Karl Nicolussi-Leck

Karl Nicolussi-Leck
Nicolussi-Leck (centre), near Warsaw (1944)
Born	(1917-03-14)14 March 1917 Vadena
Died	30 August 2008(2008-08-30) (aged 91)
Nationality	German; Italian
Occupation(s)	Waffen-SS commander Nazi activist
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross

Karl Nicolussi-Leck (14 March 1917 – 30 August 2008) was a mid-ranking Panzer commander in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. In the post-war years, he helped many Waffen-SS soldiers flee Europe.

Political and post-war life

In the late interwar period, Nicolussi-Leck helped to found the Nazi movement Völkischer Kampfring Südtirol which opposed the Fascist attempts to Italianise his native, widely German-speaking region South Tyrol, annexed by Italy in 1919, and backed in 1939 the South Tyrol Option Agreement. In January 1940, Nicolussi-Leck volunteered for the Waffen-SS and served in the SS divisions Das Reich and Wiking. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his actions during the Soviet Polesskoe offensive and encirclement of the Polish city of Kowel. After the war, Nicolussi-Leck helped many Waffen-SS soldiers leave Europe for South America. He emigrated to Argentina in 1948, but returned in the early 1950s to the South Tyrol, his native region, where he worked as an entrepreneur for Mannesmann.

Death

Karl Nicolussi-Leck died in 2008, in Bolzano (Bozen), Italy.

Further reading

• Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000) [1986]. Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 [The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945] (in German). Friedberg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 978-3-7909-0284-6.
• Gerald Steinacher (2011), Nazis on the run. How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-957686-6