August Friedrich Jäger (21 August 1887 – 17 June 1949) was a German official of the Nazi era. In the ''

Reichsgau Wartheland The ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (initially ''Reichsgau Posen'', also: ''Warthegau'') was a Nazi German ''Reichsgau'' formed from parts of Polish territory annexed in 1939 during World War II. It comprised the region of Greater Poland and adjacent ...

'' (

Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany Following the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic was annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under the German civil administration. The rest of Naz ...

), Jäger served as administrative chief to the regional leader

Arthur Greiser Arthur Karl Greiser (22 January 1897 – 21 July 1946) was a Nazi German politician, SS-''Obergruppenführer'', ''Gauleiter'' and ''Reichsstatthalter'' (Reich Governor) of the German-occupied territory of ''Wartheland''. He was one of the perso ...

. Earlier, Jäger had led the effort at

Nazification The Nazi term () or "coordination" was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied b ...

of the

Evangelical Church in Prussia The Prussian Union of Churches (known under multiple other names) was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in Pru ...

. In Poland, he earned the nickname "''Kirchen-Jäger''" (Church-Hunter) for the vehemence of his hostility to the Catholic Church. "By the end of 1941", wrote

Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...

, "the Polish Catholic Church had been effectively outlawed in the Wartheland. It was more or less Germanized in the other occupied territories, despite an encyclical issued by the Pope as early as 27 October 1939 protesting against this persecution." After the war, Jäger was arrested by the British military. In 1946, he was extradited to Poland to stand trial for crimes against humanity. Jäger found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed in 1949.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jager, August 1887 births 1949 deaths Nazi Party politicians Kirchenkampf Holocaust perpetrators in Poland People executed for crimes against humanity Nazis executed by Poland by hanging Prisoners and detainees of the British military People extradited to Poland