Higher SS and Police Leader who directed the mass shootings at Kamianets-Podilskyi, Babi Yar and Rumbula
The son of a textile factory owner in Hornberg in the Black Forest, he fought as an officer in the First World War. He joined the Nazi Party in 1929 and the SS in 1930, and from 1933 was police president and head of the political police in Brunswick. Chosen by Himmler in June 1941 as Higher SS and Police Leader for southern Russia and Ukraine, he controlled all Einsatzgruppen killings in his area and used his method in the mass shootings at Kamianets-Podilskyi (23,600 killed) and Babi Yar (33,771 killed). Moved to Ostland in November with orders to complete the extermination of Riga’s Jews, he watched over two days as 25,000 people were killed at Rumbula. Taken prisoner fighting the Red Army in April 1945, he was sentenced to death at the Riga trial and hanged in Riga on 3 February 1946.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1914–1918German army officer and pilot
- 1929–1930Joined the Nazi Party and the SS
- 1932–1945Reichstag deputy
- 1933–1938Police president and head of political police, Brunswick
- 1941Higher SS and Police Leader, southern Russia and Ukraine
- 1941–1944Higher SS and Police Leader, Ostland
- 1946Sentenced at the Riga trial and executed
Related historical events
- 1938–1944.03Hungary on the Axis side: from the Vienna Awards to the DonHigher SS and Police Leader, southern Russia and UkraineSS and police units under his command shot the Jews deported from Hungary and the local Jews at Kamianets-Podilskyi; he reported 23,600 victims.
- 1941.06–1944.11The Baltic states under German occupation: from the June Uprising through the Holocaust to the retreat of 1944Higher SS and Police Leader, OstlandCommanded the Rumbula massacre of November–December 1941.