Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg

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Ferdinand August Friedrich von Sammern-Frankenegg (17 March 1897 – 20 September 1944) was an Austrian lawyer and high-ranking member of the SS in Nazi Germany. Born in Grieskirchen, Austria-Hungary, he served in World War I, was captured by Italian forces, and released in 1919 with the rank of Oberleutnant. He earned a Doctor of Law degree from the University of Innsbruck in 1922 and worked as a lawyer.

Sammern-Frankenegg joined right-wing and Nazi groups in the 1920s and 1930s, joining the SS in 1932 and the Nazi Party in 1933. He held various SS positions in Austria and led the 37th SS-Standarte in Linz from 1935 to 1939. After the Anschluss in 1938, he became a full-time SS official and was elected as a deputy to the Reichstag, serving from 10 April 1938 until his death.

During World War II, he was the acting SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of the Warsaw District from July 1942 to April 1943. He directed the mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp in the operation known as the Grossaktion Warschau, transporting about 254,000 to 265,000 people to their deaths between July and September 1942. He continued deportations in January 1943, but the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began in April 1943. He failed to crush the uprising and was relieved of his Warsaw command by Heinrich Himmler, with Jürgen Stroop replacing him.

In April 1943, he was sent to Croatia as the police area commander in Esseg (Osijek), where he fought anti-partisan forces. He was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor der Polizei on 20 April 1944. On 20 September 1944, he was killed in an artillery attack by Yugoslav partisans near Banja Luka. He was buried in Esseg and had been awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class.