Career
Corps. The Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Friedrich Gollwitzer was captured by Soviet troops in June 1944 during the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive, and was not released until October 1955. In 1964 the public prosecutor"s office in Amberg (West Germany) started an inquiry against Gollwitzer over his alleged involvement in war crimes.
In his letter the veteran stated that: “activities of 41st Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel Gollwitzer () were nothing less than genocide.
Despite the fact that in Poland there were no partisans at that time almost no village from Kalisz to Warsaw had survived because Gollwitzer sparked an obsession with the partisans in his soldiers" minds”. In particular, Gollwitzer was accused of ordering the execution of 18 Poles in a village Torzeniec which was blamed for the of death of three German soldiers (in fact the soldiers were victims of friendly fire).
However, the prosecutor"s office in Amberg decided to drop the investigation against Gollwitzer. Iron Cross (1914) Bibliography.