1. August Edler von Meyszner was an Austrian Gendarmerie officer, right-wing politician, and senior Ordnungspolizei officer who held the post of Higher SS and Police Leader in the German-occupied territory of Serbia from January 1942 to March 1944, during World War II.
August Meyszner joined the Austrian Nazi Party in September 1925 and became a right-wing parliamentary deputy and provincial minister in the Austrian province of Styria in 1930.
August Meyszner was found guilty by a Yugoslav military court and executed by hanging in January 1947.
On 19 May 1915, August Meyszner was posted as the commander of a gendarmerie company on the Italian Front.
In December 1919, August Meyszner was placed in charge of the border gendarmerie at the Styrian town of Judenburg, on the frontier with the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and was involved in fighting there.
August Meyszner joined the Austrian Nazi Party on 5 September 1925, and was allocated membership number 10,617.
On 1 January 1929, August Meyszner was transferred to Graz where he came into contact with more right-wing organisations.
In 1930, August Meyszner became a right-wing deputy in the Styrian provincial parliament representing the Heimatblock, the political wing of the Heimatschutz, and because of the Styrian system of proportional representation he became a minister of the provincial government.
The fact that August Meyszner had completely adopted Nazi ideology was demonstrated by his anti-Jewish diatribe in the Landtag in April 1933, which reinforced his speeches advancing the anti-semitic policy of the Home Guard under Kammerhofer.
On 2 February 1934 August Meyszner was arrested, and was interned in the Wollersdorf concentration camp for three-and-a-half months for Nazi activities.
August Meyszner travelled to Germany by sea in November 1934.
August Meyszner was obliged to resign from the Allgemeine SS in October 1935.
August Meyszner was allowed to return to the Allgemeine SS in October 1937 and returned to his previous rank of SS-Oberfuhrer, backdated to February 1935.
In 1937, August Meyszner was appointed as an honorary judge of the People's Court, and in 1941 this appointment was extended.
August Meyszner was transferred to the Sudetenland in early October 1938, after its annexation by Germany, as an Orpo district commander.
August Meyszner remained in this role until 10 September 1940, during which time he was promoted to SS-Brigadefuhrer on 20 April 1940.
On 1 January 1942, August Meyszner was promoted to SS-Gruppenfuhrer, and on 20 January, he was promoted to Generalleutnant der Polizei, backdated to 1 January 1942.
August Meyszner arrived in Belgrade in late January 1942, inserted into a political maelstrom of conflicting lines of command and authority.
Turner and August Meyszner clashed continually throughout 1942, as August Meyszner sought to remove all police matters from Turner's remit, including the supervision of the security forces of the Serbian collaborationist regime.
In early September 1942, August Meyszner filed an official report with Himmler alleging that Turner had breached section 90 of the German Penal Code by betraying state secrets.
In March 1943, August Meyszner complained to Himmler that Benzler had adopted a "soft" policy towards the Serbs, allowing them to take charge of the supervision of crops.
August Meyszner, who had been recommended by Himmler, accepted that his party membership was retrospectively determined to be 1 June 1938 and he was allocated a party number of 6,119,650.
The good relationship between Bader and August Meyszner continued until early 1943, when Bader became aware August Meyszner had been undermining him in his reports to Himmler, blaming the Wehrmacht for the failure to combat the Partisan threat.
In mid-May 1944, August Meyszner was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class for his efforts fighting the Partisans in Serbia.
August Meyszner was interrogated by the United States Chief Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Robert H Jackson, in June 1945 and was placed into Yugoslav custody soon after.