Wilhelm Kube
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Wilhelm Kube (13 November 1887 – 22 September 1943) was a
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 ...
official and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
politician. He was an important figure in the German Christian movement during the early years of Nazi rule. During the war he became a senior official in the occupying government of the Soviet Union, achieving the rank of ''Generalkommissar'' for ''
Generalbezirk Weißruthenien Generalbezirk Weissruthenien (General District White Ruthenia) was one of the four administrative subdivisions of ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'', the 1941-1945 civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany for the administration of the th ...
''. He was assassinated in
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
in 1943 after participation in 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 Europe; a ...
, triggering brutal reprisals against the citizens of Minsk. An extreme
antisemite Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
and participant in numerous war crimes against Jewish people, he is known to have said about Jews: "What plague and syphilis are to humanity, are Jews to the white race." However, Kube behaved towards German Jews in a relatively mild way during his charge in Minsk, by trying—unsuccessfully—to protect German Jews, whom he felt as culturally closer, from extermination. As for Minsk, he planned to level the city and replace it with a German settlement, called Asgard.


Early life

Kube was born in Glogau (today's Głogów),
Prussian Silesia The Province of Silesia (german: Provinz Schlesien; pl, Prowincja Śląska; szl, Prowincyjŏ Ślōnskŏ) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1919. The Silesia region was part of the Prussian realm since 1740 and established as an official p ...
, and studied history, economics and theology. In 1911 he received a Moses Mendelssohn Scholarship from the
University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
. Kube was active in the
Völkisch movement The ''Völkisch'' movement (german: Völkische Bewegung; alternative en, Folkist Movement) was a German ethno-nationalist movement active from the late 19th century through to the Nazi era, with remnants in the Federal Republic of Germany af ...
as a student, and joined the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
in late 1927. From 1928 he was also leader of the tiny Nazi party faction (6 seats) in the
Prussian Landtag The Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower House of Representat ...
(
Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
state legislature). Under his leadership it grew to be the largest party in the Landtag by 1932. On 1 February 1928, he was appointed
Gauleiter A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...
of Ostmark with his seat at
Frankfurt an der Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
. On 1 June 1933 this was merged with the neighboring Gau Brandenburg to form Gau Kurmark (later reorganized as the
Gau March of Brandenburg The Gau March of Brandenburg (German: ''Mark Brandenburg'') was formed in March 1933 initially under the name Gau Electoral March (German: ''Kurmark'') in Nazi Germany as a district within the Free State of Prussia. In January 1939, Kurmark was ren ...
) with its seat in
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 constitue ...
. After the Nazis came to power, he was made ''
Oberpräsident The ''german: Oberpräsident, label=none'' (Supreme President) was the highest administrative official in the Prussian provinces. History The Oberpräsident of a Prussian province was the supreme representative of the Prussian crown, until its ...
'' of the Prussian provinces of
Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
and
Posen-West Prussia The Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia (german: Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen, pl, Marchia Graniczna Poznańsko-Zachodniopruska) was a province of Prussia from 1922 to 1938. Posen-West Prussia was established in 1922 as a province of the Free ...
, thus uniting under his control the highest party and governmental offices in the provinces. He joined the SS on 29 September 1933 with the rank of ''
Oberführer __NOTOC__ ''Oberführer'' (short: ''Oberf'', , ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dating back to 1921. An ''Oberführer'' was typically a NSDAP member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geographic ...
'' and on 27 January 1934, he was promoted to SS-''
Gruppenführer __NOTOC__ ''Gruppenführer'' (, ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term ''Gruppenführer'' is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire de ...
''. In November 1933 he was elected as a Nazi deputy to the '' Reichstag'' from electoral constituency 5, Frankfurt/Oder. On 9 September 1935, Kube was made a member of the
Academy for German Law The Academy for German Law (german: Akademie für deutsches Recht) was an institute for legal research and reform founded on 26 June 1933 in Nazi Germany. After suspending its operations during the Second World War in August 1944, it was abolished ...
.


Nazification of Christianity

Kube remained an active Christian as well as a zealous Nazi, and in 1932 he organised the list of candidates of the
Faith Movement of the German Christians German Christians (german: Deutsche Christen) were a Advocacy group, pressure group and a movement within the German Evangelical Church that existed between 1932 and 1945, aligned towards the antisemitic, Nazism and race, racist and ''Führerpr ...
for the ordinary election of
presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as ...
s and synodals within the
Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union 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 Pr ...
on 13 November that year. The German Christians then gained about a third of all seats in presbyteries and
synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...
s. Kube was elected as one of the presbyters of the congregation of
Gethsemane Church Gethsemane Church (german: link=no, Gethsemanekirche) is one of four church buildings of the Lutheran Northern Prenzlauer Berg Evangelical Congregation (german: link=no, Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Prenzlauer Berg-Nord), within the Evangelical ...
in Berlin-
Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incorp ...
. The presbyters elected him from their midst as synodal into the competent
deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...
synod (german: Kreissynode; Berlin then comprised 11 deaneries altogether), and these synodals again elected him a member of ''deanery synodal board'' (german: Kreissynodalvorstand). When in 1933 the Nazis came to power he remained active in the German Christian movement which sought to "Nazify" the 28 Protestant church bodies in Germany. For 23 July 1933
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
ordered an unconstitutional, premature re-election of all presbyters and synodals, with the German Christians now gaining 70–80% of the seats, so Kube could then further advance as head of the Berlin synod of the old-Prussian Church. Following the German conquest of Poland in 1939 his Nazi party domain was extended to include
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia (german: Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreußen) was an administrative division of Nazi Germany created on 8 October 1939 from annexed territory of the Free City of Danzig, the Greater Pomeranian Voivodship (Polish Corridor), ...
and
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 a ...
.


Accusations and removal from office

In late 1935 the
Supreme Party Court Supreme may refer to: Entertainment * Supreme (character), a comic book superhero * ''Supreme'' (film), a 2016 Telugu film * Supreme (producer), hip-hop record producer * "Supreme" (song), a 2000 song by Robbie Williams * The Supremes, Motown-e ...
under Chairman
Walter Buch Walter Buch (24 October 1883 – 12 September 1949) was a German jurist as well as an SA and SS official during the Nazi era. He was Martin Bormann's father-in-law. As head of the Supreme Party Court, he was an important Party official. ...
, the father-in-law of
Martin Bormann Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained immense power by using his position as Adolf Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information ...
, began an investigation into Kube due to allegations of adultery and corruption in running his Gau, including nepotism, favoritism and a dictatorial management style. In December he was issued a letter of reprimand. Swearing revenge, Kube sent an anonymous letter claiming that Buch was married to a "
half-Jew The term Halbjude (English: Half-Jew) is a derogatory term for people with a non-Jewish and a Jewish parent. The overwhelming majority of the so-called half-Jews were legally classified as " first-degree Jewish hybrids" during the era of Nazi Germ ...
". This, of course, would have far-reaching implications not only for Buch but for Bormann, whose wife consequently also was accused of not being a pure Aryan. Kube was leveling serious charges at two Party ''
Reichsleiter ' (national leader or Reich leader) was the second-highest political rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), next only to the office of ''Führer''. ''Reichsleiter'' also served as a paramilitary rank within the NSDAP and was the highest position attaina ...
s''. In the course of a Gestapo investigation, it came to light that the letter had been written by Kube. Buch and Bormann saw to it that Kube was removed from all his posts on 7 August 1936. Only on Hitler's orders was he allowed to retain the title of ''Gauleiter'', albeit without a Gau. Furthermore, owing to a dispute with
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
over a search conducted of Kube's mistress' apartment, Kube offered his resignation from the SS on 11 March 1936; he was officially discharged on 1 April.


Generalkommissar of Weissruthenien

On 17 July 1941, in the wake of the German occupation of the western parts of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, he was appointed ''Generalkommissar'' for Weissruthenien (now known as
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
), with his headquarters in
Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
. In this role Kube oversaw the extermination of the large Jewish population of this area. He was nevertheless outraged by the
Slutsk Affair The Slutsk affair refers to the massacre of thousands of Jews and others that occurred in Slutsk, Byelorussia in the Soviet Union, in October 1941, near the city of Minsk while under German occupation during World War II. The perpetrators we ...
in October 1941, when SS ''
Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...
'' (death squads) massacred Jews without the authority of the local Nazi civil administration and Security SS authorities. Local non-Jewish Belarusians were also killed, creating great resentment among the population. Kube wrote in protest to his supervisor and Reichsführer-SS
Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
:
The town was a picture of horror during the action. With indescribable brutality on the part of both the German police officers and particularly the Lithuanian partisans, the Jewish people, but also among them Belarusians, were taken out of their dwellings and herded together. Everywhere in the town shots were to be heard and in different streets the corpses of shot Jews accumulated. The Belarusians were in greatest distress to free themselves from the encirclement.
The letter concluded:
I am submitting this report in duplicate so that one copy may be forwarded to the Reich Minister. Peace and order cannot be maintained in Belarus with methods of that sort. To bury seriously wounded people alive who worked their way out of their graves again is such a base and filthy act that the incidents as such should be reported to the Führer and Reichsmarschall.
Despite these misgivings, Kube participated in an atrocity on 2 March 1942 in the
Minsk ghetto The Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest in Belorussian SSR, and the largest in the German-occupied territory of the Soviet Union.Donald L. Niewyk, Francis R. Nicosia, ''The Colum ...
. During a search by German and Belarusian police, a group of children were seized and thrown into pits of deep sand to die.
At that moment, several SS officers, among them Wilhelm Kube, arrived, whereupon Kube, immaculate in his uniform, threw handfuls of sweets to the shrieking children. All the children perished in the sand.
Kube's contradictory attitude towards Jews is shown in his behaviour towards German Jews deported to Minsk. He was particularly incensed by the presence among the deportees of men decorated during World War I. These Jews who he regarded as belonging "to our cultural milieu" prompted Kube to file a complaint with
Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inclu ...
, in which he stated that "during the evacuation of Jews from the Reich, the guidelines on who was to be evacuated had not been properly observed" and he attached a list of names. During the 2 March 1942 massacre, Generalkommissar Kube withheld German Jews from a mass shooting which was conducted in Minsk under the supervision of Sturmbannführer
Eduard Strauch Eduard Strauch (17 August 1906 – 15 September 1955) was a German Nazi SS functionary, commander of Einsatzkommando 2, commander of two Nazi organizations, the Security Police (German: Sicherheitspolizei), or Sipo, and the Security Service (Ge ...
, at which 3,412 Jews were killed, an unprecedented act that provoked a formal complaint from the SS according to which "Generalkommissar Kube appears to have promised to the German Jews, who before my time were delivered to the ghetto five thousand strong, that life and health would remain theirs". Heydrich flew to Minsk to deliver Kube a reprimand, after which he felt compelled to comply with extermination actions. On 31 July he wrote to his friend, the Reichskommissar for the Ostland,
Hinrich Lohse Hinrich Lohse (2 September 1896 – 25 February 1964) was a Nazi German politician and a convicted war criminal, best known for his rule of the Reichskommissariat Ostland, during World War II. Reichskommissariat Ostland now comprises Lithuania, L ...
, in Riga:
Following lengthy talks with the SS-Brigadeführer Zenner and the extraordinarily diligent head of the SD, SS-Obersturmbannführer Strauch, in the last two weeks in White Russia we have liquidated roughly 55,000 Jews....In the city of Minsk about 10,000 Jews were liquidated on 28 and 29 July. Of these, 6,500 were Russian Jews, predominantly women, children, and the aged; the rest were Jews unfit for labor, mainly from Vienna, Brünn, Bremen, and Berlin. The latter had been sent to Minsk last year in accordance with the Führer's orders....In Minsk proper there are 2,600 Jews from Germany left. Quoted from Gerald Fleming, ''Hitler and the Final Solution'' (Berkeley: University of California Press 1987), pp. 116–119.


Assassination

At 1:20 am on 22 September 1943, Kube was
assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
in his Minsk apartment by a time device hidden in his mattress. The bomb was placed by Soviet partisan Yelena Mazanik (1914–1996), a Belarusian woman who was hired in Kube's household as a maid and was convinced to assassinate him later. According to alternate version, the explosives were set up by Lev Liberman from the Minsk ghetto, who was also employed in the household, but this later proved to be false. In total 12 groups received an order from Moscow to assassinate Kube. The bomb went off forty minutes early, purportedly due to higher air temperature than that during bomb testing. In retaliation, the SS killed more than 1,000 men who were citizens of Minsk. Owing to Kube's antagonistic attitude to some SS anti-Jewish actions, Himmler felt that the dead man had been well on the way to booking himself a place in a concentration camp anyway, and reportedly described the assassination as a "blessing".Reidlinger 1960 p.157 as quoted in Turonek 1989 p.118. Mazanik escaped the reprisals and continued to fight with the partisans. On 29 October 1943 she was awarded the title
Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...
, along with other members of the assassination group Nadezhda Troyan and Maria Osipova. After the war she went on to become deputy director of the Fundamental Library of the
Belarusian Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB) ( be, Нацыянальная акадэмія навук Беларусі, russian: Национальная академия наук Беларуси, НАН Беларуси, НАНБ) is ...
.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kube, Wilhelm 1887 births 1943 deaths Antisemitism in Germany Christian fascists Dachau concentration camp personnel Deaths by improvised explosive device Gauleiters German nationalists German National People's Party politicians German Protestants German Völkisch Freedom Party politicians Holocaust perpetrators in Belarus Members of the Academy for German Law Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany National Socialist Freedom Movement politicians Nazi leaders assassinated by the Allies Nazi Party officials Nazi Party politicians People from Głogów People from the Province of Silesia Recipients of the Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross People of Reichskommissariat Ostland SS personnel