lawyer. Despite numerous demands by Communist Poland, he was not extradited as the German courts had ruled that there was no evidence of him committing any crimes. He was considered not guilty in the eyes of the law and the federal government. He received a general's pension upon retirement. He died on 7 May 1979 in his mansion on Sylt. Legacy In 2014, the local authorities of Westerland raised a memorial table remembering Polish victims of Reinefarth. A local SPD member, Ernst Wilhelm Sojan, who was present at the ceremony had campaigned since the 1960s to raise awareness of acts committed by Reinefarth but said that he was always met with a "wall of silence". The regional Schleswig-Holstein government issued a special statement expressing regret that Heinz Reinefarth had been allowed to work as politician in the region. Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski praised the authorities of Sylt for attempting to deal with its past. Awards Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (25 September 1939) & 1st Class (28 May 1940) Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves Knight's Cross on 25 June 1940 608th Oak Leaves on 30 September 1944 as SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of the Police, and commander of a Kampfgruppe in the Korpsgruppe von dem Bach Films "Holiday on Sylt" 1957 by the Eastern German film director Andrew Thorndike See also List SS-Gruppenführer Planned destruction of Warsaw References Citations Bibliography Tebinka, Jacek. "Ciche lata kata", Polityka - nr 32 (2362), 2002-08-10; page 66. External links Wola '44 – genocide in Warsaw - collection of civilian testimonies concerning Reinefarth's group activity during Warsaw Uprising 1903 births 1979 deaths People from Gniezno Nazi Party politicians All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights politicians Holocaust perpetrators in Poland People from the Province of Posen Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves SS and Police Leaders Academic staff of the University of Jena Warsaw Uprising German forces Waffen-SS personnel SS-Gruppenführer Members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein 20th-century Freikorps personnel