Gerhard Flesch

Who was Gerhard Flesch?

Gerhard Friedrich Ernst Flesch was a German Nazi executed for war crimes, specifically the torture and murder of members of the Norwegian resistance movement.

He was an Oberregierungsrat and held the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer. He was born in Posen, Province of Posen, German Empire. He became a member of NSDAP in 1933. In 1934, he took his degree in law and in 1936 was appointed by Reinhard Heydrich to the Gestapo where he was appointed to controlling the religious sects of Germany. In 1938, he took part in the German march into the Sudetenland, and in 1939, in the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia, and was later appointed political adviser to Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel in Thuringia. After the outbreak of the war in September, 1939, he became leader of an Einsatzkommando in Poznań. In 1940, he joined the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf in their march into France.

He had a position as Regierungsrat, and SS-Sturmbannführer, in April 1940 when he was assigned to Norway. His first job in Norway was Kommandeur der Sipo und des SD in Bergen. On 11 October 1941, he was appointed Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, in Trondheim. As Kommandeur of the district, he was also chief of Falstad concentration camp outside Trondheim and the prisons in Trondheim. He was given the rank of Obersturmbannführer and received the title of Oberregierungsrat. His immediate superior was Heinrich Fehlis. On 8 May 1945, he fled from Trondheim with a gold bar in his luggage. He was caught and sent back with a police escort on the train and during which he made an unsuccessful attempt to escape.