Judenberater''), during
Nazism era. He was a member of the
Nazi Party and of the ''
SS'', the paramilitary organization of the Nazi party.
Romania
In April 1941, Richter was sent to
Bucharest,
Romania, as the adviser on Jewish affairs. He collaborated closely with the German Ambassador to
Romania,
Manfred Freiherr von Killinger
Manfred Freiherr von Killinger (July 14, 1886 – September 2, 1944) was a German naval officer, ''Freikorps'' leader, military writer and Nazi politician. A veteran of World War I and member of the ''Marinebrigade Ehrhardt'' during the Germa ...
. After visiting
Berlin in September 1941, Richter returned to Romania, where he was until August 1944. It was Richter who insisted on the reintroduction of repressive measures. On 3 September 1941, it was by his order that wearing the yellow badge was re-endorsed. Richter's primary task was to take a census of all the Jews in Romania. He planned the ghettoization and ultimate extermination of 300,000 Romanian Jews, after their deportation to the
Belzec extermination camp in occupied
Poland. His other task was to prevent even the emigration of Jewish children from Romania to
British mandate Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
.
On 22 July 1942, Richter received permission from both Romania's
Conducator (head of state)
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and ''Conducător'' during most of World War II.
A Romanian Army career officer who made ...
and
Foreign Minister
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
Mihai Antonescu, to deport the Romanian Jews to Belzec. However, while hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed in Romania, in general, Richter's plan to deport them to Belzec fell through. Richter did manage to prevent the emigration of deportees, particularly orphans from
Transnistria, to Palestine, in accordance with the detailed instructions he received directly from Eichmann and the German Foreign Ministry.
On 23 August 1944, the Romanian royalist forces under King
Michael I staged a
coup, deposed the government of military dictator
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and ''Conducător'' during most of World War II.
A Romanian Army career officer who made ...
, quit the
Axis, and joined the
Allies. Richter found himself besieged in the German embassy in Bucharest by royalist forces. He was captured by the Romanians and delivered to the Soviet Red Army forces.
Prisoner of war
On 21 January 1945, while in
Soviet custody toward the end of
World War II, Richter shared a prison cell with
Raoul Wallenberg at
Lubyanka prison. On 1 March 1945, Richter was moved from his cell and he never saw Wallenberg again. Richter testified in Sweden in 1955 that Wallenberg was interrogated at least once by the Soviets for about an hour and a half. According to Richter, this interrogation took place in early February 1945.
After several years in prisoner-of-war camps in the
Soviet Union, Richter was tried and convicted of war crimes in 1951. He was transferred to Western Germany in 1955. Preparations for Richter's trial began in Germany in 1961, but the trial did not begin until December 1981. The basis for Richter's conviction was the plan, signed by him, to deport Romanian Jewry to Belzec. In early 1982, Richter was sentenced to four years of imprisonment but was released on the basis that he had already spent time in prison whilst in the
Soviet Union.
See also
*
Wiesel Commission
The Wiesel Commission was the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania which was established by former President Ion Iliescu in October 2003 to research and create a report on the actual history of the Holocaust in Romania and make spe ...
*
History of the Jews in Romania
*
Romania during World War II
*
Battle of Romania (1944)
References
External links
death about 1982
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richter, Gustav
1913 births
1982 deaths
Holocaust perpetrators in Romania
Officials of Nazi Germany
SS-Sturmbannführer
Romania in World War II
Reich Security Main Office personnel