

The War Merit Cross (Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was instituted by decree of Adolf Hitler on October 18, 1939, to recognize special wartime service not directly acquired in combat. The decoration existed in two classes, each with and without swords. The version with swords was awarded to members of the Wehrmacht and armed units, while the version without swords was primarily intended for civilians. This proposal concerned a Revier-Oberwachtmeister of the Schutzpolizei (precinct senior sergeant of the Protection Police), a middle rank within the uniformed Order Police of the Third Reich.

The bureaucratic process of awarding decorations in the NS state followed strict hierarchical structures. A proposal typically had to be submitted by the direct superior and then endorsed through higher instances. In this case, the document bore first the signature of a Lieutenant of the Schutzpolizei and Squadron Leader on the front, while the reverse contained the endorsement by SS and Police Leader Sporrenberg. This signature documents his administrative function as the highest SS and police authority in the Lublin District.

Jakob Sporrenberg (1902-1952) was a central figure in the National Socialist apparatus of repression. His career reflects the typical path of an early Nazi: participation in the Kapp Putsch of 1920, early NSDAP membership (No. 25,585), imprisonment by French occupation forces, and steady advancement within the SS hierarchy. His transfer from the SA to the SS on October 1, 1930 (SS No. 3,809) occurred at a time when Heinrich Himmler was developing the SS into an elite organization.

In occupied Poland, Sporrenberg served from August 1943 to November 1944 as SS and Police Leader in the Lublin District, succeeding Odilo Globocnik. The General Government, to which the Lublin District belonged, was that portion of occupied Poland not directly annexed to the German Reich but placed under German civil administration. Here were located some of the largest extermination camps, including Majdanek near Lublin.

Sporrenberg's name is inseparably linked with Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival), one of the largest single murder operations of the Holocaust. On November 3 and 4, 1943, as part of this operation, over 43,000 Jewish prisoners were systematically shot in the camps of Majdanek, Trawniki, and Poniatowa. This mass execution was carried out in response to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Sobibor uprising. Sporrenberg organized and supervised these crimes, which were conducted under the cynical code name “Erntefest” (Harvest Festival).

Documents such as this award proposal are historically significant because they illustrate the intersection of routine military bureaucracy and systematic genocide. While such administrative procedures resembled ordinary military correspondence in form, the persons and structures involved served a criminal system. Sporrenberg's signature on such a document documents his administrative presence in the Lublin District during a period of the most intense persecution and extermination.

After the war, Sporrenberg was captured on May 11, 1945, in Norway, where he had last served as SS and Police Leader for Southern Norway. Unlike many other Nazi perpetrators, he was extradited to Poland, where he had to answer before a Polish court. In 1950, he was sentenced to death for his central role in Aktion Erntefest and was executed by hanging in Warsaw on December 6, 1952. His statements during interrogations provided important information about the structures and procedures of Nazi extermination policy in Poland.

Such authentic documents from the Nazi era serve today primarily for historical research and education. They are material witnesses to the bureaucratic penetration of the National Socialist terror apparatus and help document the mechanisms of domination and extermination. In museums and archives, they contribute to keeping alive the memory of the crimes of the Nazi regime and educating future generations.