Wilfried Karl Strik-Strikfeldt was a Baltic German officer in the Wehrmacht during World War II, known for his involvement with General Andrey Vlasov and the German-sponsored Russian Liberation Army.
22 Facts About Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt attended the centenary celebrations of the Battle of Borodino in 1912, and during World War I volunteered to fight as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army against Germany.
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That same year Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt settled back in Riga, in the newly independent Latvia.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt's work was part of the literature event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt's family was settled in Posen, the administrative capital of the Warthegau.
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In early 1941 Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was interviewed by a German army staff officer in Posen and asked to undertake an interpreter's examination in Berlin, where he was awarded a certificate as "Interpreter Class A".
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was initially attached to Field-Marshal Fedor von Bock's HQ in the Warthegau, where he met and worked with Generalmajor Reinhard Gehlen and Generalmajor Henning von Tresckow.
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Early in 1942 Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was transferred to the Oberkommando des Heeres "War Booty Collection Centre" office in Angerburg, East Prussia, to sort through captured Russian military papers and documents for the Fremde Heere Ost of the Army General Staff.
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Over July and August 1942 Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt met and interviewed ex-Communist and former Soviet Army General Andrey Vlasov in a German PoW camp in Vinnitsa.
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In September 1942 Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was formally seconded to the OKW Propaganda Department office in Berlin as a Betreuer responsible for Vlasov.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt knew Frohlich well as they had played ice hockey in rival teams as youths.
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In 1943 Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt escorted Vlasov to Vienna where he served as an interpreter at an official meeting with Baldur von Schirach.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was obliged to travel to Paris and liaise with the German military authorities there.
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In January 1944 Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was interviewed by General Kostring when the latter was appointed head of the Osttruppen formations.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt held meetings at this time with SS-Gruppenfuhrer Otto Ohlendorf, SS-Brigadefuhrer Walter Schellenberg and Dr Otto Wachter.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was even initially interviewed by the head of the SS recruitment office, SS-General Gottlob Berger.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was then obliged to arrange a personal meeting between Vlasov and Berger where the latter appointed SS-Oberfuhrer Erhard Kroeger as a formal liaison officer between Vlasov and the SS.
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Late in 1944 Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt met the Cossack White Army-era General Pyotr Krasnov and tried to convince him to join Vlasov but to no avail.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt was not invited to Prague for the formal ceremony declaring the Manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.
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In December 1944 one of Gehlen's officers visited Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt and asked him to help accommodate units of the Russian Liberation Army in the Posen area.
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In early April 1945 Gehlen had Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt posted as sick and after some confusion at the OKH, he left and took his family to the Allgau.
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Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt agreed to negotiate their surrender with the Western powers.