Karl Zech (6 February 1892 – 1 April 1944) was a

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 ...

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 ...

'' and Police President of

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and ...

who served as the first SS and Police Leader of Krakau (today,

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 159 ...

) during the

Second World War 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 ...

. Convicted of corruption and dismissed from the SS, he committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

in 1944.

Early life

Zech was born in Swinemünde (today,

Świnoujście Świnoujście (; german: Swinemünde ; nds, Swienemünn; all three meaning " Świna ivermouth"; csb, Swina) is a city and seaport on the Baltic Sea and Szczecin Lagoon, located in the extreme north-west of Poland. Situated mainly on the island ...

) and after graduating from the ''

realgymnasium ''Gymnasium'' (; German plural: ''Gymnasien''), in the German education system, is the most advanced and highest of the three types of German secondary schools, the others being '' Hauptschule'' (lowest) and '' Realschule'' (middle). ''Gymn ...

'' there, joined Infantry Regiment 62 (3rd Upper Silesian) of the

Imperial German Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the ...

in 1910. Promoted to ''

Leutnant () is the lowest Junior officer rank in the armed forces the German-speaking of Germany (Bundeswehr), Austrian Armed Forces, and military of Switzerland. History The German noun (with the meaning "" (in English "deputy") from Middle High Germa ...

'' in 1911, he was a

company commander A company commander is the commanding officer of a company, a military unit which typically consists of 100 to 250 soldiers, often organized into three or four smaller units called platoons. The exact organization of a company varies by country, ...

in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

with that regiment, and later became a staff officer and

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. ...

adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...

. During the war, he earned the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia e ...

, 1st and 2nd class and the

Wound Badge The Wound Badge (german: Verwundetenabzeichen) was a German military decoration first promulgated by Wilhelm II, German Emperor on 3 March 1918, which was first awarded to soldiers of the German Army who were wounded during World War I. Between t ...

in black. After the end of the war in 1918, he was a member from December 1918 to June 1919 of the ''Landesschützenkorps'', a ''

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, reg ...

'' unit that was involved in the suppression of the

Spartacist uprising The Spartacist uprising (German: ), also known as the January uprising (), was a general strike and the accompanying armed struggles that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the November Revolutio ...

. From June to October 1919 he worked on the staff of ''

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...

'' Brigade 4. He left the service with the rank of ''

Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officer's rank in the German, Austrian, and Swiss armies. While in contemporary German means 'main', it also has and originally had the meaning of 'head', i.e. ' literally ...

'' on 1 October 1919, and returned to civilian life working as a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting ...

and mining official.

Peacetime SS, police and political career

From 1921 to 1929 Zech was a member of the paramilitary veterans association, '' Der Stahlhelm''. On 1 January 1931, 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 ...

(membership number 408,563) and on 19 January 1931 the SS (member number 4,555). Commissioned an SS-'' Sturmführer'' on 31 March 1931, Zech led units of the 25th SS-'' Standarte'', headquartered in

, rapidly rising through the ranks to command a company, a

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

and, finally the entire ''Standarte'' from 24 August 1931 to 13 July 1932. His next advancement came from 6 October 1932 to 1 October 1937 when he commanded the SS-'' Abschnitt'' (District) V, also headquartered in Essen, overseeing eight ''Standarten''. After the

Nazi seizure of power Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

, Zech was also named Police President in Essen, serving from 14 July 1933 to 1 October 1937 when he was succeeded by Fritz Schlessmann. At that point, he moved to SS headquarters in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

where he became the Chief of Amt I, the SS Leadership Office (''Führungsamt'') within the

SS Main Office The SS Main Office (german: SS-Hauptamt; SS-HA) was the central command office of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) in Nazi Germany until 1940. Formation The office traces its origins to 1931 when the SS created the SS-Amt to serve as an SS Headquarters ...

. Soon after, he attained his highest rank of SS-''Gruppenführer'' on 30 January 1938. He retained the Berlin posting until October 1940 when the SS Main Office was reorganized, simultaneously serving as commander of the SD in ''Oberabschnitt'' (Main District) "Ost," (later renamed "Spree") also based in Berlin. Zech was also active in electoral politics for the Nazi Party. From April 1932 to its abolition in 1933, Zech sat as a Nazi Party member of the

Landtag of Prussia 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 Representa ...

and, on 12 November 1933, he was elected to the '' Reichstag'' from electoral constituency 23 (

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

-West). He would continue to be reelected to this body through the last ''Reichstag'' election of December 1938.

Second World War

After the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

, Zech was named Police President of Krakau on 27 September 1939 and, on 24 November, he was made the first SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of the Krakau District, located in the General Government. In this post, he commanded all SS personnel and police in his jurisdiction, including the ''

Ordnungspolizei The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (), abbreviated ''Orpo'', meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdictio ...

'' (Orpo; regular uniformed police), the SD (

intelligence service An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informati ...

) and the

SiPo The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by th ...

(security police), which included the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...

(

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...

). Zech's tenure as SSPF in Krakau coincided with the first phase 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 Europe; ...

in which the occupying Germans undertook actions to isolate, exploit and persecute the

Jews 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""T ...

of the city. In May 1940, the SS and police forces began to relocate Jews from the city to the outlying countryside and began to concentrate the remaining inhabitants in what would become the

Kraków Ghetto The Kraków Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Nazi ghettos created by Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, an ...

.The Krakow Ghetto During the Holocaust
in th
Holocaust Encyclopedia
Retrieved, 1 July 2022 Relocations were at first voluntary, but when the authorities deemed that insufficient numbers had left, mandatory expulsions began to be enforced after 15 August. Shortly after, on 1 October 1940, Zech was replaced as SSPF by SS-''

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 ...

'' Hans Schwedler and moved back to Germany. He served on the staff of '' Reichsfuhrer-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 ...

until November 1942 when he was given a staff position with ''Oberabschnitt'' "Elbe," headquartered in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

. He also was given the posts of Commercial Director and Deputy Operations Manager at the Altenburg plant of the

HASAG HASAG (also known as Hugo Schneider AG, or by its original name in german: Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft Metallwarenfabrik) was a German metal goods manufacturer founded in 1863. Based in Leipzig, it grew from a small business making lamps ...

armaments company, which was one of the largest arms producers and users of

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of e ...

in Germany. Following allegations of misappropriation of food and ration cards, on 28 February 1944 he was expelled from the Nazi Party, on 11 March from the ''Reichstag'' and on 14 March from the SS. On 1 April 1944, a Special Court (''Sondergericht'') in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg an ...

sentenced him to four years in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

. Zech committed suicide after the verdict was announced.

References

Sources

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zech, Karl 1892 births 1944 deaths 1944 suicides 20th-century Freikorps personnel German police chiefs German police officers convicted of crimes People convicted of embezzlement Police officers convicted of corruption Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Members of the Landtag of Prussia Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany Nazis convicted of crimes Nazis who committed suicide in Nazi Germany Nazis who died by suicide in prison custody People from Świnoujście Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 2nd class Recipients of the War Merit Cross SS and Police Leaders SS-Gruppenführer Stahlhelm members German Army personnel of World War I German military personnel who committed suicide Prisoners who died in German detention