Werner Knab (18 December 1908 – 15 February 1945) was a German SS-Sturmbannführer (major) and jurist who served as a Gestapo officer during the Nazi era. He held senior security police positions in occupied Norway, Ukraine, and France during World War II.
Early Life and Career
Knab was born on 18 December 1908 in Frankenthal (Palatinate), Germany. He studied law and became a jurist. He joined the SS and the Gestapo, serving at the Stapo (State Police) office in Munich from 1935 to 1939.
Norway (1939–1942)
Knab served at the German legation in Norway from 1939. Following the German occupation of Norway, he became head of the Gestapo in Norway from 1940 to 1942. In this capacity, he led a crackdown on the University of Oslo following the milk strike and acted as prosecutor in the court-martial established in the strike's aftermath.
Ukraine and Einsatzgruppe C (1942–1943)
In mid-January 1942, Knab was transferred to Ukraine, where he served as a member of Einsatzgruppe C, a mobile killing unit responsible for the mass murder of Jews from 1941 to 1943. He subsequently became head of Department IV (Gestapo) of the office of the BdS (Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) in Kiev.
France (1943–1944)
Appointed senior government councilor (Regierungsrat) in June 1943, Knab became commander of the security police (KdS – Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) in Lyon on 23 June 1943, in German-occupied France. Following the Allied landings in France, massacres of civilians and resistance fighters were carried out on Knab's orders in July 1944 during Wehrmacht operations against the French resistance. In an airborne operation involving cargo gliders near Vassieux, units under his command shot civilians and captured resistance fighters. In total, two villages and several farms were burned, 639 resistance fighters were shot during combat or after capture, and 201 civilians were murdered.
Death
Knab was killed in a low-flying air attack near Weißenfels, Germany, on 15 February 1945 (some sources give 19 February 1945).
