Arthur Seyß-Inquart
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| Arthur Seyß-Inquart | |
 Inquart at the Nuremberg Trials |
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Chancellor of Austria
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| In office 12 March 1938 – 13 March 1938 |
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Deputy Governor of Poland
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| In office September 1939 – June 1940 |
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Reichkommissar of the Low Countries
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| In office June 1940 – 8 May 1945 |
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| Born | July 22 1898 Stannern, Moravia |
| Died | Nuremberg, Germany 16 October 1946 |
| Political party | Austrian National Socialist Party |
| Spouse | Gertrude Maschka |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Dr Arthur Seyß-Inquart (born Arthur Zajtich on July 22, 1892 – October 16, 1946) was a prominent lawyer and later Nazi official in pre-Anschluß Austria, the Third Reich and in wartime Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands. Seyß-Inquart was executed at the Nuremberg Trials for crimes against humanity.
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[change] Life before the Anschluss
Seyß-Inquart was born in 1892 in Stonařov (Stannern), Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to school principal Emil Zajtich and his wife Auguste Hyrenbach. The family moved to Vienna in 1907 where they changed the Czech Slavic name of "Zajtich" to the German "Seyß-Inquart". Seyß-Inquart later went to study law at the University of Vienna. At the beginning of World War I in August 1914 Seyß-Inquart enlisted with the Austrian Army and served in Russia, Romania and also Italy.
He was decorated for bravery on a number of occasions and while recovering from wounds in 1917 he completed his final examinations for his degree.
In 1911 Seyß-Inquart met Gertrud Maschka. The couple married in 1916 and had three children: Ingeborg Caroline Auguste Seyß-Inquart (born September 18, 1917), Richard Seyß-Inquart (born 1921) and Dorothea Seyß-Inquart (born 1928).
He went into law after the war and in 1921 set up his own practice. During the early years of the first Austrian republic he was close to the Vaterländische Front.
As a successful lawyer, he was asked to join the cabinet of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1933.
He became a State Councillor in 1937 under Kurt Schuschnigg. He was not a member of the Austrian National Socialist party at first, .[1] By 1938 Seyß-Inquart was the highest ranking politician in the Austrian National Socialists.
In February 1938, Seyß-Inquart was appointed Minister of the Interior by Schuschnigg, after Hitler had threatened Schuschnigg. On March 11 1938 Schuschnigg resigned as Austrian Chancellor and Seyß-Inquart was appointed to the position by Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas. Hitler's plan was to have Seyß-Inquart send a telegram asking for German help to stop riots. But President Miklas did not make Seyß-Inquart chancellor until after Hitler had ordered his army into Austria. On March 13 1938, Seyß-Inquart joined the National Socialist party.[2]
[change] Head of Ostmark and Southern Poland
Hitler was going to leave Austria independent, but after the welcome the German troops got during thr Anschluß he decided to mark Austria a new part of the Third Reich, called Ostmark . Seyß-Inquart wrote the law which made Austria a province of Germany and signed it into law on March 13.
Seyß-Inquart became Reichsstatthalter or Governor of named Ostmark. Ernst Kaltenbrunner was chief minister and Burckel as Commissioner for the Reunion of Austria (concerned with the "Jewish Question").
Seyß-Inquart was made an SS Gruppenführer, and in May 1939 he was made a Minister without portfolio in Hitler's government.
After the invasion of Poland, Seyß-Inquart became governor for Southern Poland, but before he started work there the General Government was created, and Seyß-Inquart became a deputy to the Governor General Hans Frank.
[change] Reichskommissar in the Netherlands
After Germany invaded the Low Countries Seyß-Inquart became Reichskommissar for the Occupied Netherlands in May 1940. His job was to organise civil administration, with creating close economic ties with Germany and defend the interests of the Reich.
He supported the Dutch National Socialist Party (NSB) and allowed them to create a paramilitary Landwacht, as an auxiliary police force. Other political parties were banned in late 1941 and many former government officials were imprisoned at Sint-Michielsgestel. The administration of the country was largely controlled by Seyß-Inquart himself.
He introduced measures to combat 'terror' and when a widespread strike took place in Amsterdam, Arnhem and Hilversum in May 1943 special summary court-martial were used and a collective fine of 18 million guilders was imposed. Seyß-Inquart allowed the execution of around 800 people before liberation. Some people say it was not 800 people but over 1,500, including the execution of people under the so-called "Hostage Law", the death of political prisoners who were close to being liberated, the Putten incident, and the reprisal execution of 117 Dutchmen for the attack on SS and Police Leader Hanns Albin Rauter. From July 1944 most of Seyß-Inquart's powers were transferred to the military commander in the Netherlands and the Gestapo, but he was still an important and powerful person.
There were 2 small concentration camps in the Netherlands
- KZ Herzogenbusch near Vught, and
- Kamp Amersfoort near Amersfoort.
There was also a "Jewish assembly camp" at Westerbork and a number of other camps controlled by the military, the police, the SS or Seyß-Inquart's administration. These included a "voluntary labour recruitment" camp at Ommen. In total around 530,000 Dutch civilians worked for the Germans, of whom 250,000 were sent to factories in Germany.
Seyss-Inquart was an anti-Semite: within a few months of his arrival in the Netherlands, he took sacked Jews from government, the press and leading positions in industry. Anti-Jewish measures intensified from 1941: approximately 140,000 Jews were registered, a ghetto was created in Amsterdam and a transit camp was set up at Westerbork. In February 1941, 600 Jews were sent to the Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps. Later, the Dutch Jews were sent to Auschwitz. As Allied forces approached in September 1944 the remaining Jews at Westerbork were sent to Theresienstadt. Of 140,000 registered Dutch Jews, only 44,500 survived the war.
When Hitler committed suicide in April 1945, Seyß-Inquart became the Foreign Minister in Admiral Karl Dönitz's new German government.
The Nazi regime had tried a 'scorched earth' policy, and some docks and harbours were destroyed. Seyß-Inquart, agreed with Armaments Minister Albert Speer that destroying everything to stop things being used by the allies or a new government after the war was wrong. [2] Seyß-Inquart also helped in the so called 'hunger winter' of 1945 to distribute food and allowed Allied airplanes to drop Swedish white bread for the hungry people of the occupied north of the country. He remained Reichskommissar until May 8, 1945, when, after a meeting with Karl Dönitz to confirm his blocking of the scorched earth orders, he was captured in Hamburg.
[change] Nuremberg Trials
At the Nuremberg Trials, Seyß-Inquart faced charges of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, starting and fighting wars of aggression; war crimes; and crimes against humanity.
His defence lawyer was Gustav Steinbauer. Seyß-Inquart was nonetheless found guilty of all charges except conspiracy. On hearing of his death sentence, Seyss-Inquart made it clear he accepted responsibility for excesses during the war, "Death by hanging...well, in view of the whole situation, I never expected anything different. It's all right".[3] He was hanged on October 16, 1946, at the age of 54, together with nine other Nuremberg defendants. His last words were "I hope that this execution is the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War and that the lesson taken from this world war will be that peace and understanding should exist between peoples. I believe in Germany".
[change] References
| Came after: Kurt Schuschnigg |
Chancellor of Austria 1938 |
Came before: Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer of Germany - Post Abolished |
| Came after: Joachim von Ribbentrop |
Foreign Minister of Germany April 30, 1945 |
Came before: Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk |
[change] Other websites
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Arthur Seyss-Inquart
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Bormann · Dönitz · Frank · Frick · Fritzsche · Funk · Göring · Hess · Jodl · Kaltenbrunner · Keitel · v.Neurath · v.Papen · Raeder · v.Ribbentrop · Rosenberg · Sauckel · Schacht · v.Schirach · Seyß-Inquart · Speer · Streicher |
