Circle II — Strategic core of the regime

Strategic core of the regime

Senior leaders of the state, party, SS, police, armed forces and propaganda apparatus who shaped and coordinated criminal policy.

These figures controlled major institutions and converted the dictator’s aims into strategy, priorities and binding decisions. Their profiles distinguish policy-making authority from the work of subordinate offices and field formations.

How the circles work. The seven circles classify a person’s documented place in the chain of decision, coordination, administration and execution. They do not rank suffering, notoriety or numbers of victims. Placement is based on function, formal authority, decision-making power, operational control and proven individual conduct. Roles sometimes overlapped, and a person’s position could change over time; each profile therefore explains the evidence and the limits of attribution.

8 profiles

Profiles are ordered alphabetically by surname. Placement reflects documented function and agency, never a ranking by numbers of victims.

Circle II of VII

Gottlob Berger

chief of the SS Main Office and organiser of Waffen-SS recruitment

convicted in 1949; sentence reduced and released in 1951

Circle II of VII

Martin Bormann

head of the NSDAP Party Chancellery and secretary to Hitler

sentenced to death in absentia; died in Berlin in 1945

Circle II of VII

Richard Walther Darré

Reich agriculture minister, former head of RuSHA and ideologue of 'Blood and Soil'

convicted in 1949; released in 1950

Circle II of VII

Joseph Goebbels

Reich propaganda minister and Gauleiter of Berlin

not tried; died by suicide in 1945

Circle II of VII

Hermann Göring

Reichsmarschall, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

sentenced to death at Nuremberg; died by suicide in custody in 1946

Circle II of VII

Reinhard Heydrich

chief of the RSHA and acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia

not tried; died in 1942 after the Prague assassination attack

Circle II of VII

Heinrich Himmler

Reichsführer-SS, Chief of German Police and Reich Minister of the Interior

not tried; died by suicide in British custody in 1945

Circle II of VII

Robert Ley

NSDAP Reichsleiter and head of the German Labour Front

died by suicide in Allied custody in 1945 before trial