Circle VI of VII

Enablers of war and occupation

Ministers, officers, judges, administrators and industrial managers whose laws, resources and professional decisions enabled criminal policy.

This circle examines the administrative, military, judicial, economic and logistical systems that sustained occupation and persecution. Inclusion depends on documented agency, not on office or professional title alone.

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.

38 profiles

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

Circle VI of VII

Gustav Abb

head of the Main Administration of Libraries in the General Government

killed in 1945; never tried

Circle VI of VII

Otto Ambros

IG Farben board member responsible for Buna/Monowitz and chemical-warfare agent production programmes

convicted in the IG Farben Trial and sentenced to eight years; released in 1951

Circle VI of VII

Heinz Auerswald

commissioner for the Jewish residential district in Warsaw

investigated but never tried; died in 1970

Circle VI of VII

Franz Böhme

Plenipotentiary Commanding General in occupied Serbia in autumn 1941

indicted in the Hostages Trial but died by suicide in 1947 before trial

Circle VI of VII

Friedrich Class

head of the Gdynia branch of Einsatzkommando 16 and the Gestapo

died in December 1945 without trial

Circle VI of VII

Max Daume

Order Police officer in Warsaw responsible for repression and hostage executions

executed in 1947

Circle VI of VII

Karl Dönitz

commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine and Hitler's successor as head of state

convicted at Nuremberg; served ten years and died in 1980

Circle VI of VII

Walther Dürrfeld

technical director and construction manager of the IG Farben works at Auschwitz-Monowitz

convicted in the IG Farben Trial and sentenced to eight years; released early in 1951

Circle VI of VII

Kurt Eimann

commander of SS-Wachsturmbann Eimann during executions in Pomerania

sentenced in West Germany to four years' imprisonment and served approximately two years

Circle VI of VII

Karl Essig

head of the Security Police and SD post in Kielce

tried in West Germany in cases concerning Kielce crimes and acquitted in one proceeding; no comprehensive reckoning

Circle VI of VII

Roland Freisler

president of the People's Court and a leading architect of Nazi judicial terror

killed in an air raid in February 1945 and never tried

Circle VI of VII

Wilhelm Frick

Reich Minister of the Interior and later Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle VI of VII

Günter Fuchs

head of Section II B of the Łódź Gestapo, responsible for Jewish affairs

life sentence in 1963

Circle VI of VII

Walther Funk

Reich Economics Minister and president of the Reichsbank

sentenced to life imprisonment; released in 1957 and died in 1960

Circle VI of VII

Alfred Jodl

chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle VI of VII

Wilhelm Keitel

chief of the Armed Forces High Command

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle VI of VII

Franz Konrad

head of the Werterfassung property-seizure apparatus in the Warsaw ghetto

executed in 1952

Circle VI of VII

Carl Krauch

chairman of IG Farben's supervisory board and plenipotentiary for chemical production under the Four Year Plan

convicted in the IG Farben Trial and sentenced to six years; released early in 1950

Circle VI of VII

Alfried Krupp

sole owner and head of the Krupp industrial group from 1943

sentenced to twelve years in the Krupp Trial; released and his property restored in 1951

Circle VI of VII

Hans Lammers

head of the Reich Chancellery and Hitler's senior legal-administrative intermediary

convicted in the Ministries Trial; released early and died in 1962

Circle VI of VII

Jakob Lölgen

commander of an Einsatzkommando 16 detachment in Bydgoszcz

acquitted in 1966

Circle VI of VII

Erich von Manstein

field marshal; commander of the Eleventh Army and later army groups on the eastern front

convicted by a British military court in 1949; released early in 1953

Circle VI of VII

Gerulf Mayer

commander of Gendarmerie-Hauptmannschaft Kielce

sentenced in Graz in 1969 to eleven years for murders and participation in the Skałka Polska pacification

Circle VI of VII

Bruno Müller

commander of Einsatzkommando 2/I and Security Police and SD commander in Kraków

interned and questioned after the war but not convicted for Sonderaktion Krakau

Circle VI of VII

Horst Neubauer

judge of the German Special Court in Łódź

not convicted after the war for judgments delivered in occupied Łódź

Circle VI of VII

Peter Paulsen

SS archaeologist and commander of Sonderkommando Paulsen

not convicted for Sonderkommando Paulsen's activity and continued an academic career after the war

Circle VI of VII

Walter Pelzhausen

commandant of the Radogoszcz police prison in Łódź

executed in 1948

Circle VI of VII

Walter von Reichenau

commander of the Sixth Army and author of the criminal Severity Order

died on active service in January 1942 and was never tried

Circle VI of VII

Oswald Rothaug

presiding judge of the Nuremberg Special Court and later Reich prosecutor at the People's Court

sentenced to life imprisonment in the Judges' Trial; released in 1956

Circle VI of VII

Franz Schlegelberger

state secretary and acting Reich minister of justice

life sentence; released in 1951

Circle VI of VII

Alfred Spilker

commander of Sonderkommando Spilker in Warsaw

died in 1945; never tried

Circle VI of VII

Bruno Tesch

co-owner and managing director of a principal distributor of Zyklon B

convicted by a British military court in the Zyklon B case and executed in 1946

Circle VI of VII

Otto Georg Thierack

Reich Minister of Justice and former president of the People's Court

not tried; died by suicide in Allied custody in 1946

Circle VI of VII

Werner Ventzki

lord mayor of occupied Łódź and an official of the Wartheland administration

never tried; continued an administrative career in West Germany

Circle VI of VII

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Reich Foreign Minister and diplomatic agent of German expansion

convicted at Nuremberg and executed in 1946

Circle VI of VII

Baldur von Schirach

Reich Youth Leader and later Gauleiter and Reich Governor of Vienna

convicted at Nuremberg; served twenty years and died in 1974

Circle VI of VII

Erwin Wester

presiding judge of the German Special Court in Stanislau

extradited to Poland and indicted, but died in prison in July 1948 before trial

Circle VI of VII

Hermann Worthoff

head of the Jewish affairs section of the Lublin Gestapo and commander of a liquidation unit

sentenced to eight years in 1975