Erich Koch
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Erich Koch (June 19, 1896 – November 12, 1986) was a Gauleiter of the Nazi Party (NDSAP) in East Prussia from 1928 until 1945, and Reichskomissar in Ukraine from 1941 until 1944.
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[edit] Early life and First World War
Koch was born in Elberfeld, today part of Wuppertal, as the son of foreman. A skilled trader, Koch joined the railway service as an aspirant for the middle level of the civil service. In World War I he was a soldier from 1915 till 1918 and later fought as a member of Freikorps Rossbach in Upper Silesia.
[edit] Rise in the Nazi Party
Koch joined the NSDAP in 1922. During the Occupation of the Ruhr, he was a member of Albert Leo Schlageter's group and was imprisoned several times by the French authorities. In 1927 he became Bezirksführer of the NSDAP in Essen and later the deputy Gauleiter of NSDAP-Gau Ruhr. Koch belonged to the left wing of the party and was a supporter of the faction led by Gregor Strasser.
In 1928 Koch became Gauleiter of the Province of East Prussia, and from September 1930 a member of the Reichstag. After the Machtergreifung, he became Oberpräsident of East Prussia. In 1938 Koch was appointed SA-Obergruppenführer.
[edit] Second World War
At the commencement of World War II Koch was appointed Reichsverteidigungskommissar for East Prussia. On October 26, 1939, after the end of the Invasion of Poland, he was transferred from East Prussia to the new Reichsgau Westpreußen, later renamed to Danzig-West Prussia. East Prussia was compensated with Regierungsbezirk Zichenau. These new areas lay approximately between the rivers Vistula and Narew. Soon after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Koch was appointed Zivilkommissar on August 1, 1941, and later as Chief of Civil Administration in Bezirk Bialystok. On September 1, Koch became Reichskomissar of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. His domain was extended from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea; it comprised ethnic German, Polish, Belarus and Ukrainian areas.
As the Red Army advanced into his area during 1945, Koch escaped through the Baltic Sea between April 23, 1945, and May 7, 1945, on the icebreaker Ostpreußen. From Pillau through Hel Peninsula, Rügen, and Copenhagen he arrived at Flensburg, where he hid himself. He was captured by British forces in Hamburg in May 1949.
[edit] Trial and imprisonment
The Soviet Union demanded Koch's extradition, but the British government decided to pass him on to the Polish government instead. Extradited to Poland, he was sentenced to death on March 9, 1959, for war crimes against the Poles, but was never put on trial for crimes committed in Ukraine. His death sentence was never carried out, and many people believed that he traded his life for information about art looted by the Nazis during the war, including parts of the famous Amber Room, although there is no evidence to support this claim. Koch appeared in a television report on Königsberg's history in 1986, interviewed by West German journalists in his Polish prison cell. He died of natural causes in prison at Barczewo, Poland.
[edit] Sources
- Медведев Д.Н. Сильные духом /Вступ. ст. А. В. Цессарского; Ил. И. Л. Ушакова. — М.: Правда, 1985. — 512 с, ил.
- Hans-Erich Volkmann (Hrsg.), Das Russlandbild im Dritten Reich (Образ России в Третьем Рейхе), Köln 1994.
