33 Facts About Richard Hildebrandt

Richard Hermann Hildebrandt was a German Nazi politician and SS-Obergruppenfuhrer.

Richard Hildebrandt was the last head of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office in SS headquarters, charged with enforcing Germanization policies.

Richard Hildebrandt was extradited to Poland to stand trial for separate charges, sentenced to death, and executed.

Richard Hildebrandt was the younger brother of Ernst-Albrecht Richard Hildebrandt who was an SS-Oberfuhrer and SS and Police Leader in northern Italy.

Richard Hildebrandt was born in Worms, the fourth of six sons of a ceramic factory director who had served as the city's Burgermeister.

Richard Hildebrandt attended the local Volksschule and then gymnasiums in Frankfurt and in Dorsten from which he graduated in May 1915.

Richard Hildebrandt passed his Abitur and immediately volunteered for military service as a Kriegsfreiwilliger in the Imperial German Army during the First World War.

Richard Hildebrandt was assigned to the 22nd Field Artillery Regiment, then from November 1915 saw action as an artilleryman with the 18th Foot Artillery Regiment on both the eastern front and the western front.

Richard Hildebrandt was discharged from the service at the end of the war in November 1918, having been awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class.

Richard Hildebrandt joined the Nazi Party in August 1922 in Windsheim.

Richard Hildebrandt marched his SA unit through Nuremberg in support of the failed Beer Hall Putsch then taking place in Munich in November 1923.

Richard Hildebrandt rejoined the legalized Nazi Party on 1 June 1928, becoming a member of the Ortsgruppe in New York.

Richard Hildebrandt continued to switch between jobs, as a farm laborer, gardener, and as a clerk in the construction business and for a book export company.

Richard Hildebrandt rejoined the SA in January 1931 but by February he transferred to the Schutzstaffel with SS number 7,088 and moved to Munich, the center of Party operations.

Richard Hildebrandt was given an office in the Brown House that he shared with the head of the Party's intelligence agency, Reinhard Heydrich.

Richard Hildebrandt remained in this post until 1 October 1932 when he succeeded Dietrich as the commanding officer of SS-Gruppe Sud in Munich, where he served until 30 January 1933.

Richard Hildebrandt was then transferred to SS-Gruppe West in Dusseldorf, where he deputized for the commanding officer, SS-Gruppenfuhrer Fritz Weitzel.

On 9 November 1933, Richard Hildebrandt became the first commander of SS-Abschnitt XXI, headquartered in Gorlitz, where he oversaw three SS-Standarten.

Richard Hildebrandt's next assignment was a promotion to commander of SS-Oberabschnitt "Rhein," in Weisbaden, from January 1937.

Additionally, when the post of SS and Police Leader "Rhein" was created on 1 April 1939, Richard Hildebrandt became the first holder of this post, holding it simultaneously with the SS-Oberabschnitt command.

Richard Hildebrandt retained these posts until September 1939, after the outbreak of the war.

Apart from his various high-level SS commands, Richard Hildebrandt was active in politics.

Richard Hildebrandt was elected as a deputy from electoral constituency 19, Hessen-Nassau, on 29 March 1936 and retained this seat until the fall of the Nazi regime.

On 21 September 1939, Richard Hildebrandt was named the first HSSPF "Weichsel," which was made up of Danzig and those areas annexed from Poland that were formed into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.

Almost immediately upon taking command, Richard Hildebrandt began enforcing the Nazi racial policies including persecution of Jews and ethnic Poles.

In May and June 1940, Richard Hildebrandt served briefly in the Waffen-SS as a battery commander in an SS artillery regiment.

Richard Hildebrandt was the deputy for the "Weichsel" area to Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler in his capacity as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood.

Richard Hildebrandt was responsible for conducting official race tests on the population of the occupied territories for racial selection.

Richard Hildebrandt technically retained these posts until 5 September 1944, months after the Red Army overran the area.

Richard Hildebrandt then returned full time to his RuSHA post until 23 February 1945, when he was named the HSSPF "Sudost" and commander of SS-Oberabschnitt "Sudost" in Silesia, with headquarters in Breslau.

Richard Hildebrandt was brought to trial in the eighth subsequent war crimes trial held by the US Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, the so-called RuSHA trial, held between 20 October 1947 and 10 March 1948.

Richard Hildebrandt was then extradited to Poland for further criminal court proceedings.

Richard Hildebrandt stood trial from 8 October to 4 November 1949 for crimes committed during his tenure as HSSPF in Weichsal, together with SS-Brigadefuhrer Max Henze who had been the Chief of Police in Bydgoszcz and Danzig.