Arthur Seyss-Inquart

Arthur Seyss-lnquart (July 22, 1892 - October 16, 1946) was a prominent Nazi official in Austria and for wartime Germany in Poland and the Netherlands.

He was born in Iglau, Moravia, a part of Austria-Hungary. He moved with his parents to Vienna in 1907 and later went to study law at the University of Vienna. He enlisted with the Austrian Army in August 1914 and was given a commission with the Tyrolean Kaiserjager and served in Russia, Romania and also Italy. He was decorated for bravery on a number of occassions and while recovering from wounds in 1917 he completed his final examinations for his degree.

He went into law after the war and in 1921 set up his own practice. A successful lawyer he was invited to join the cabinet of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1933, following the murder of Dollfuss he became a State Councillor from 1937 under Kurt von Schuschnigg. He joined the Austrian National Socialist party in 1931 and although he distanced himself from them when the party was made illegal in July 1934 he quickly renewed his membership in 1936, he was also close to the Vaterländische Front. At a meeting between Schuschnigg and Hitler at the Obersalzberg in February 1938 several demands were made by Hitler which Schuschnigg rejected. A plebiscite was planned for March but on March 11 under the threat of invasion and with Austrian troops present Schuschnigg resigned and was succeeded by Seyss-lnquart at the head of a new National Socialist cabinet.

He liased between the Austrians and the Reich for the Anschluss and he joined the German Nazi party in May 1938. He drafted the law reducing Austria to a province of Germany and remained head (Reichsstatthalter) of the newly named Ostmark, with Ernst Kaltenbrunner his chief minister and Burckel as Reich Commissioner for the Reunion of Austria (concerned with the "Jewish Question"). Seyss-lnquart also recieved an honourary SS rank of Gruppenführer and in May 1939 he was made a Reich Minister without Portfolio.

Following the invasion of Poland Seyss-lnquart was appointed administrative chief for Southern Poland but did not take up that post before the General Government was created, of which he was made a deputy to the Governor General Hans Frank. It is sclaimed that he was involved in the movement of Polish Jews into ghettoes, the seizure of strategic supplies and in the "extraodinary pacification" of the resistance movement.

Following the capitulation of the Low Lands he was appointed Reich Commissar for the Occupied Netherlands in May 1940, charged with directing the civil administration, creating close economic collaboration with Germany and defending the interests of the Reich. He supported the Dutch NSB and allowed them to create a paramilitary Landwacht which acted as an auxiliary police force. Other political parties were banned in late 1941 and many former government officals were imrisoned at St. Michelsgestel. The adminstration of the country was largely controlled by Seyss-lnquart himself. He oversaw the politicizaton of cultural groups "right down to the chessplayers' club" through the Kulturkammer and set up a number of other politicized associations. The Reich demanded occupation costs in the region of 50 million marks a month.

He introduced measures to combat 'terror' and when there was a widespread strike in Amsterdam, Arnhem and Hilversum in May 1943 special summary court-martial procedures were brought in and a collective fine of 18 million guilders was imposed. Up until the liberation Seyss-lnquart agreed to the execution of around 800 people, although some reports put this total at over 3,500 including the execution of people under the so-called Hostage Law, the death of political prisoners who were close to being liberated, the Putten incident, and the reprisal execution of 230 Dutchmen for the attack on SS and Police Leader H. Rauter. From July 1944 the majority of Seyss-lnquart's powers were transferred to the military commander in the Netherlands and the Gestapo.

There were three major concentration camps in the Netherlands - Hertogenbosch, Amersfoort and a "Jewish assembly camp" at Westerborg; there were a number of other camps variously controlled by the military, the police, the SS or Seyss-lnquart's administration. These included a "voluntary labor recruitment" camp at Ommen, in total around 530,000 Dutch civilians worked for the Reich, of which 250,000 were sent to factories in Germany. There was an attempt by Seyss-lnquart to send all workers aged 21-23 to Germany, although he refused demands in 1944 for a further 250,000 Dutch workers and in that year only 12,000 people were sent.

Seyss-lnquart was an open anti-Semite, on his arrival in the Netherlands he immediately took measures to remove Jews from the government, the media and leading positions in the economy. Anti-Jewish measures were intensified from 1941, the 140,000 or so Jews were registered, ghettoes were created in Amsterdam and camps were set up at Westerborg and Vught, and in February 1941 1,000 Jews were sent to Buchenwald and Maulhausen. Later the Dutch Jews were sent to Auschwitz. As Allied forces approached in September 1944 the remaining Jews at Westerborg were removed to Theresienstadt. Of the 140,000 registered only 13,500 survived the war.

As the Allies invaded the Netherlands the Nazi regime enacted a 'scorched earth' policy and destroyed locks and harbours to flood much of the country. The civilian population, with much agricultural land useless and with limited transport that could have moved food stocks for civilian use (partly due to civil disobedience), suffered in almost famine conditions from September 1944 until early 1945 with around 30,000 Dutch people starving to death. Seyss-lnquart remained Reich Commissar until May 8, 1945 when after a meeting with Doenitz he was captured in Hamburg.

At the Nuremberg Trials Seyss-lnquart was accused of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war-crimes; and crimes against humanity. Defended by Gustav Steinbauer he was found guilty of all charges except the conspiracy. Sentenced to death by hanging, he was executed on October 16, 1946 together with the nine other Nuremberg defendants who had been sentenced to death.