thumb '''Otto Abetz''' (May_26 1903 – May_5 1958) was the German Ambassador to Vichy_France during World_War_II. Abetz was born in Schwetzingen. Originally a Teacher, he joined the Nazi party in 1931 and entered the German foreign service in 1935, the same year that he joined the SS (he would eventually reach the rank of SS-Brigadeführer). An ardent Francophile, Abetz represented Germany in France in 1938 and 1939 and was deported after the declaration of war in September 1939. Following the armistice between France and Germany, he was sent as Ambassador to Marshall Philippe_Petain's collaborationist regime at Vichy in November 1940, although he spent most of his time in Paris. He left France in September 1944 as the German armies withdrew. In July 1949 a French court sentenced Abetz to twenty years' imprisonment for War_crimes, particularly his role in arranging the deportation of French Jews to the death camps, but he was released in April 1954. He died in 1958 in an auto accident near Langenfeld bei Dortmund. There was speculation that the accident might have been arranged as revenge for Abetz' wartime activities but this has never been proved. ==References/External links== *Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2004). ''The SS-Brigadeführer 1933–1945''. (CD-ROM book) – Review by Marcus Wendel, Axis History Factbook {{germany-bio-stub}} Abetz, Otto Abetz, Otto De:Otto_Abetz Fr:Otto_Abetz It:Otto_Abetz Nl:Otto_Abetz No:Otto_Abetz Pl:Otto_Abetz