What Happened to Fehn—Hitler’s General in Yugoslavia? Ljubljana 1945 JJ
Poland, 1st of September 1939. At dawn, without a declaration of war, German artillery opens fire across the Polish border. Stukas dive from the clouds, their sirens screaming, as Polish towns erupt in flames. Columns of Wehrmacht the German Armed Forces roll forward in tight formation – armoured spearheads breaking through, motorized infantry following fast behind. On 28 September Warsaw officially surrenders. Less than 2 years later – on 6 April 1941 – Nazi Germany begins its invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece.
Among the advancing troops is a commander who embodies the new face of the Wehrmacht: efficient, disciplined, and unquestioningly obedient. Under his command, entire villages burn and thousands of civilians are slaughtered in a campaign of terror across the Balkans. His name is Gustav Fehn. Gustav Fehn was born on the 21st of February 1892 in the city of Nuremberg, then part of the German Empire. Like many young men of his generation, he was drawn early to the army, the most respected institution in Imperial Germany. In July 1911, at the age of nineteen,
he entered military service as a cadet and 2 years later he became an officer. The German Empire and Europe were still at peace, and for ambitious young officers like Fehn, the army offered both a career and a sense of belonging. When the First World War began in the summer of 1914, Fehn was sent to the Western Front. The German army, confident of a quick victory, advanced through Belgium and France but the campaign soon turned into a bloody stalemate of trench warfare. During the war Fehn received
promotions and various military awards such as both classes of the Iron Cross, the Wound Badge, the Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg and the Friedrich-August Cross. These promotions and military awards marked him as a capable and loyal officer, one of those who survived the destruction of the old imperial army and formed the backbone of the next army in the peace time. After the armistice in November 1918, Germany descended into turmoil. Soldiers returned home to a country in revolution and despair. Fehn, like many officers unwilling to lay down his arms,
joined one of the Freikorps, paramilitary groups fighting communists and separatists in the ruins of postwar Germany. The Freikorps were violent and chaotic, but for men like Fehn, they were also a refuge – a way to preserve military discipline in a world that seemed to have lost it. He served with the Freikorps group named “Deutsche Schutzdivision”, which operated in Berlin and various regions of Germany. In 1919, Fehn was accepted into the new Reichswehr, the professional army of the newly founded Weimar Republic. The army was strictly limited in size by the Treaty of
Versailles to 100,000 men, but its officers were carefully selected for competence and reliability. Fehn began a long period of steady service, moving through various infantry and cavalry assignments. He completed an elite officer-training course and proved to be an able administrator and instructor. The interwar Reichswehr focused on modernization within the tight restrictions imposed by Versailles, studying mobile tactics and technology that would later become central to blitzkrieg – the lightning war. Fehn fit neatly into this professional and formally apolitical corps.
When in January 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power as the German chancellor, Fehn was soon promoted to major and was assigned to the Infantry School in Dresden as an instructor. At Dresden, Fehn taught infantry tactics to young officers and witnessed the growing militarization of Germany. The army, long proud of its independence from politics, was now tied to the Nazi regime. Many officers welcomed the expansion of the military but ignored the regime’s ideology. When the army swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler personally in 1934, Fehn, like
most of his colleagues, complied without protest and swore his allegiance to the Nazi dictator. By 1938, Fehn had risen to the rank of Oberst – an equivalent to Colonel, and a year later he assumed command of one of the motorized regiments intended to spearhead Germany’s future conquests. When the Wehrmacht invaded Poland and started the Second World War on 1 September 1939, Fehn led his regiment in the campaign and distinguished himself as a calm and efficient commander. The swift German victory brought him once again promotion and military awards. Fehn again
commanded his unit during the Western campaign of 1940, leading troops through France and the Low Countries. For his leadership, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, one of the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Soon after the victory over France, in November 1940 Fehn assumed command of the 5th Panzer Division, one of Germany’s elite armoured units. In the spring of 1941, Fehn’s division took part in the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, campaigns that secured the Balkans
for Germany and its allies just a few weeks before German invasion into the Soviet Union. Parts of Fehn´s division were also engaged in the Battle of Crete, a costly airborne assault that brought this important island under German control. Fehn’s reports showed a commander focused on mobility and discipline rather than glory. His superiors regarded him as a competent professional rather than a visionary – a man who obeyed orders faithfully and kept his formation effective. Later that year, Fehn’s division was transferred east to join Army Group Centre in the invasion
of the Soviet Union. His men took part in the offensive against Moscow and were part of this brutal and exhausting campaign connected also with murdering the civilian population. Disease, mud, and partisan attacks also took a heavy toll on the soldiers. Fehn’s leadership and willingness to serve the Nazis earned him the German Cross in Gold on the 7th of July 1942, an award that recognised personal bravery and effective command. In 1942 he became General der Panzertruppe, and he briefly commanded the XXXX Panzer Corps, part of the 1st Panzer Army,
before being placed in the Führerreserve, the pool of senior officers awaiting new assignments. His next appointment came unexpectedly, after a few days, on 16 November 1942, he was sent to North Africa to serve as commander of the Afrika Korps, where he tried to hold the collapsing front in North Africa, but on 15 January 1943 he was severely wounded and evacuated to Germany. The North African campaign ended soon after in total defeat for Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. After his recovery, Fehn returned to duty but never regained the prominent position he once
held. He ended up commanding the XXI. Mountain Army Corps in the Balkans. In October 1943, he was transferred to Yugoslavia, where he directed anti-partisan operations against the forces of communist partisan leader Josip Broz Tito. The campaign was bitter and merciless, with civilians often caught between reprisals and guerrilla warfare. Fehn’s corps was part of the 2nd Panzer Army, charged with maintaining German control over a region already descending into chaos. On 20 July 1944, the very day of the failed
assassination attempt on Hitler, Fehn took command of the XV. Mountain Army Corps, a position he held until the end of the Second World War. His forces fought retreating battles as the Red Army advanced from the east and partisans led by Josip Broz Tito grew stronger in the mountains of Balkan. To the very end, Fehn followed orders, maintaining discipline even as Germany disintegrated around him. While he projected the image of a disciplined career officer, the reality of his leadership during these final months was far darker. Under Fehn’s authority, the retreat of the
XV. Mountain Corps across Balkan regions became inseparable from a campaign of systematic violence against civilians. Entire villages were burned in punitive operations, thousands of hostages – men, women and children – were executed in retaliation for partisan attacks, and collective punishments were imposed on communities accused of aiding the resistance. Rather than uphold the rules of war, Fehn implemented and enforced Hitler’s brutal directives for “bandit fighting,” which treated civilians and partisans as one and the same. In doing so, he transformed the German withdrawal
from the Balkans into a scorched-earth campaign that left behind a trail of destruction, death, and lasting trauma. In May 1945, with the German surrender, Fehn was taken prisoner by the British. Like many captured officers, he expected to face interrogation and internment, perhaps even a formal war crimes trial. Instead, on 4 June 1945, the British handed him over to Yugoslav partisans, who accused him of responsibility for atrocities committed by German troops in the Balkans. There was no formal trial, no written sentence.
On 5 June 1945, in Ljubljana, Gustav Fehn was executed by a partisan firing squad, along with other high-ranking German officers such as Werner von Erdmannsdorff, Friedrich Stephan, and Heinz Kattner. The executions were swift and carried out without ceremony which was part of the violent reckoning that swept through the Balkans at the war’s end. Gustav Fehn had served three German states – imperial, republican, and Nazi – and had remained a soldier through them all. He was neither a fanatic nor a hero,
but a professional officer whose loyalty and obedience helped sustain the machinery of a brutal regime that brought devastation to Europe. When partisans shot him for crimes committed by units under his command, he was fifty-three years old. Before we end today’s story, take a look at world history.tv, your special destination for true history lovers. Discover exclusive documentaries and incredible stories you won’t find anywhere else. Thank you for watching and don’t forget to subscribe for more.