Nazi Perpetrators, Who ran the atrocities, the camps? Options

[ginoguarnere]

Discuss the Nazi party and those involved in the installations of the Holocaust camps and other crimes of war.

[VAT69]

Rudolf Höss - Auschwitz

Rudolf Höss was born in Germany in 1900. He joined the German Army at the age of seventeen and in the First World War won the Iron Cross for bravery.

After the war he joined the Rossbach Freikorps where he fought with Martin Bormann. In 1922 Höss joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) but two years later he and Bormann were both jailed for murdering a man in the French-occupied Ruhr.

Released in 1928, Höss joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1934. Höss worked in the concentration camp in Dachau before being appointed as adjudant to the commander of Sachsenhausen in 1938. Two years later, in May 1940, he became commander of Auschwitz in occupied Poland.

In June, 1941, Heinrich Himmler ordered that Auschwitz be greatly increased in size and the following year it became an extermination camp. Gas chambers disguised as bathhouses were added. Höss introduced Zyklon-B gas, that enabled the Nazis to kill 2,000 people at a time.

Höss was promoted to Deputy Inspector General and took charge of the Schutzstaffel (SS) department that administered German concentration camps.

When Germany surrendered in April, 1945, Höss managed to avoid capture and worked on a farm. He was eventually captured and at his trial admitted that around 3,000,000 people were killed at Auschwitz. Rudolf Höss was found guilty of war crimes and executed at Auschwitz on 15th April, 1947. His autobiography, Commandant of Auschwitz, was published in 1951.

© http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhoss.htm

More info on Höss is to be found there, including personal comments, which I feel are inappropriate to post here.

Mark

[VAT69]

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich, the son of an actress, was born in Halle, on 7th March, 1904. He was too young to join the German Army during the First World War but at the age of sixteen joined the right-wing Freikorps. After taking part in battles with socialist revolutionaries in Halle he joined the German Navy.

While training he met and became friends with Wilhelm Canaris. Promoted to lieutenant in 1928, he joined the German intelligence service. However, he lost his job when accused of getting the daughter of important businessman pregnant.

Angry at the way he had been treated, Heydrich immediately joined the Nazi Party. He also became a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and in 1931 he was introduced to Heinrich Himmler. Later Himmler appointed him to form the SD (Sicherheitsdienst). By 1933 Heydrich had reached the rank of Obergruppenfuhrer.

Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering thought that the Sturm Abteilung (SA) posed a threat to the German Army. In June 1934, Himmler arranged for Heydrich, Kurt Deluged and Walter Schellenberg, to carry out what became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

In 1936 Richard Heydrich became head of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) and the Gestapo. Later both these organizations became part of the Reich Security Administration (RSHA).

Heydrich and his SD successfully convinced Joseph Stalin that the leadership of the Red Army was planning a coup in the Soviet Union. This lead to the Great Purge of the Soviet military that resulted in the execution of Mikhail Tukhachevsky and seven other top Soviet commanders.

Heinrich Himmler and the SS were also put in charge of the Concentration Camps. During the Second World War the SS followed the German Army into invaded countries where they had the responsibility of murdering Jews, gypsies, communists and partisans. Heydrich was given control of Czechoslovakia where he announced that the SS intended to "Germanize the Czech vermin."

In 1941 MI6 decided to help the Czech resistance to assassinate Heydrich. He was the only Nazi leader that the Allies attempted to assassinate. They took this decision knowing that the German Army would take terrible retribution of the people of Czechoslovakia.

Two Czech agents, Jan Kubis and Joseph Gabcik, trained in Britain, were parachuted into Czechoslovakia on 29th December, 1941. Five months later, on 27th May, 1942, Heydrich was killed by a grenade while travelling in his car in Prague.

The Czech agents involved in the killing hid in the crypt of a Prague church. Three-weeks later they were betrayed and were both killed during a gun battle.

In retaliation for the assassination of Heydrich, Kurt Daluege ordered the destruction of the village of Lidice. The village was razed to the ground and its 173 male inhabitants were murdered. The 198 women were sent to a Concentration Camp in Ravensbruck. Another 256 Czechs were condemned to death for aiding the assassination plot. Thousands of Czech people were also deported to other concentration camps in Austria and Germany as a result of Heydrich's death.

© http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERheydrich.htm

Mark

[VanessaBinder]

I would like to say something in this forum, but I am speechless. Its important for those of you who have the info to share, I'm just saddened by the inhumanity of it. Please keep posting. Vanessa

[VAT69]

Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany on 19th March, 1906. When he was a child the family moved to Linz in Austria where his father became head of the city's streetcar company. At school he was bullied by the other children and accused of being Jewish.

Eichmann attended the Linz Higher Institute for Electro-Technical Studies before finding work as a salesman for an electrical firm. He began to take an interest in politics and in April, 1932 joined the Austrian Nazi Party.

In September 1934 Eichmann was recruited into the Schutzstaffel (SS) where he became the Nazi authority on Jewish affairs. This included a visit to Palestine where he met Arab leaders of racist organizations. At first Eichmann supported the Zionist policy of Jewish emigration to Palestine but this became impracticable as Palestine immigration quotas filled up.

After Anschluss Eichmann became head of the SS office for Jewish Emigration. In 1939 Adolf Hitler appointed Eichmann as chief of the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration.

On 21st September, 1939, Reinhard Heydrich told several Schutzstaffel (SS) commanders in Poland that all Jews were to be confined to special areas in cities and towns. These ghettos were to be surrounded by barbed wire, brick walls and armed guards.

The first ghetto was set up in Piotrkow on 28th October 1939. Jews living in rural areas had their property confiscated and they were rounded up and sent to ghettos in towns and cities. The two largest ghettos were established in Warsaw and Lodz.

Eichmann was put in charge of this operation. In October 1939, he arranged the deportation of Jews living in Austria and Czechoslovakia to Poland. Transported in locked passenger trains, large numbers died on the journey. Those that survived the journey were told by Eichmann: "There are no apartments and no houses - if you build your homes you will have a roof over your head."

In July 1942, Eichmann joined Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Muller and Roland Friesler attending the Wannsee Conference where they discussed the issue of the large number of inmates in Germany's concentration camps. At the meeting it was decided to make the extermination of the Jews a systematically organized operation. Eichmann was placed in charge of what became known as the Final Solution.

After this date extermination camps were established in the east that had the capacity to kill large numbers including Belzec (15,000 a day), Sobibor (20,000), Treblinka (25,000) and Majdanek (25,000). For a while he took personal charge of the Auschwitz camp to see the Final Solution in operation.

In 1944 Eichmann told Heinrich Himmler that about six million Jews had been disposed of, four million of these having died of "natural causes" in the camps and another two million being killed in the gas chambers. He told one of his officers that: "I'll die happily with the certainty of having killed almost six million Jews."

In February, 1945, Eichmann escaped from Germany. He changed his name to Ricardo Klement and worked for a water company in Argentina.

Israeli secret agents found Eichmann in 1960. He was kidnapped and moved to Israel where he was put on trial for his actions during the Second World War. At his trial he argued he was only following orders. Adolf Eichmann was found guilty of "crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes" and was executed on 31st May, 1962.

© http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GEReichmann.htm

Mark

[VAT69]

Klaus Barbie, the butcher of Lyon

Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie was born in the village of Bad Godesberg, a quiet town on the Rhine, on October 25, 1913. Barbie was born out of wedlock; his parents, Nikolaus Barbie and Anna Hees, both Catholic and both village school teachers, were not married until the following January. According to Barbie himself, his surname was derived from the French name Barbier; his forefathers were probably called Barbier, and they fled France as refugees during the reign of Louis XIV.
1933 was a watershed year for Klaus Barbie. That year Barbie's father and brother died. His father died of complications from a World War One bullet wound he had acquired (according to Barbie) in the battle of Verdun. Shortly thereafter, Barbie's younger brother died at age 18 of a heart condition. This double tragedy plunged Barbie and his mother into deep despair and ruined Barbie's fairly bourgeois aspirations of attending University and becoming some sort of professional. Barbie's already slipshod performance in school suffered and it took him several attempts to pass his degree exam, which he finally did in 1934 earning average marks.

As Barbie struggled with family loss and academic failure he found solace in the ideology and comraderie of the Nazi party. On April 2, 1933 Barbie joined the Hitler Youth and soon became enthralled by party ideology. Upon graduation from school, the unemployed Barbie fully devoted himself to the Party by volunteering for six months of hard labour at the Party's work camp of Schleswig-Holstein. It was at the labour camp that Barbie developed his Nazi fanaticism and his undying commitment to the Party.

For Barbie mere association with the Nazi Party was not enough; he wanted to fight. In 1934 he got his chance when he joined the German resistance movement in the French-occupied Rhineland. Although Barbie joined the Rhineland resistance for ideological reasons he found himself fighting for personal ones. Barbie blamed the French for his father's death and his own lost dreams, so he had developed a special hatred for the French, a hatred that would re-emerge in the form of his sadistic cruelties towards the French citizens of Lyon a decade later.

In 1935, after submitting to test for his racial and medical purity, Barbie joined Himmler's SS and shortly thereafter proved himself a zealous enough Nazi to became a member of the elite SD (Sicherheitsdienst) security service. Barbie's first assignment in the SD was as an investigator in Berlin; it was in Berlin that Barbie was trained as an investigator and interrogator. 1937 Berlin was, by the Nazis' standards, a very dirty city; it teemed with Jews, prostitutes, homosexuals, and the ordinary sorts criminals found in any large, economically depressed city. Barbie's SD unit had the task of "cleansing Berlin" and Barbie soon specialized in undercover work. As an SD undercover agent, Barbie infiltrated whorehouses and homosexual nightclubs, an experience that left him a rabid misogynist and homophobe even forty years later.

Oddly, Barbie did not officially become a member of the NSDAP (Nazi party) until 1937 when he was automatically enrolled. By the end of that year, Barbie had determined to become a career SD officer and in September of that year was selected to attend the SD's exclusive leadership course in Berlin's Charlottenberg. In 1938, Barbie had to fulfil his obligatory military service and spent three months in an infantry regiment. Barbie, who was not a physically tough man, did not like the infantry service, nor did he enjoy the intense SS training which followed. Despite struggling with some of the physical aspects of his training, Barbie graduated on April 20, 1940 and was promoted SS Untersturmfuhrer (Second Lieutenant).

In 1940, Barbie travelled to the Hague to gather information about the Jewish "situation" in that city. Then he went to Amsterdam, where he was responsible for rounding up and deporting that city's Jewish population. In Amsterdam, Barbie earned a reputation for excessive brutality, even by the Gestapo's standards; he was awarded his first Iron Cross for bludgeoning to death an "enemy of the Reich" (actually a German-Jewish ice cream peddler) in full public view because the man refused salute him properly. Barbie was promoted after proved his adeptness in combating resistance cells and rooting out hidden Jews in Amsterdam.

When the Germans occupied Lyon in 1943, the city was a stronghold of the French Resistance and a hiding place for many fleeing the Nazis. The SS wanted to "cleanse" Lyon as quickly as possible and assigned Barbie to the task because they knew he would not flinch at killing large numbers of civilians. While other German units in southern France saw little action and were highly ineffective, Barbie's Section IV (Gestapo) deported thousands of Jews to the death camps and killed hundreds of French civilians suspected of aiding the Resistance. A dedicated sadist, Barbie would often pluck random civilians off the street and whisk them away to Hotel Terminus, his headquarters, and torture these helpless people until one of them revealed something interesting or he got bored.

Although responsible for many individual atrocities, including the capture and deportation to Auschwitz of forty-four Jewish children hidden in the village of Izieu, Barbie owed his post-war notoriety primarily to one of his "cases," the arrest, torture, and death of Jean Moulin, the highest ranking member of the French Resistance ever captured by the Nazis. For Moulin's death, Barbie was awarded, by Hitler himself, the "First Class Iron Cross with Swords." After the war Barbie often bragged that he had single-handedly halted the advance of communism in France when he killed Moulin, who had leftist political views.

Just before Lyon was liberated, Barbie fled to Germany and hid there until the war ended, at which point he vanished. Although Barbie had disappeared, the French government sentenced him to death in abstentia on two occasions.

Where did Barbie go? During the immediate post-war period (1945-1951) he was protected and employed by the American Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) because his "police skills" and anti-Communist zeal were a valuable asset in protecting Cold War West Germany. With the CIC's protection, Barbie, together with his wife and children, escaped to Latin America, where he enjoyed a long and prosperous career. Barbie eventually established residence in Bolivia, where he obtained citizenship in 1957. He lived there several years under the alias Klaus Altmann, working primarily as an interrogator and torturer for dictatorships both in Peru and in Bolivia. He helped the Luis Garcia Meza narco-coup in Bolivia in 1980. Between stints in the Bolivian police Barbie and his family enjoyed long vacations, including one to Paris in the 1960s.
Meanwhile, the "Butcher of Lyon" was a wanted man in France; he was responsible for the torture and death of more than 26,000 people, among them French Resistance leader Jean Moulin.

In 1971 Barbie was positively identified by Serge and Beatte Klarsfeld (a husband-wife team of Nazi hunters) but the Bolivian government refused to extradite Barbie on the grounds that he was technically a Bolivian citizen. The real reason that the Bolivian government refused to give Barbie to France immediately was that they hoped to get something in exchange for their fugitive. It was only in 1983 that Barbie, left unprotected by the rise of a moderate leftist government in Bolivia and the ascension of the leftist Mitterand administration in France, was deported to France.

In 1987, he was set trial in Lyon and sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes against humanity. Barbie died of cancer in prison in 1991.

Full story and more info on the trial and backgrounds on
http://members.aol.com/voyl/barbie/Barbie.htm

Mark

This post has been edited by VAT69: Apr 12 2003, 08:00 PM

[VAT69]

Arthur Seyss-Inquart

Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the son of a teacher, was born in Stannern, in Austria, on 22nd July, 1892. The family moved to Vienna in 1907 and Seyss-Inquart studied law before joining the Austro-Hungarian Army. During the First World War he saw action against the Russian Army on the Eastern Front and in Italy before being badly wounded in 1917.

As a lawyer in Vienna Seyss-Inquart was active in nationalist circles, and while initially not anti-Semitic, he became increasingly attracted to National Socialism. Seyss-Inquart was held in esteem by the Austrian chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, who appointed him to the Council of State and as mediator between himself and the extreme Right. In the Nazi party in Austria, Seyss-Inquart was not considered a reliable member; he was, however, highly regarded by Adolf Hitler, who pressured Schuschnigg into appointing Seyss-Inquart Austrian minister of the interior and of public security (February 16, 1938).

Following the resignation of Schuschnigg, on Hitler's ultimatum, Seyss-Inquart was appointed chancellor (March 11, 1938); he immediately invited the German armed forces to enter Austria. In return, Hitler appointed him Reich commissioner of Ostmark, as Austria was now called. Heinrich Himmler accorded him the rank of SS - Obergruppenfuhrer. About a year later (May 1, 1939), Seyss-Inquart was appointed minister without portfolio in the central German government. In October 1939 he was appointed deputy governor - general in Poland. There, he was responsible for examining the territory to be used for the Lublin Reservation.

On May 19th, 1940, Hitler appointed Seyss-Inquart Reich Commissioner of the Occupied Netherlands, with instructions to endeavour to create friendship between the Dutch and the Germans. Hitler hoped that the man who had helped in the annexation of Austria would succeed in the same way in the Netherlands. Indeed, in the first months Seyss-Inquart acted with restraint, creating the impression that the Germans would not make life difficult for the Dutch. However, it quickly became clear to him that apart from the small organized minority in the Dutch National Socialist movement (Nationaal Socialistische Beweging), the Dutch rejected the efforts of the Germans to win them over. In time, the Germans began to take draconian steps against the Dutch. The acts against the Jews, which began in late 1940 and intensified in February 1941, contributed in particular to the anti - German climate, and in reaction the Amsterdam dockworkers went on strike. Seyss-Inquart reacted sharply. He took an active role in the anti - Jewish legislation, the pillage of Jewish property, and the dispatch of the Jews to the extermination camps, rather than allowing the local SS to deal exclusively with the "Final Solution."

Seyss-Inquart was responsible for deporting 5 million Dutchmen for deportation to Nazi Germany for labour and for sending 117,000 Dutch Jews to their deaths in Nazi death camps like Auschwitz.

He was one of the war criminals indicted for crimes against humanity; at the Nuremberg trial he was sentenced to death.

In all his activity Seyss-Inquart remained loyal to Hitler, and Hitler praised him highly on a number of occasions. A collection of his speeches, Vier Jahre in den Niederlanden: Gesammelte Reden, was published in Amsterdam in 1944.

© http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t069/t06985.html

Mark

[VAT69]

Anton Adriaan Mussert

Anton Adriaan Mussert was born on 11 May 1894 in Werkendam (Noord-Brabant). He became a civil engineer at the Department of Waterways and Public Works in 1918 and became a civil engineer at the Provincial Waterworks Utrecht two years later. He was interested in national and international problems from a young age. He was a strong opponent of the Treaty of Versailles (the treaty between the victors of the First World War and Germany), for example. Musserts political engagement first manifested itself when he founded the Nationaal Comité van Actie (National Action Committee) and successfully campaigned against het Belgisch Verdrag (an hydraulic engineering treaty regarding the canals between the Netherlands and Belgium dating from 1925). According to Mussert, the Netherlands had allowed themselves to be led by fear of the Treaty of Versailles when signing the 'Verdrag'. Partly due to the Comité's campaign the Belgisch Verdrag was rejected by the Eerste Kamer (Dutch House of Lords/Senate) forcing Karnebeek, the minister of foreign affairs to resign in 1927. After these successful activities Mussert became a member of the Dietsche Bond, which had a Great-Netherlands as its goal. Mussert's idealism manifested itself among other things in his support for Flemish activism.

In the early 1930's Mussert came into contact with Cornelis van Geelkerken with whom he founded a political movement: the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB). Both were of the opinion that the time was right for taking action against the 'spirit of weakness' connected with the Dutch parliamentary democracy. The reopening of the debate regarding the Belgisch Verdrag in 1929 was proof to Mussert that the political system did not adequately protect national interests and was therefore defunct.

Mussert, who was appointed as the leader of the NSB, was a great admirer of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini and copied many of his political ideas. He shared the 'Duce's' aversion to democracy and equality. According to him, the Netherlands needed a powerful government that could lead the Dutch people in the right direction. Mussert also borrowed many of his political ideas from Adolf Hitler, whose NSDAP-programme (which was in many ways derived from Mussolini's political ideas as well) was practically copied by the NSB.

There were also some differences, however. The NSB programme omitted several key paragraphs which formed the very core of nazism. The racial doctrines, extreme dictatorship, as well as anti-Semitism were initially pushed aside by the NSB. Another key difference between the NSB and Hitler's NSDAP was the goal of a 'Great-Netherlands' or 'Dietschland' in which all Dutch-speaking lands were to be united in a single realm. Hitler's dream was something completely different: a 'Great-Germania' under German leadership.

With a slightly modified political programme the NSB rapidly managed to gain support, granting Mussert his first electoral success in the elections of 1935. The course Mussert and Van Geelkerken had planned was not radical enough for some, however, and within the same year several radical elements within the movement came forward. These 'volksen' - as they were called - were strong supporters of the racial doctrines, extremely pro-German. They would start the process of radicalisation within the NSB in the coming years.
The NSB became increasingly anti-Semitic and looked more and more to Germany for support. Mussert was unable to stop this radicalisation, and eventually stimulated the process as he hoped that the German invasion and the ensuing German support for the NSB would cause his rise to power in the Netherlands.
When the Germans actually invaded and occupied the Netherlands in 1940 it turned out they had little interest for the NSB leader. Mussert was not nearly radical enough for their tastes and they initially preferred working with Rost van Tonningen. Mussert decided to show his desire to co-operate in the notorious speech: the 'Hagespraak der bevrijding' (22-6-1940), while - in reality - he mistrusted the occupiers and the SS in particular.

In a meeting with Gottlob Berger on 9 June 1940 it was made clear to Mussert what the future for the Netherlands would look like. To his alarm, he learned that the Netherlands were to be a part of Germany and that there would be no independence whatsoever. Berger presented Mussert with orders from Hitler for the foundation of the SS-Standarte 'Westland'. This part of the Waffen-SS division 'Wiking' was to be manned partially by Dutchmen. An Algemeine SS was to be founded in the Netherlands as well. Mussert was deeply shocked: Dutchmen in the power-hungry SS, never!

Initially, Mussert refused to co-operate with both plans, but he gave in at the end of 1940. In exchange for a visit with Hitler Musserts agreed with the foundation of the Dutch SS under the leadership of Feldmeijer and withdrew his objections to the incorporation of Dutchmen in the Standarte 'Westland', an infantry regiment of the SS Division 'Wiking'. Mussert somehow managed to gain the favour of the German occupiers at the expense of Rost van Tonningen and was convinced that Hitler would listen to him and that the visit would result in the reversal of the plans.

Hitler was not at all interested in Mussert's ideas and the Nederlandsche SS was founded on 11 September 1940 as a part of the NSB. Early 1941 Mussert called on the NSB members to join 'Westland'. After the attack on the Soviet Union (22 June 1941) Mussert tried to form a Dutch combat formation, but only after the competition (Meijer's National Front) had pulled out. The Germans told him that the unit would have an entirely Dutch character and that it would be led by Dutch officers. In time, the Vrijwilligerslegioen (Volunteer Legion) turned out to be a Waffen-SS unit in practice, however. Mussert was very distraught over this matter, but did not stop his co-operation. He hoped to establish a distinctly Dutch character nonetheless by having as many NSB men as possible join the legion. Although many NSB men indeed ended up in the legion, Mussert's plan failed.

At the end of 1941 Mussert swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler as the Germanic führer in the hope of preventing 'his' Dutch SS from having to do so as well. Again Mussert had gambled and lost, in May 1942 the Dutch SS was sworn in as well. From that moment on Mussert's role with regard to the Dutch volunteers was over. Late 1942 it seemed that an NSB government was near, but this plan did not make it either. In 1943 the desperate Mussert lashed out at the SS, again without results. Neither the occupiers nor the SS were interested in what the man who had by then been given the meaningless function of 'Leader of the Dutch People' had to say.

Mussert continually overestimated his own role and repeated the mistake of assuming that Hitler had the best interests of the Dutch people in mind. The occupiers and the SS loathed him and his political ideas in all respects and their co-operation seemed to have been established simply because he was the only one with whom co-operation was possible.

Anton Adriaan Mussert - the symbol of Dutch collaboration - was shot on 7 May 1946.

© http://www.waffen-ss.nl/mussert-e.php

Mark

[VAT69]

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler was born near Munich, Germany, on 7th October, 1900. The son of a Catholic schoolmaster, he was educated at the Landshut High School. During the First World War Himmler joined the 11th Bavarian Regiment and by the end of the conflict he had become an officer cadet in the German Army.

After the war Himmler was active in the Freikorps. He also joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and in 1923 took part in the Munich Putsch.

In 1928 Himmler married and became a poultry farmer. He also joined the Sturm Abteilung (SA) and was a devout follower of Adolf Hitler. Himmler believed Hitler was the Messiah that was destined to lead Germany to greatness. Hitler, who was always vulnerable to flattery, decided in January, 1929, that Himmler should become the new leader of his personal bodyguard, the Schutzstaffel (SS).

By the time of his appointment the SS had only 280 members. They wore the same uniform as the SA except for a black cap with a silver death's head badge and a black tie. It was only after 1932 that they wore an all-black uniform.

With the agreement of Adolf Hitler, Himmler expanded the size of the SS. Himmler personally vetoed all applicants to make sure that all were good 'Aryan' types. By the time the Nazi Party gained power in 1933 Himmler's SS had grown to a strength of 52,000. He was also made head of all German political police outside Prussia, where Hermann Goering was the minister of the interior.

Himmler agreed with Goering that the Sturm Abteilung (SA) posed a threat to the German Army and in June 1934, along with his loyal assistants, Reinhard Heydrich, Kurt Daluege and Walter Schellenberg, he arranged what became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

As a result of this purge the Schutzstaffel (SS) was now the principal instrument of internal rule in Germany. In 1936 the Gestapo also came under Himmler's control. Himmler was also able to put SS men in all the key posts in Nazi Germany.

In December, 1940 Himmler established the Waffen SS. This new army grew rapidly and within six months grew to over 150,000 men.

During the Second World War the SS Death's Head Units were put in charge of Germany's Concentration Camps. The SS also followed the German Army into the Soviet Union where they had the responsibility of murdering Jews, gypsies, communists and partisans. By June 1944 the SS had over 800,000 members: Hitler's Body Guard (200,000) Waffen (594,000) and Death Head Units (24,000).

There was great competition between the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) and the German military intelligence organization, Abwehr. In June, 1944 Himmler took over Abwehr and after the July Plot the organization was absorbed into the SD.

In 1944 Himmler was put in charge of the German Army facing the advancing United States Army. In January, 1945, he was switched to face the Red Army in the east. Unable to halt the decline in fortunes of the German forces, Himmler became convinced that Germany needed to seek peace with Britain and the United States. When Adolf Hitler discovered on 28th April that Himmler had been attempting to make contacting with the Allies, he ordered his arrest.

Himmler now took the name and documents of a dead village policeman. Although in heavy disguise, Himmler was arrested by a British army officer in Bremen on 22nd May. Before he could he interrogated, Himmler committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule.

©http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhimmler.htm

Mark

[Morgy]

Thanks for all those posts Mark !! Very instructive.

What I would like to know is really why they accepted to do what they did. Was Himmler like this only because he wanted a great Germany back ? Barbie because he had to much disappointments in his family and his work ? Heydrich because he was demoted ?
Many, during their judgement or (for camp runners) when they came back in their "place of work", said they didn't have any regrets.

It let me a little (IMG:http://forums.wildbillguarnere.com/style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) .

Morgy

This post has been edited by Morgy: Apr 19 2003, 04:19 PM

[VAT69]

Amon Goeth

If you have seen Schindler's List, you'll remember him being depicted horribly well by Ralph Fiennes.

An absolute monster.

No biography here, just a link. It makes your stumach turn around, by disgust.

http://auschwitz.dk/Goeth.htm

Mark

[VAT69]

Kurt Daluege

Kurt Daluege was born in Kreuzburg on 15th September, 1897.

In 1916, Daluege volunteered for army service and became a lieutenant. He was a member of the notorious Rossbach Freikorps, which conducted partisan activity against France.

After the war Daluege worked as an engineer. He was also active in the Freikorps before joining the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) in 1922. He formed the first Sturm Abteilung (SA) unit in Berlin before transferring to the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1928 where he worked closely with Heinrich Himmler.
In 1933 Daluege was elected to the Reichstag and soon afterwards Hermann Goering moved him to the Prussian Ministry of the Interior where he took over the police force. Goering now took control of all the police forces in Germany and placed Daluege in charge of what now became known as the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo).

Daluege also established the Kameradschaftsbund Deutscher Polizebeamten, an organisation of police officials responsible for the suppression of internal revolt. During the Second World War Daluege became second in command to Reinhard Heydrich in the Schutzstaffel (SS).

When Hans Frank failed to take sufficient action after the assassination of Heydrich in May, 1942, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler sent Daluege to Prague and appointed him as Protector of Czechoslovakia. Daluege's reprisals included the destruction of Lidice. The village was razed to the ground and its 173 male inhabitants were murdered and the 198 women were sent to a Concentration Camp in Ravensbueck. Altogether 256 Czechs were condemned to death for aiding the assassination plot.

For an excellent earlier posted topic regarding the Lidice Massacre by LadyMadonna:
http://www.wildbillguarnere.com/forums/ind...t=495&hl=lidice


© http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERdaluege.htm

Mark

[Kiwiwriter]

Rudolf Höss - Auschwitz

Rudolf Höss was born in Germany in 1900. He joined the German Army at the age of seventeen and in the First World War won the Iron Cross for bravery.

After the war he joined the Rossbach Freikorps where he fought with Martin Bormann. In 1922 Höss joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) but two years later he and Bormann were both jailed for murdering a man in the French-occupied Ruhr.

Released in 1928, Höss joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1934. Höss worked in the concentration camp in Dachau before being appointed as adjudant to the commander of Sachsenhausen in 1938. Two years later, in May 1940, he became commander of Auschwitz in occupied Poland.

In June, 1941, Heinrich Himmler ordered that Auschwitz be greatly increased in size and the following year it became an extermination camp. Gas chambers disguised as bathhouses were added. Höss introduced Zyklon-B gas, that enabled the Nazis to kill 2,000 people at a time.

Höss was promoted to Deputy Inspector General and took charge of the Schutzstaffel (SS) department that administered German concentration camps.

When Germany surrendered in April, 1945, Höss managed to avoid capture and worked on a farm. He was eventually captured and at his trial admitted that around 3,000,000 people were killed at Auschwitz. Rudolf Höss was found guilty of war crimes and executed at Auschwitz on 15th April, 1947. His autobiography, Commandant of Auschwitz, was published in 1951.

© http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhoss.htm

More info on Höss is to be found there, including personal comments, which I feel are inappropriate to post here.

Mark

Rudolf Hoess was a chilling guy. He was interviewed at Nuremberg by American psychologist Gustav Gilbert, and Gilbert reported a man with no emotional abilities or empathy for any other human being. He wasn't even interested in sex.

[Kiwiwriter]

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich, the son of an actress, was born in Halle, on 7th March, 1904. He was too young to join the German Army during the First World War but at the age of sixteen joined the right-wing Freikorps. After taking part in battles with socialist revolutionaries in Halle he joined the German Navy.

While training he met and became friends with Wilhelm Canaris. Promoted to lieutenant in 1928, he joined the German intelligence service. However, he lost his job when accused of getting the daughter of important businessman pregnant.

Angry at the way he had been treated, Heydrich immediately joined the Nazi Party. He also became a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and in 1931 he was introduced to Heinrich Himmler. Later Himmler appointed him to form the SD (Sicherheitsdienst). By 1933 Heydrich had reached the rank of Obergruppenfuhrer.

Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering thought that the Sturm Abteilung (SA) posed a threat to the German Army. In June 1934, Himmler arranged for Heydrich, Kurt Deluged and Walter Schellenberg, to carry out what became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

In 1936 Richard Heydrich became head of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst) and the Gestapo. Later both these organizations became part of the Reich Security Administration (RSHA).

Heydrich and his SD successfully convinced Joseph Stalin that the leadership of the Red Army was planning a coup in the Soviet Union. This lead to the Great Purge of the Soviet military that resulted in the execution of Mikhail Tukhachevsky and seven other top Soviet commanders.

Heinrich Himmler and the SS were also put in charge of the Concentration Camps. During the Second World War the SS followed the German Army into invaded countries where they had the responsibility of murdering Jews, gypsies, communists and partisans. Heydrich was given control of Czechoslovakia where he announced that the SS intended to "Germanize the Czech vermin."

In 1941 MI6 decided to help the Czech resistance to assassinate Heydrich. He was the only Nazi leader that the Allies attempted to assassinate. They took this decision knowing that the German Army would take terrible retribution of the people of Czechoslovakia.

Two Czech agents, Jan Kubis and Joseph Gabcik, trained in Britain, were parachuted into Czechoslovakia on 29th December, 1941. Five months later, on 27th May, 1942, Heydrich was killed by a grenade while travelling in his car in Prague.

The Czech agents involved in the killing hid in the crypt of a Prague church. Three-weeks later they were betrayed and were both killed during a gun battle.

In retaliation for the assassination of Heydrich, Kurt Daluege ordered the destruction of the village of Lidice. The village was razed to the ground and its 173 male inhabitants were murdered. The 198 women were sent to a Concentration Camp in Ravensbruck. Another 256 Czechs were condemned to death for aiding the assassination plot. Thousands of Czech people were also deported to other concentration camps in Austria and Germany as a result of Heydrich's death.

© http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERheydrich.htm

Mark

There were persistent rumors that Heydrich was part-Jewish. Once, in a drunken rage, he shot out a mirror.

His brother Thomas was estranged from Reinhard. The two did not get along. Apparently the division was over Reinhard's Nazism. After Reinhard's death, Thomas burned many of the family papers.

[Kiwiwriter]

Adolf Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann was born in Solingen, Germany on 19th March, 1906. When he was a child the family moved to Linz in Austria where his father became head of the city's streetcar company. At school he was bullied by the other children and accused of being Jewish.

Eichmann attended the Linz Higher Institute for Electro-Technical Studies before finding work as a salesman for an electrical firm. He began to take an interest in politics and in April, 1932 joined the Austrian Nazi Party.

In September 1934 Eichmann was recruited into the Schutzstaffel (SS) where he became the Nazi authority on Jewish affairs. This included a visit to Palestine where he met Arab leaders of racist organizations. At first Eichmann supported the Zionist policy of Jewish emigration to Palestine but this became impracticable as Palestine immigration quotas filled up.

After Anschluss Eichmann became head of the SS office for Jewish Emigration. In 1939 Adolf Hitler appointed Eichmann as chief of the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration.

On 21st September, 1939, Reinhard Heydrich told several Schutzstaffel (SS) commanders in Poland that all Jews were to be confined to special areas in cities and towns. These ghettos were to be surrounded by barbed wire, brick walls and armed guards.

The first ghetto was set up in Piotrkow on 28th October 1939. Jews living in rural areas had their property confiscated and they were rounded up and sent to ghettos in towns and cities. The two largest ghettos were established in Warsaw and Lodz.

Eichmann was put in charge of this operation. In October 1939, he arranged the deportation of Jews living in Austria and Czechoslovakia to Poland. Transported in locked passenger trains, large numbers died on the journey. Those that survived the journey were told by Eichmann: "There are no apartments and no houses - if you build your homes you will have a roof over your head."

In July 1942, Eichmann joined Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Muller and Roland Friesler attending the Wannsee Conference where they discussed the issue of the large number of inmates in Germany's concentration camps. At the meeting it was decided to make the extermination of the Jews a systematically organized operation. Eichmann was placed in charge of what became known as the Final Solution.

After this date extermination camps were established in the east that had the capacity to kill large numbers including Belzec (15,000 a day), Sobibor (20,000), Treblinka (25,000) and Majdanek (25,000). For a while he took personal charge of the Auschwitz camp to see the Final Solution in operation.

In 1944 Eichmann told Heinrich Himmler that about six million Jews had been disposed of, four million of these having died of "natural causes" in the camps and another two million being killed in the gas chambers. He told one of his officers that: "I'll die happily with the certainty of having killed almost six million Jews."

In February, 1945, Eichmann escaped from Germany. He changed his name to Ricardo Klement and worked for a water company in Argentina.

Israeli secret agents found Eichmann in 1960. He was kidnapped and moved to Israel where he was put on trial for his actions during the Second World War. At his trial he argued he was only following orders. Adolf Eichmann was found guilty of "crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity, and war crimes" and was executed on 31st May, 1962.

© http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GEReichmann.htm

Mark

Eichmann was another chilling character. He was what Hannah Arendt called "the banality of evil." The Israelis released his diaries a few years back, at the height of the David Irving trial, which showed that Eichmann knew he was butchering millions when he gave the orders for the Holocaust. Like Hoess, his diaries showed no feelings about the subject.

It's incredible how unemotional and intellectually sterile the practitioners of the Holocaust were.

When the Israelis caught him in Buenos Aires, Eichmann was living in a small bunker-like house with no electricity.