Trieste-born Austrian Nazi and SS general who led Operation Reinhard, the murder of about 1.5 million Jews
As SS and Police Leader of Lublin he directed Operation Reinhard, the organised murder of around one and a half million Jews, mostly from Poland, in the Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka and Majdanek extermination camps.
The son of a Slovene officer, born in Trieste and raised in Klagenfurt, he fought as a teenager with the pro-Austrian militia in the Carinthian War. Joining the Nazi Party in 1931, he was jailed several times for illegal party work in Austria and entered the SS in 1934. After the Anschluss he became Gauleiter of Vienna in 1938 until removed for embezzlement. In November 1939 Himmler made him SS and Police Leader of Lublin, and in 1942–43 he directed Operation Reinhard, the murder of about 1.5 million Jews at Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka and Majdanek. Sent to Trieste in 1943 as Higher SS and Police Leader of the Adriatic Littoral, he killed himself with cyanide just after his capture by British troops in May 1945.
Also known as: Odilo Globočnik
Activities and affiliations
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1931–1945
Political and party leadership
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1939–1943
Schutzstaffel (SS)SS and Police Leader of LublinMain
Security, intelligence and policing -
1943–1945
Schutzstaffel (SS)Higher SS and Police Leader, Adriatic Littoral
Security, intelligence and policing