Gerhard Klopfer

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Gerhard Klopfer (February 18, 1905 – January 29, 1987) was an official of the Nazi Party and assistant to Martin Bormann in the Office of the (Nazi) Party Chancellery.

Klopfer was born in Schreibersdorf, Silesia (now in Poland), in 1905. He studied law and economics and in 1931 became a judge in Düsseldorf, Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, he joined the Nazi Party and the SA (Sturmabteilung) along with the Gestapo (German secret police) the following year. In 1935, he became a member of Rudolf Hess's staff and the SS (Schutzstaffel) with the honorary SS rank of Oberführer (Brigadier General). In 1938, he became responsible for the seizing of Jewish businesses for questions about mixed marriages between Germans and Jews and general questions about occupation of foreign states.

As State Secretary of the Parteikanzlei (Party Chancellery), Klopfer represented Bormann, who was head of the Parteikanzlei, at the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942 in which the details of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" were formalized, policies that were to culminate in the Holocaust.

As the Red Army closed in on Berlin in 1945, Klopfer fled the city. He was captured and imprisoned and was charged with war crimes but was released for lack of evidence. He became a tax advisor in the city of Ulm (Baden-Württemberg). He was the last surviving attendee of the Wannsee Conference, dying in 1987.

Klopfer was portrayed by Ian McNeice in the BBC/HBO made-for-cable movie Conspiracy in 2001; McNeice gave a superbly revolting portrayal as a crass, degenerate Nazi, still imbued with the arrogance of the early SA-bullies, indulging in crude jokes while taking advantage of the buffet and refreshments set up by Adolf Eichmann – in a last show of bad humour he leaves the conference saluting the remaining officials with 'shalom' while stuffing one last morsel past his lips.

[edit] External links

• New York Times (Obituary)

[edit] References

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