Ziegler, Heinz Otto

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Personal Information

Rank F/O
Forename(s) Heinz Otto
Surname Ziegler
Gender M
Age 41
Date of Death 05-05-1944
Next of Kin Son of Ernst (Arnošt) Ziegler and Alice Ziegler, née Bondy, of Prague, Czechoslovakia. Ex-husband of Marie Blanche Ziegler (née von Gans). They split up in 1938.
ZIEGLER HO
Image

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Vickers Wellington X
Serial Number JA512
Markings -E

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Hungary
Burial/Memorial Place Budapest War Cemetery
Grave Reference Coll. grave III. E. 6-10.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 3
Panel Number Not yet erected on site

Enlistment Information

Service Number 87294
Service Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Group 205
Squadron 104
Squadron Motto Strike Hard
Trade Navigator
Country of Origin Czechoslovakia

Miscellaneous Information

Served under the nom de guerre Henry Osbert Zetland as he was a Czech Jew.
Born Heinrich Otto Ziegler, in Prague, 11 March 1903. Heinz was an eminent Sociologist and Political Scientist. His family estate was in the Sudetenland and he was German speaking from a family that had both Lutheran and Jewish religions.
His mother was born 5 January 1890. She was transported from Prague to Terezín on 20 July 1942, then to Auschwitz, 15 December 1943, and murdered. His father was born 6 December 1871 and was from Polička, a small town on the Bohemian-Moravian border. He was transported from Prague to Terezín, murdered at Terezín on 2 January 1943. He was a Banker, director of the Prague branch of Österreichische Credit-Anstalt, the largest bank in Austria-Hungary until 1918, then director of Böhmische Escompte-Bank, until the mid-1930s.
Heinz was the eldest of three boys, Hans born 1905 and Paul born in 1908. He attended the German high school in Prague, Grabengymnasium, leaving in 1921. He then attended the University of Frankfurt am Main, studying Political Economy and Sociology with Franz Oppenheimer. In 1922 he moved to the University of Berlin, studying Philosophy and Law. In 1923 he moved to the University of Heidelberg, studied with Alfred Weber, graduating in 1925. His doctoral thesis was ‘The importance of the Current Election Procedure for the Political Structure of Germany’, published in 1926. He travelled, mainly in France, after completing his studies and then returned to Frankfurt as an assistant to Franz Oppenheimer in the sociological seminar of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences. He taught there until he fled Germany in 1933. Heinz retreated to Prague as Nazism grew in March 1933. Heinz struggled to get and keep paid work at the universities as Nazism clamped down on anyone considered not to be toeing the party line. Eventually Heinz had to flee Czechoslovakia in 1938. Hans and Paul had already left for the UK and USA. Heinz fled to London and joined his brother Paul, who was working for Warburg Bank, and Heinz apparently then became someone who the British diplomat Sir Robert Vannsittart (who was best known for his opposition to appeasement and his strong stance against Germany relied on for advice). Heinz was an advisor and confident to Jan Masaryk, the former Czechoslovak Ambassador to the UK and foreign minister of the government in exile and Hermann Rauschning, previously governor of Danzig.
In 1940 Heinz joined the Royal Air Force as an interpreter. Heinz moved to an operational unit, 104 Squadron, as an air gunner, serving in North Africa and Southern Italy in 1943. He is buried under ‘Henry Osbert Zetland’.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/822/10
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/822/9

Fellow Servicemen

Please note that this list gives all the losses aboard the quoted aircraft and occasionally these may have occurred on an earlier date when the aircraft was not itself lost. Please check the dates of death carefully.

Avery R (F/O)
Shaw R J (F/O)
Jones W A (Sgt)
Freeman F S (Sgt)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 04-05-1944
End Date 05-05-1944
Takeoff Station Foggia Main
Day/Night Raid Night (89% moon)
Operation Budapest
Reason for Loss Shot down by Uffz Herbert Nahlik 3. / NJG4 and crashed outside 98 Torbagyi Street Budapest

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Casualty Pack

IBCC is delighted to introduce a unique facility to link the Losses Database to the relevant RAF Casualty Pack on the National Archives website. This project is the result of on-going collaboration between IBCC, the MOD Records Office and National Archives, Kew. This document describes what Casualty Packs are, when they were created, the process of making them available to the public and then goes on to describe the process by which you can view the contents of the packs. Casualty Packs (CPs) were created by the RAF whenever there was serious injury or loss of life associated with operational activity within the RAF. This includes operational flying losses, enemy action due to air raids, road accidents either on station or even off-station if they involved RAF vehicles. Deaths due to natural causes in service or accidents that did not involve RAF vehicles did not generally give rise to a CP.

CPs were originally given a unique reference number by the RAF. Each begins with the letter ‘P’ and is followed by six digits, then an oblique (forward slash) and the finally the year in which the incident took place- for example P396154/42.

The CPs are in the process of being made available to the general public as they are passed from the MOD Records Office, Portsmouth to National Archives, Kew. This process requires some rework to the files which is very time consuming, so the process of making them all available to National Archives will take several years. They are being made available in increasing date order.

Once CPs arrive at National Archives they are assigned a unique AIR81 number, so each CP has both a P-number and an AIR81 number. Both are searchable on the National Archives website under ‘Search the catalogue’ and both are included on the IBCC website.

The AIR81 reference on the IBCC website is a link to the file on the National Archives website. When you click on it, the relevant page will open in a new tab on your browser.

There is currently no plan to digitise AIR81 files, partly because they are fragile and partly because the information they contain can at times be sensitive, even harrowing, since they may contain exhumation reports and even photographs of corpses. Family members wishing to read the AIR81 files relating to their ancestors are advised to exercise caution and be guided by National Archives warnings where appropriate.

There are two means for accessing AIR81 files- to attend in person or to order a copy by post.

To attend in person, the attendee should first create a Reader’s Ticket. This can be done online by following this link: https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/login/yourdetails. Then click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and click Order in Advance. Enter your Reader’s Ticket number and state the date on which you intend to visit. National Archives will have the file ready for you when you arrive, saving you time. When you visit Kew, you must quote the Reader’s Ticket number and take along two forms of ID- one bearing your signature and one bearing your address. When you view the files, you are permitted to take photographs of each page, should you wish.

Alternatively, if you wish to order a copy by post, please be aware that there is a charge for this service based on the number of pages in the file. Click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and then click Request a Copy. There is an £8.40 charge for National Archives staff to access the file and give you a quotation for the copying service. The process takes around 24 days to complete and can be expensive.

IBCC wishes to thank the staff at the MOD Records Office and National Archives for their engagement and assistance in making this facility available to our website users.