Theodor Adrian von Renteln Theodor Adrian von Renteln (15 September 1897 – 1946 (disputed)) was a German

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

official and politician. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was General Commissioner of '' Generalbezirk Litauen'' and was involved in perpetrating

the Holocaust in Lithuania The Holocaust resulted in the near total eradication of Lithuanian Jews, Lithuanian (Litvaks) and History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in ''Generalbezirk Litauen'' of the ''Reichskommissariat Ostland'' in the Occupation of Lithuania by Na ...

. The circumstances surrounding his fate are disputed. Of Baltic German origin, Renteln studied law and economics in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

, but became a journalist. In 1928, he joined the

and, the following year, he became the founder and head of the

National Socialist Schoolchildren's League The National Socialist Schoolchildren's League (Nationalsozialistischer Schülerbund), known under the acronyms NSS and more rarely NSSB, was a Nazi Party organisation for primary school pupils providing a student council and child protection syst ...

(NSS). In 1931, he was appointed the head of the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

. However, he gave up the leadership of both these organizations upon his election to the '' Reichstag'' on the Nazi Party

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can c ...

at the July 1932 election. Losing his seat at the November 1932 election, Renteln was returned to the ''Reichstag'' in November 1933 from constituency 5,

Frankfurt an der Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (, ; Marchian dialects, Central Marchian: ''Frankfort an de Oder,'' ) is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after Potsdam, Cottbus and Brandenburg an der Havel. With a ...

. At the 1936 election, he switched to constituency 4,

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, and he retained this seat until the fall of the Nazi regime. In 1932–1933 Renteln led the Combat League of the Commercial Middle Class ('' NS-Kampfbund für den Gewerblichen Mittelstand''), an organisation allegedly "Deflecting Jewish Atrocity and Boycott-Mongering", participating in the boycott of Jewish businesses and other forms of persecution. In June 1933, he was appointed President of the National Socialist Council of Industry and Trade (''Nationalsozialistische Handwerks-, Handels-, und Gewerbeorganisation'' or NS-HAGO), holding this position until 1935, when this organisation was merged with the

German Labor Front The German Labour Front (, ; DAF) was the national labour organization of the Nazi Party, which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during the process of ''Gleichschaltung'' or Nazification. History As early as March 1933, ...

(DAF). Renteln became a staff leader of the German Labor Front. In 1940, he was appointed the Reich Leader of the Trade and Artisanship Section of the NSDAP (''Hauptamtsleiter Handel und Handwerk in der Reichsleitung der NSDAP''). He was also the head of the Supreme Court of the Reich Labor Front. In July 1941, Renteln was appointed the ''Generalkommissar'' of '' Generalbezirk Litauen'' (roughly modern

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

), where he took harsh measures against the Jewish population. On 26 August 1941, he ordered that all telephones and lines were to be stripped, postal service be cut off, and bridges to the Kaunas (Kovno) Ghetto be surrounded with barbed wire fences to prevent people from jumping off. This order also forbade the Jews of the Kovno ghetto to use doors, window frames, or houses for fuel. In 1943, he was implicated in the clearing of the Vilna Ghetto, deporting 20,000 Jews to

concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'', ...

or death camps, as well as in plundering. According to some accounts, after

, Renteln was captured by the Russians, tried, and hanged for war crimes in 1946. According to other sources, he lived under a false identity in South America and died there. His death has never been fully confirmed.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Renteln, Theodor Adrian von 1897 births 1946 deaths Executed German people German untitled nobility Holocaust perpetrators in Lithuania Kovno Ghetto Members of the Reichstag 1932 Members of the Reichstag 1933–1936 Members of the Reichstag 1936–1938 Members of the Reichstag 1938–1945 Nazi Party politicians Nazis executed by the Soviet Union by hanging Nazis executed for war crimes Nobility in the Nazi Party People from Dzau District People of Baltic German descent Vilna Ghetto