Theodor Denecke (also spelled Dannecker) (27 March 1913 – 10 December 1945) was a German SS-captain (), a key aide to

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. A trained lawyer Denecke first served at the

Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and '' Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Naz ...

in Berlin before being sent to France as specialist on

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

anti-Jewish policies (). Throughout the war Denecke oversaw the implementation of the

Final Solution The Final Solution (german: die Endlösung, ) or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question (german: Endlösung der Judenfrage, ) was a Nazi plan for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution to th ...

sending

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

men, women and children from France (1942), Bulgaria (1943), Italy (1944) and Hungary to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. I ...

. Captured in 1945 by American soldiers he committed suicide in prison.

Early life

After completing trade school, the

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

-born Denecke first worked as a textile dealer until 1932 when he joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

and the SS. In 1934 he became a member of the (SS-VT), an independent unit of political combat troops at the disposal of the Nazi Party. In the same year he was a guard at the

Columbia-Haus Columbia concentration camp (also known as Columbia-Haus) was a Nazi concentration camp situated in the Tempelhof area of Berlin. It was one of the first such institutions established by the regime. Development Originally called ''Strafgefängn ...

in Berlin, one of the first German concentration camps, and enlisted into the , a precursor of the (SS-TV) operating in

Oranienburg Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel. Geography Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin. Division of the town Oranienburg ...

and Columbia-Haus concentration camps. A year later he was assigned to the SS Security Service (; SD). In March 1937 Dannecker became a collaborator of

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' round ups by French Police. More than 13,000 Jews were deported to

where most were murdered in the

. Owing to misuse of his position, partially due to his theft of German confiscated property, he was ordered back to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

in August 1942. On 21 January 1943 he was sent to

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

to assist the Bulgarian government, an ally of Nazi Germany, with the deportation of Jews. Denecke was the highest German official in charge of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...

, in the Bulgarian territories.Ethan J. Hollander. ''Hegemony and the Holocaust: State Power and Jewish Survival in Occupied Europe'', Palgrave Macmillan (1st ed. 2017 edition (October 26, 2016)); /. During March 1943, Bulgarian military and police authorities deported 11,343 Jews from the Bulgarian-occupied regions of Macedonia, Pomoravlje in

occupied Yugoslavia World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941, when the country was swiftly conquered by Axis forces and partitioned between Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and their client regimes. Shortly after Germany attacked the U ...

and

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

and

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...

. Most were murdered in the gas chambers or shot, only 12 survived. However, his attempt to deport Jews with Bulgarian citizenship from Bulgaria proper failed due to widespread opposition by Bulgarian intellectuals, the heads of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church,

Metropolitan Bishop In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis. Originally, the term referred to the ...

s Stephan from

and Kiril from Plovdiv as well as from the deputy speaker of the parliament Dimiter Peshev all demanding a halt to the deportations; eventually forced

Boris III of Bulgaria Boris III ( bg, Борѝс III ; Boris Treti; 28 August 1943), originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver (Boris Clement Robert Mary Pius Louis Stanislaus Xavier) , was the Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1918 until hi ...

to change his mind and cancel the deportations in May 1943. Denecke continued to deport Italian Jews between September 1943 and January 1944, when Italy surrendered to the Allies and Germans occupied Italy. Before the German occupation, Benito Mussolini refused to turn over Jews to the Nazis except those in areas annexed or occupied by the Italians in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. Not seen as efficient enough, he was replaced in this role by

Friedrich Boßhammer Friedrich Boßhammer (1906–1972) was a German jurist, SS-'' Sturmbannführer'' and close associate of Adolf Eichmann, responsible for the deportation of the Italian Jews to extermination camps from January 1944 until the end of the war in Euro ...

, who was, like Denecke, closely associated with

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
'' After Germany occupied Hungary, Denecke and the Hungarian establishment (not the Arrow Cross, which came to power only in October 1944) deported more than a half a million Hungarian Jews between early 1944 and summer of the same year. Denecke developed under Eichmann into one of the SS's most ruthless and experienced experts on the "Jewish Question", and his involvement in the

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

of European Jewry was one of primary responsibility. A passage from a 1942 report by Denecke illustrates how the "Jewish Question" was handled in France:

Suicide

At the end of the war in Europe, Denecke eluded capture, possibly using false identification and was being hidden by his wife in Bad Tölz. In December 1945, Denecke was arrested by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

, on 10 December, he committed suicide in a prison camp before he was tried.

References

Sources

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Early life

Suicide

See also

References

Sources

Further reading