Georg von Boeselager

Georg von Boeselager (25 August 1915 – 27 August 1944) was a German nobleman and an officer in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, who led the Nazi security warfare operations in the Army Group Centre Rear Area on the Eastern Front, calling for extreme measures, including deporting all males in "gang-infested areas" and shooting those who remained. Along with his younger brother Philipp von Boeselager, he was a co-conspirator in the 1944 20 July Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Soon after the plot failed, Boeselager was killed in action and was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Early life Boeselager was born near Kassel into the noble Boeselager family. After enlisting in the army in 1934, he trained with a cavalry regiment. He became an officer in 1936 and in March 1939, was promoted to First Lieutenant. Boeselager took part in the Invasion of Poland and was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. For his actions in the Battle of France (the bridging of the Seine near Les Andelys on 13 June 1940), he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class. The following January, he won the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. By July, he had been promoted to captain. In Operation Barbarossa, Boeselager's company performed reconnaissance for the double-pronged sweep around Brest-Litovsk to take Białystok and Minsk, seized bridgeheads over the Neman and Daugava rivers, and participated in the Battle of Moscow. He was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak leaves on 31 December 1941. He was then posted as instructor at the "School for Shock Troops" in Krampnitz. While there, Boeselager became acquainted with members of the military resistance to Hitler's regime, who realised the war was not going well.