Oskar-Heinz Kusch
Oberleutnant zur See (Crew 37a)
| Successes 2 ships damaged for a total of 15.771 GRT 1 ship a total loss for a total of 8.166 GRT |
| Born | 6 Apr, 1918 | Berlin |
| Died | 12 May, 1944 |
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Oskar Kusch was born in Berlin in 1918 and in his teens he spent a few months in the Hitler Youth (when his non-Nazi youth group was outlawed) before leaving the unit when he was 17 years old. He entered the Kriegsmarine in 1937 as officer candidate and became part of the 1937a crew. Among his fellow students were the Knights Cross winners Forstner (U-402) and Koitschka (U-616).
In 1940 he was sent to the U-boat arm where he served on the U-103 from June 1941 to Feb 1943 when he was given his first U-boat, the U-154 of type IXC.
According to all accounts Kusch was a very outspoken and direct officer, handsome, athletic, very intelligent and close to his men.
On January 26, 1944, Oblt. z.S. Oskar Kusch was condemned to death by a military tribunal, after being denounced by his former IWO [Dr. Abel - who Kusch had apparently told was not good enough to command his own boat after the first patrol. However after the second patrol in Dec 1943 Kusch gave Abel a good review.] for alleged "Wehrkraftzersetzung" (sedition and defeatism).
One of eleven politically motivated accusations against Kusch was that he had ordered a Hitler portrait removed from the boat's officers' mess to a less conspicuous location with the commentary, "We are not in the business here of practicing idolatry."
At his trial his officers took the stand against him. His defence team pointed out his successful career and honorable record in all regards and that he only stated his opinions to his officers to stir up the conversations and make his men more aware of what was going on.
He was also sentenced to one year in prison for "listening to foreign radio stations". He was given a chance to ask for clemency but he chose to stand by his convictions and morals and admit no wrongdoing. He was also found to have had "liberal tendencies" by choosing to leave the almost-mandatory Hitler Youth years earlier.
Oskar Kusch was executed by a firing squad on 12 May 1944 in Kiel-Holtenau.
His father tried to seek justice for his son in May 1946 under new allied laws and in 1949 the judge who sentenced him, Karl-Heinrich Hagemann, was tried for "Crime against civil rights". This case dragged on until late 1950 when the judge was found to have acted within the laws at the time, a controversial verdict to many.
In 1996 Kusch's legal record was finally wiped clean, and in 1998 the city of Kiel erected a memorial and renamed a street in his honor not far from the military range along the Kiel Canal where he had been shot 54 years before.
| The text of the plaque on Kusch's granite memorial along the Oskar-Kusch-Street in Kiel-Holtenau reads as follows:
*6. 4. 1918 +12. 5. 1944 His name stands for the many victims of the National Socialist system of injustice who died here and in other places. Their death is our legacy. Community of Altenholz - City of Kiel 12 May 1998 |
Special thanks to Tim Schwabedissen and Eric C. Rust.
Interesting article about this case can be found at
http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume1_number1_Apr02/article_rust_kusch_uboat.doc.htm.
 U-Boat Adventures Wiggins, Melanie Buy this title at amazon.co.uk See more sellers |
Books dealing with this subject include: U-Boat Adventures, Wiggins, Melanie, 1999 Wolf, Vause, Jordan, 1997 (transl.) |