32 Facts About Oswald Pohl

Oswald Pohl stood trial in 1947, was convicted of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to death.

Oswald Pohl was born in Duisburg-Ruhrort on 30 June 1892 to blacksmith, Hermann Otto Emil Pohl, and his wife Auguste Pohl ; he was the fifth of eight children.

Oswald Pohl's parents were financially secure, and he attended a Realgymnasium where he studied classical Greek and Latin texts.

From what Oswald Pohl claimed, he always wanted to study science but his father did not have the means to send him straight to university.

Oswald Pohl attended a navy school, and became paymaster on 1 April 1918.

Oswald Pohl dropped out of university, and became paymaster for the Freikorps "Brigade Lowenfeld", working in Berlin, Upper Silesia and the Ruhr basin.

In 1925, Oswald Pohl became a member of the Sturmabteilung, then joined the re-founded Nazi Party on 22 February 1926.

Oswald Pohl met Heinrich Himmler in 1933, coming to his attention at the behest of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris who described Pohl as an "energetic" officer and a "dedicated Nazi".

Oswald Pohl quickly made himself available to the younger Himmler after their first meeting at a Kiel Biergarten.

Oswald Pohl promised Himmler that he would serve him always and rose quickly due to his "ruthlessness" and his unwavering "loyalty".

Oswald Pohl entered the SS with an effective date of 1 February 1934 with the rank of SS-Standartenfuhrer.

Oswald Pohl set to work, putting his 20-plus years of administrative experience into action; he managed to successfully standardize and professionalize the SS accounting operations, so much so that it was able to withstand a public audit, which garnered more respect from national agencies for Himmler's SS.

Oswald Pohl was quickly promoted as a result, and by 9 September 1934 was advanced to SS-Oberfuhrer.

Oswald Pohl's career continued to thrive when Himmler made him administrative chief over the SD Main Office and the Race and Settlement Office on 1 June 1935.

Oswald Pohl founded the "Gesellschaft zur Forderung und Pflege deutscher Kulturdenkmaler", which was primarily dedicated to restoring Wewelsburg, an old castle that was supposed to be turned into a cultural and scientific headquarters of the SS at Himmler's request.

Oswald Pohl was promoted to SS-Gruppenfuhrer on 30 January 1937, and Himmler gave him responsibility for all SS building construction in April.

In June 1939 Oswald Pohl became chief of both the Verwaltung und Wirtschaft Hauptamt and the Hauptamt Haushalt und Bauten.

Oswald Pohl was given an administrative government post of Ministerialdirektor in the ministry.

The day before the Wannsee Conference, 19 January 1942, Himmler consolidated all of the offices for which Oswald Pohl was responsible into one, creating the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office.

On 1 February 1942, Oswald Pohl was put in charge of all concentration camps, their construction, buildings, inmates and the economic benefits derived from their forced labor.

On 20 April 1942, Oswald Pohl received his final promotion to SS-Obergruppenfuhrer and General of the Waffen-SS.

For example, evidence indicates that Oswald Pohl refused to allow any increases in rations for starving prisoners toiling in the Granite Works of Gross-Rosen concentration camp, when there were administrative complaints in favor of providing more food to the inmates.

Oswald Pohl oversaw the organization of the concentration camps, deciding on the distribution of detainees to the various camps and the "rental" of detainees for slave labour until 1944.

Human material was to be efficiently and fully exploited in the process and as former Buchenwald political prisoner and historian Eugen Kogon points out, Oswald Pohl insisted on extracting the maximum financial worth from each and every camp laborer.

Kogon asserts that Oswald Pohl even created evaluative tables that calculated their value as farmed-out wage earners, their profit intake from valuables remaining after their deaths, and any costs recovered from selling their bones and ashes; in total, the average concentration camp inmate had a life expectancy of nine months or less and was valued at 1,630 marks.

Along these lines, Oswald Pohl supervised the macabre task of collecting Jewish people's gold fillings, hair, clothing, jewelry and other possessions.

Oswald Pohl nonetheless showed unwavering commitment to the cause and tenets of Nazism when performing his duties and stressed the importance in fulfilling the tasks outlined by Himmler.

Grandiose building plans for new SS facilities in the East were laid aside in favor of arms production, which Oswald Pohl thought prudent and necessary.

Oswald Pohl worked in tandem with Speer for arms production, despite the latter's lack of faith in the SS industrial complex.

Concentration camp inmates were not supposed to be leased-out on orders from Himmler, a directive Oswald Pohl ignored for he considered it impractical given the inability of the SS to establish production processes in short order.

Oswald Pohl was the chief defendant for the proceedings at the fourth Nuremberg trial; he and his co-conspirators were on trial for crimes committed in the concentration camps administered by the SS-WVHA while he was in charge.

Oswald Pohl was hanged shortly after midnight on 7 June 1951 at Landsberg Prison in Landsberg am Lech.