NR Nazi ReportSeven Circles of Responsibility

IV Circle IV of VII

Territorial rulers and programme chiefs

Occupation rulers and leaders of defined programmes who translated central policy into regional orders, displacement, exploitation and terror.

These figures exercised authority over occupied territories or specialised programmes. Their profiles reconstruct the link between policy, territorial administration, police power and implementation within the period and remit each person controlled.

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.

54 profiles

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

Circle IV of VII

Ludolf-Hermann von Alvensleben

commander of Selbstschutz West Prussia and later regional SS and police commander

escaped to Argentina and was never tried in person

Circle IV of VII

Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski

senior SS commander for anti-partisan warfare and commander of forces suppressing the Warsaw Uprising

imprisoned for prewar murders but never tried for his principal wartime crimes

Circle IV of VII

Herbert Backe

agricultural minister and principal planner of the Hunger Plan

died by suicide in Nuremberg custody in 1947 before trial

Circle IV of VII

Werner Best

senior Security Police and SD lawyer involved in organising Einsatzgruppen for the 1939 campaign

convicted in Denmark; after release, West German proceedings did not produce a conviction for his role in the security apparatus

Circle IV of VII

Walther Bierkamp

commander of Einsatzgruppe D, then commander of the Security Police and SD (BdS) in the General Government

died by suicide on 15 May 1945; never tried

Circle IV of VII

Philipp Bouhler

head of the Führer's Chancellery and co-director of the T4 killing programme

not tried; died by suicide in US custody in 1945

Circle IV of VII

Viktor Brack

head of Office II in the Führer Chancellery and organiser of Aktion T4

convicted in the Doctors' Trial and executed in 1948

Circle IV of VII

Walter Braemer

military commander of Bydgoszcz and a rear-area district in September 1939

interned; never tried for Bydgoszcz

Circle IV of VII

Karl Brandt

Hitler's personal physician, co-director of the T4 programme and Reich health commissioner

convicted in the Doctors' Trial and executed in 1948

Circle IV of VII

Josef Bühler

state secretary and head of government in the General Government

convicted in Poland and executed in 1948

Circle IV of VII

Rudolf Creutz

Ulrich Greifelt's deputy and head of Main Office Group A in the Main Staff Office of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood

sentenced to 15 years; sentence reduced; released in 1951

Circle IV of VII

Kurt Daluege

chief of the Order Police and acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia

convicted in Czechoslovakia and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Ludwig Fischer

governor of the Warsaw district and head of its civilian occupation administration

convicted in Poland and executed in 1947

Circle IV of VII

Albert Forster

Gauleiter and Reich Governor of Danzig–West Prussia

convicted in Poland and executed in 1952

Circle IV of VII

Hans Frank

Governor-General of the General Government in occupied Poland

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Karl Hermann Frank

Higher SS and Police Leader and State Minister in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

convicted in Czechoslovakia and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Ulrich Greifelt

chief of staff of the RKFDV and administrator of expulsions and Germanisation

convicted in the RuSHA Trial and died in prison in 1949

Circle IV of VII

Arthur Greiser

Gauleiter and Reich Governor of the Warthegau

convicted in Poland and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Richard Hildebrandt

Higher SS and Police Leader in Reich District Danzig–West Prussia

convicted in the RuSHA Trial, extradited to Poland, sentenced to death and executed in 1952

Circle IV of VII

Otto Hofmann

head of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA)

sentenced to twenty-five years in the RuSHA Trial; released in 1954

Circle IV of VII

Rolf-Heinz Höppner

de facto head of the Central Resettlement Office in Poznań and chief of the SD section in the Wartheland

sentenced to life imprisonment in 1949; released under an amnesty in early 1957

Circle IV of VII

Friedrich Jeckeln

Higher SS and Police Leader in occupied Ukraine and Ostland

convicted by a Soviet military tribunal and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Fritz Katzmann

SS and Police Leader in the Radom District and later the District of Galicia

lived under a false identity and died in 1957 without trial

Circle IV of VII

Wilhelm Keppler

state secretary and economic official who participated in establishing the Deutsche Umsiedlungs-Treuhand and organising the seizure of expellees' property

sentenced to ten years; released in 1951

Circle IV of VII

Erich Koch

Gauleiter of East Prussia and Reich Commissioner for Ukraine

sentenced to death in Poland; sentence not carried out, died in prison in 1986

Circle IV of VII

Wilhelm Koppe

Higher SS and Police Leader in the Warthegau and later the General Government

prosecuted but not convicted; proceedings ended on medical grounds, died in 1975

Circle IV of VII

Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger

Higher SS and Police Leader in the General Government

not tried; died by suicide in 1945

Circle IV of VII

Wilhelm Kube

General Commissioner for occupied Belarus

killed by the Soviet resistance in 1943 and never tried

Circle IV of VII

Alexander Löhr

commander of Air Fleet 4 during the invasion of Poland

convicted by a Yugoslav court for crimes in the Balkans and executed in 1947; the judgment did not address bombing in Poland

Circle IV of VII

Hinrich Lohse

Reich Commissioner for Ostland and head of its civilian occupation administration

convicted in Germany, sentenced to ten years and released in 1951

Circle IV of VII

Werner Lorenz

head of the SS Main Office Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi)

sentenced to twenty years in the RuSHA Trial; sentence reduced and released in 1955

Circle IV of VII

Konrad Meyer

head of the RKFDV Planning Office and principal author of Generalplan Ost

convicted only of SS membership and released after time served

Circle IV of VII

Paul Nitsche

psychiatrist, senior medical assessor and, from late 1941, head of the medical section of Aktion T4

sentenced to death for crimes against humanity; executed in 1948

Circle IV of VII

Karl Oberg

Higher SS and Police Leader in occupied France

sentenced to death in France, later pardoned and released in 1962

Circle IV of VII

Günther Pancke

Higher SS and Police Leader in occupied Denmark

sentenced in Denmark in 1948 to twenty years' imprisonment; pardoned and expelled in 1953

Circle IV of VII

Hans-Adolf Prützmann

Higher SS and Police Leader in Ostland and later in southern occupied Soviet territories

died by suicide in British custody in 1945 before trial

Circle IV of VII

Hanns Albin Rauter

Higher SS and Police Leader and General Commissioner for Security in the occupied Netherlands

convicted in the Netherlands and executed in 1949

Circle IV of VII

Hans-Joachim Riecke

head of the agricultural section of Economic Staff East and senior food-policy official

received a minor denazification sentence and was released

Circle IV of VII

Alfred Rosenberg

chief NSDAP ideologue and Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Fritz Sauckel

Plenipotentiary General for Labour Allocation and Gauleiter of Thuringia

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Eberhard Schöngarth

commander of the Security Police and SD in the General Government

convicted by a British military court for killing an Allied prisoner of war and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Arthur Seyss-Inquart

Reich Commissioner for the occupied Netherlands and former Austrian chancellor

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle IV of VII

Albert Speer

Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production and Hitler's chief architect

convicted at Nuremberg; served twenty years and died in 1981

Circle IV of VII

Jakob Sporrenberg

SS and Police Leader in the Lublin district and organiser of Operation Erntefest

convicted in Poland and executed in 1952

Circle IV of VII

Harald Turner

chief of the administrative staff of the German military commander in occupied Serbia

sentenced to death in Belgrade; executed on 9 March 1947

Circle IV of VII

Friedrich Uebelhoer

president of the Kalisz administrative district and author of the order establishing the Łódź ghetto

missing; later declared dead

Circle IV of VII

Edmund Veesenmayer

Reich plenipotentiary and minister in occupied Hungary

convicted in 1949; sentence reduced and released in 1951

Circle IV of VII

Alexander von Falkenhausen

military governor of occupied Belgium and northern France

sentenced in Belgium in 1951 to twelve years' hard labour; released after prior detention was credited

Circle IV of VII

Wolfram von Richthofen

Luftwaffe commander directing air operations during the invasion of Poland

died in American captivity in 1945 and was never tried

Circle IV of VII

Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg

SS and Police Leader in the Warsaw District; directed the deportations during the Grossaktion and the first assault on the ghetto on 19 April 1943

never tried; killed in fighting with Yugoslav partisans on 20 September 1944

Circle IV of VII

Udo von Woyrsch

commander of a special SS and police operational group in Upper Silesia in 1939

convicted in West Germany for prewar Nazi offences, but not fully tried for the 1939 crimes in Poland

Circle IV of VII

Otto Wächter

governor of the Kraków District and later the District of Galicia

evaded trial while in hiding and died in Rome in 1949

Circle IV of VII

Richard Wendler

governor of the Kraków and Lublin districts

passed through denazification and resumed a professional career; not convicted for his occupation administration in Poland

Circle IV of VII

Ernst Zörner

governor of the Lublin District of the General Government

missing after 1945; legally declared dead in 1960