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Andergassen during his trial in Naples, 15 January 1946

Heinrich or Heinz Andergassen (30 July 1908 in Hall, Tyrol, Austro-Hungarian Empire – 26 July 1946 in Livorno, Italy) was an engineer, SS officer, and convicted war criminal who was executed for the torture and murder of seven Allied prisoners of war. He was a SS-Sturmscharführer^[1] and later an SS-Untersturmführer in Northern Italy.

Origin

Heinrichs parents were Hall goldsmith and later police officer August Andergassen and Maria. Grandparents Franz Alexander Andergassen so-called Princely Enzenberg Courts Cabinetmaker at Tratzberg Castle and Salva Guardia with Anna originated in Kaltern an der Weinstrasse/Caldaro sulla Strada del Vino Italy and Schwaz in Tirol Austria. Andergassen has not been married and presumably not a father.^[2] He has been living in Italy, Innsbruck, Hall and Volders close Gauleiter Hofer so called Lachhof^[3] estate.^[4] Cousin's wife or maid Maria Andergassen has been victimized and died at Hartheim Castle by T4 in follow.^[5] The cousin himself Franz Josef Andergassen son of Ignaz has converted in 1934, Mar. with their child to Lutheran Church Confessio Augustana. Heinrich Andergassen's uncle Josef Domenikus Andergassen has been the cabinetmaker and decorative arts contributor at some local important church interiors in the Habsburg Monarchy, Austria and abroad most of Gothic Revival Style. An assumed life-size portrait sitting of Maria Andergassen drawn by her cousin Josef Andergassen occasionally theater architect of Hippach in Zillertal Valley son of Josef Domenikus resisted wartime ruins as a private heritage. His brother, Anton Johann Andergassen, had been better educated as denturist partly in Munich. Most of his professional life he has been working in Brixlegg though he was not able to survive mental health hospitalization postwar and died of Tuberculosis never silent across Europe in letters arguing Human Rights. In WWII he joined Wehrmacht as a gunner towards France until 1941 but he sabotaged or self-harmed himself by a hand shot, later he resisted in the table petition to save Brixlegg Innriver bridge at General SS being shot therefore and last but not least in a written statement to Berlin concerning his 1938 Parteimitgliedschaft. This lungs bullet forced him to hide in a Tyrolese traditional farmhouse oven^[6] outside Kitzbühel Lebenberg Castle until he was found by family members and brought to a hospital before he was transferred to French liberation camp Woergl for clarification as follower^[7] in 1945. During wartime at Brixlegg butcher's shop have been information resistance activities he joined. Anton has been mentioned as the best friend of Heinrich in the family context and Toni has been somehow a father of three Heinrich b.1946, Gerda b.1941, and Michael b.1947 with different female partners, but never met or has not been permitted to get known to any of his children.

Career

Andergassen was educated as a machinist at Swarowski in Wattens. In 1929 he voluntarily joined the Army and was trained at Viennese Arsenal. In 1937 he was appointed Gendarm. After Anschluss he got NSDAP member, and became active with Gestapo.^[8] At the German occupation of Czechoslovakian Sudetenland in October 1938 he served in a 100-strong police unit. Then he started his career as a Gestapo officer in Innsbruck.^[9] Andergassen was later sent to Italy, where he served as an SD officer in Merano. On the night of 15 September 1943, he led raids which resulted in the arrests of 25 Jews living in Merano. The Jews were locked in a basement and deported the next morning. They were taken by truck to Reichenau concentration camp in Austria. The 25 Jews stayed there for about six months, during which four of them died. At the beginning of March 1944, the rest were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Only one of the Jews abducted, Valeska von Hoffmann, survived the Holocaust.^[10]

Manlio Longon

On 15 December 1944, the SS captured Manlio Longon Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale leader of the Italian Resistance Alto Adige. On the order of August Schiffer, Longon was tortured and hanged by Andergassen and Storz at Army Corps Bolzano on 1 January 1945.^[11]

Roderick Stephen Hall

On 26 January 1945 the OSS Captain Roderick Stephen Hall,^[12] who had been active in occupied Italy for some months was captured by the SS in Cortina d’Ampezzo and forced to Gestapo Bolzano/Bozen. On 19 February 1945, Roderick Stephen Hall was tortured and killed by Andergassen and SS-Oberscharführer Albert Storz on orders of SS-Sturmbannführer August Schiffer, at the Bolzano Transit Camp.^[13]

Arrest, trial, and execution

On 30 April 1945 Andergassen, together with Schiffer and Storz as a driver, fled from the approaching American armed forces in a black Mercedes to Brennero.^[14] On 8 May, he was captured by the 206th Counterintelligence Corp outside Innsbruck^[15] Schiffer, Storz, and he were accused as war criminals, along with Gestapo officer Hans Butz. During their trial, held by the U.S. military in Naples, Andergassen made a voluntary declaration that the execution of Roderick Hall was approved by higher Nazi authorities.^[16] On 16 January 1946, Andergassen, Schiffer, and Storz were sentenced to death by hanging for the torture and killings of Roderick Stephen Hall, four other Americans and two British soldiers. Butz received a life sentence due to his limited involvement and his lack of participation in any other murders.^[17] On 26 July 1946, Andergassen, Schiffer, and Storz were all hanged at a military stockade in Livorno.^[18]

Postwar reception

Province of Bolzano/Provinz Bozen Criminal Investigation Department Commissioner Arthur Schuster charged the war criminal with being "the incarnation of sadism and brutality; he was incredibly blood-thirsty, especially when under the influence of strong drink, for which he had a great fondness, and was encouraged in all his excesses by his superior", this being August Schiffer.^[19]