10 Facts About Heinrich Fehlis

Heinrich Fehlis was a German Schutzstaffel officer during World War II.

Heinrich Fehlis commanded the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst in Norway and Oslo during the German occupation of Norway.

Heinrich Fehlis was born on 1 November 1906 in the village of Wulften am Harz, northeast of Gottingen, Germany.

Heinrich Fehlis was a newly educated attorney when Hitler rose to power in 1933, joining the SA that year on 1 April and the Nazi Party on 1 May On 10 September 1935, Fehlis joined the SS, where he successfully applied to work for the Gestapo in Berlin.

Heinrich Fehlis then taught a course for police officers until he was ordered to Norway as part of Operation Weserubung.

On 21 April 1940, Fehlis became leader of the Einsatzkommando in Oslo and, in November, he succeeded Walter Stahlecker in the role of both Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD of Norway and in the subordinate command of Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD in Oslo.

Heinrich Fehlis rose to the rank of SS-Standartenfuhrer, reporting to Reinhard Heydrich and Ernst Kaltenbrunner in Berlin and Wilhelm Rediess and Josef Terboven in Norway.

Together with his subordinate, Hellmuth Reinhard, Heinrich Fehlis regulated the use of torture and sentenced prisoners to death in so-called "office judgements".

Heinrich Fehlis arranged for Gestapo members to be hidden among ordinary soldiers in the Wehrmacht, personally leading a force of around 75 men disguised in Gebirgskorps Norwegen uniforms to a military camp near Porsgrunn.

Heinrich Fehlis' body was discovered in one of the camp rooms; he had found the means to first poison, then shoot himself.