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Adolf Eichmann (19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962), SS Obersturmbannführer, was head of Sub-Department IV D4 of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (wartime Germany’s Department of Homeland Security) from 19 December 1939, charged with overseeing Jewish affairs and evacuation/deportation of the Jews. As such, he was responsible for the deportation of several million Jews to the various…
Hans Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 Oct. 1946) was governor of occupied Poland (called General Government) during the war. Four of the so-called extermination camps – Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibór and Treblinka – were on the territory he governed. (The territories where Auschwitz and Chełmno were located had been annexed by the Third Reich). Therefore,…
Odilo Globocnik (21 April 1904 – 31 May 1945), SS Gruppenführer, during the war SS and Police Leader of the General Government (occupied Poland), and in charge of implementing the Aktion Reinhardt. After the war, he was arrested by a British unit, who interrogated him, possibly with the help of their customary torture, after which…
Richard Glücks (22 April 1889 – 10 May 1945), SS Gruppenführer, head of Office Group D of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungs-Hauptamt), and as such head inspector of the concentration camps. Glücks’s office was responsible for organizing the German concentration camps and making sure that they were optimized to deliver…
Joseph Goebbels (29 Oct. 1897 – 1 May 1945) was the National-Socialist leader of the Berlin district as well as the Third Reich’s Minister of Propaganda from its very beginning to the bitter end, when he committed suicide. Goebbels was meticulous in keeping a diary with almost daily entries. In addition, his list of speeches…
Hermann Göring (12 Jan. 1893 – 15 Oct. 1946), Reichsmarschall, was the second-most powerful man in the Third Reich after Adolf Hitler. During World War One, he was a decorated war pilot, becoming something of a national hero. During the Second World War, his main responsibilities lay in organizing Germany’s economy and its air force….
Reinhardt Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942), SS Obergruppenführer, has been the head of the National-Socialist Party’s Security Services (Sicherheitsdienst) since its inception in 1931. As Heinrich Himmler’s deputy, he was head of the Security Police and the Security Services, which were merged in 1939 into Germany’s equivalent of the Department of Homeland…
Heinrich Himmler (7 Oct. 1900 – 23 May 1945) was Reichsführer SS, meaning national leader of the SS, and head of the German police. As such, he gave the orders to his subordinates as to what to do with the Jews within Germany’s reach: He ordered the police to arrest them; to deport them; to…
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) is the central figure in the Holocaust narrative. Considering the monolithic nature of Hitler’s dictatorship, his decisions, orders and decrees are what should have caused, started and shaped the progress of the Holocaust. Yet when we look at the historical records, all we have are some…
Rudolf Höss (25 Nov. 1901 – 16 April 1947), SS Obersturmbannführer, served at the Dachau Concentration Camp from December 1934 until 1938, then at the Sachsenhausen Camp until May 1940, when he was charged with setting up the new Auschwitz Camp, where he became commandant in October of that year. As head of Office Group…
Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 Oct. 1903 – 16 Oct. 1946) was Higher SS and Police Leader in Austria from 1938 until early 1943. On 30 January 1943, after Reinhardt Heydrich had been assassinated the previous summer, Kaltenbrunner replaced him as chief of Germany’s Department for Homeland Security (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA). However, all matters concerning the SS and…
Oswald Pohl (30 June 1892 – 7 June 1951), SS Obergruppenführer, headed the SS offices that, in early 1942, were consolidated as the SS’s Economic and Administrative Main Office (Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt). This office was directly subordinate to Heinrich Himmler as the Reichsführer SS. It handled all financial and administrative matters concerning the SS and…
Karl Wolff (13 May 1900 – 17 July 1984), SS Obergruppenführer, was Heinrich Himmler’s chief of staff and his liaison officer to Adolf Hitler. As such, he had access to all the material crossing Himmler’s desk. Toward the end of the war, on Himmler’s initiative, Wolff negotiated an early surrender of the German forces in…
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