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Otto Wächter
Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter (8 July 1901 – 14 July 1949) was an Austrian lawyer, Nazi politician and high-ranking member of the SS, a paramilitary organisation of the Nazi Party. He participated in the extermination of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust and was instrumental in creating an SS division consisting of Ukrainians.
During the occupation of Poland in World War II, he was the governor of the district of Kraków in the General Government and later of the District of Galicia (now mainly in Ukraine). In 1944 he was appointed head of the German Military Administration in the puppet Italian Social Republic. During the last two months of the war, he was responsible for the non-German forces at the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in Berlin.
In 1940, Wächter ordered the expulsion of 68,000 Polish Jews from Kraków and in 1941 the Kraków Ghetto was created for the remaining 15,000 Jews by his decrees. After the war, wanted by the Polish People's Republic, Wächter managed to evade Allied authorities for four years. In 1949 he was given refuge by the pro-Nazi Austrian bishop Alois Hudal in the Vatican, where he died the same year, aged 48, reportedly from kidney disease.
Otto Gustav von Wächter was the third child and only son of Martha (née Pfob), daughter of the owner of the Graben Hotel in the centre of Vienna. His father, Joseph Freiherr von Wächter, was born in northern Bohemia and served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. In the last year of the First World War, Joseph was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa, which earned him the title of Freiherr (Baron). In 1922, after the First Austrian Republic was established, he was twice nominated as Minister of Defence in the Cabinets of Johann Schober (in the first replacing Carl Vaugoin).
Otto von Wächter spent his first years in Vienna before the family moved to Trieste (then part of Austria-Hungary) in 1908. For the duration of the First World War, he lived in southern Bohemia, studying and taking his Matura school leaving examinations in 1919 in České Budějovice, then called by its German name, Budweis, where everyday life was dominated by the national differences between Germans and Czechs.
The family moved to Vienna, where Wächter studied law and joined national and sporting organizations. In April 1923, he joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) and became Austrian Champion in M8+ (eight-man rowing team). He received his doctorate in 1924 and in 1929 began practicing as a lawyer. His clients included indicted members of the Nazi Party, which he joined on 24 October 1930 (party No: 301093). On 11 September 1932, Wächter married Charlotte Bleckmann (born 20 October 1908), daughter of a Styrian steel magnate. The couple eventually had six children, including four daughters and two sons: Otto Richard (1933–1997) and Horst Arthur (born 1939).
Wächter continued to work for the Nazi Party in Vienna as an organizer and defender of accused Nazis in court and played a leading role in the organization of the failed July Putsch of 25 July 1934, which eventually led to the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. After the failed coup, Wächter fled to Nazi Germany. He entered the Schutzstaffel (SS No: 235368) on 1 January 1932 and completed his German military service in Freising, Bavaria. In 1935, his Austrian citizenship was revoked and German citizenship conferred upon him while he completed his academic training and education as a lawyer in Germany. In 1937, he started working in the relief organization for Austrian National Socialists seeking refuge in Berlin.
The day after the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, Wächter returned to Vienna, where he took on the post of state commissar in the "Liquidation Ministry" under the Nazi governor of Austria, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, from 24 May 1938 to 30 April 1939. The government body he headed was known as the "Wächter-Kommission" and was responsible for the dismissal and/or compulsory retirement of all Austrian officials who did not conform with the Nazi regime. Because the former Austrian bureaucracy was strictly antisemitic, only a small fraction of the officials were actually dismissed.
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Otto Wächter
Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter (8 July 1901 – 14 July 1949) was an Austrian lawyer, Nazi politician and high-ranking member of the SS, a paramilitary organisation of the Nazi Party. He participated in the extermination of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust and was instrumental in creating an SS division consisting of Ukrainians.
During the occupation of Poland in World War II, he was the governor of the district of Kraków in the General Government and later of the District of Galicia (now mainly in Ukraine). In 1944 he was appointed head of the German Military Administration in the puppet Italian Social Republic. During the last two months of the war, he was responsible for the non-German forces at the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in Berlin.
In 1940, Wächter ordered the expulsion of 68,000 Polish Jews from Kraków and in 1941 the Kraków Ghetto was created for the remaining 15,000 Jews by his decrees. After the war, wanted by the Polish People's Republic, Wächter managed to evade Allied authorities for four years. In 1949 he was given refuge by the pro-Nazi Austrian bishop Alois Hudal in the Vatican, where he died the same year, aged 48, reportedly from kidney disease.
Otto Gustav von Wächter was the third child and only son of Martha (née Pfob), daughter of the owner of the Graben Hotel in the centre of Vienna. His father, Joseph Freiherr von Wächter, was born in northern Bohemia and served in the Austro-Hungarian Army. In the last year of the First World War, Joseph was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa, which earned him the title of Freiherr (Baron). In 1922, after the First Austrian Republic was established, he was twice nominated as Minister of Defence in the Cabinets of Johann Schober (in the first replacing Carl Vaugoin).
Otto von Wächter spent his first years in Vienna before the family moved to Trieste (then part of Austria-Hungary) in 1908. For the duration of the First World War, he lived in southern Bohemia, studying and taking his Matura school leaving examinations in 1919 in České Budějovice, then called by its German name, Budweis, where everyday life was dominated by the national differences between Germans and Czechs.
The family moved to Vienna, where Wächter studied law and joined national and sporting organizations. In April 1923, he joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) and became Austrian Champion in M8+ (eight-man rowing team). He received his doctorate in 1924 and in 1929 began practicing as a lawyer. His clients included indicted members of the Nazi Party, which he joined on 24 October 1930 (party No: 301093). On 11 September 1932, Wächter married Charlotte Bleckmann (born 20 October 1908), daughter of a Styrian steel magnate. The couple eventually had six children, including four daughters and two sons: Otto Richard (1933–1997) and Horst Arthur (born 1939).
Wächter continued to work for the Nazi Party in Vienna as an organizer and defender of accused Nazis in court and played a leading role in the organization of the failed July Putsch of 25 July 1934, which eventually led to the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. After the failed coup, Wächter fled to Nazi Germany. He entered the Schutzstaffel (SS No: 235368) on 1 January 1932 and completed his German military service in Freising, Bavaria. In 1935, his Austrian citizenship was revoked and German citizenship conferred upon him while he completed his academic training and education as a lawyer in Germany. In 1937, he started working in the relief organization for Austrian National Socialists seeking refuge in Berlin.
The day after the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, Wächter returned to Vienna, where he took on the post of state commissar in the "Liquidation Ministry" under the Nazi governor of Austria, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, from 24 May 1938 to 30 April 1939. The government body he headed was known as the "Wächter-Kommission" and was responsible for the dismissal and/or compulsory retirement of all Austrian officials who did not conform with the Nazi regime. Because the former Austrian bureaucracy was strictly antisemitic, only a small fraction of the officials were actually dismissed.
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