English source-aligned edition
Gerhard Flesch
Gerhard Flesch served as commander of Einsatzkommando 2/VI and first head of the Gestapo in Łódź, later KdS in Bergen and Trondheim. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Poznań, Łódź, Bergen, Trondheim and Falstad through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- IPN documents Flesch as commander of an Einsatzkommando operating in Greater Poland and as the first head of the Łódź Gestapo in 1939–1940.
- A United Nations War Crimes Commission report establishes that, as KdS Trondheim, he headed the regional Security Police, Falstad camp and prisons in Trondheim.
- The Norwegian court found that Flesch issued orders for executions without trial, including those of Toralf Berg and Johnny Pevik, and approved or ordered torture during intensified interrogations.
- The court acquitted him on two specific counts, including the allegation that he ordered the killing of three ill Jewish prisoners at Falstad; the remaining charges resulted in a death sentence upheld by the Supreme Court of Norway.
Place in the chain of responsibility
Flesch shows the transfer of regional Gestapo personnel from occupied Poland to an extensive apparatus of prisons, a camp and interrogations in Norway. The crimes individualised by the judgment concern Norway; the Łódź phase reconstructs his career and institutional continuity, rather than automatically attributing every act of the Łódź Gestapo to him.
Key events and mechanisms
- commanding Einsatzkommando 2/VI and taking charge of the Gestapo in Łódź in 1939
- taking office as KdS Trondheim and assuming oversight of Falstad in October 1941
- issuing orders for extrajudicial executions and approving torture in 1942–1945
- the death sentence on 2 December 1946, dismissal of the appeal on 12 February 1948 and execution on 28 February 1948
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
Frostating Court of Appeal found Flesch guilty on 2 December 1946 of most of the murder and torture charges and sentenced him to death by firing squad. The Supreme Court of Norway unanimously dismissed the appeal on 12 February 1948. The sentence was carried out on 28 February 1948.
Limits of the evidence
The Norwegian judgment expressly distinguished proven acts from two counts ending in acquittal; the profile must preserve that distinction. No equivalent judgment individualising his actions in Łódź was found, so the full terror of that office cannot be attributed to him.
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.