rally,
Berlin Sportpalast, 13 February 1939:
Gertrud Scholtz-Klink,
Heinrich Himmler,
Rudolf Hess,
Baldur von Schirach,
Artur Axmann; Alvensleben standing behind Himmler Alvensleben joined the
Nazi Party and
Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1929. He soon became head of the local branch in
Eisleben and chief district official in
Mansfeld Land. From July 1931, he chaired the
motorized corps of the SA in the
Gau of
Halle-Merseburg. Alvensleben left the SA in 1932; at that time he was heavily indebted and had a considerable criminal record on charges which included libel and road traffic offence. After the
Machtergreifung, Alvensleben and
Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan on 12 February 1933, organized a violent attack of SA and SS paramilitaries on
Communist officials in Eisleben, whereby three men were killed and many others injured, an event later known as Eisleben Bloody Sunday. In March 1933, Alvensleben became a member of the Saxon provincial parliament and of the
Landtag of Prussia. At the
November 1933 parliamentary election, he was elected as a deputy to the
Reichstag from electoral constituency 11 (
Merseburg). He remained a Reichstag member until the fall of the Nazi regime in May 1945, switching to constituency 31 (
Württemberg) at the April 1938 election. On 5 April 1934, he joined the
Schutzstaffel (SS) and became commander of the 46th Regiment in
Dresden in the rank of
Obersturmbannführer. On 22 August 1934, Alvensleben received a reprimand by
Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler for having insulted a woman in Leipzig in April. From 1 October 1935, he assumed the leadership of the 26th SS-Regiment in his hometown Halle. His advancement continued: he became commander of SS-District X in
Stuttgart on 20 September 1936 and commander of SS-District XXXIII in
Schwerin on 1 July 1937. Alvensleben's career continued after the 1939
Invasion of Poland as commander of the
Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz ('German Self-Defense') organization in what was to become the newly established
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. He told his men on 16 October 1939: The
Selbstschutz paramilitary forces, formed by members of the
German minority in Poland and led by SS officials, performed mass executions during the
Intelligenzaktion Pommern in the "
Fordon Valley of Death", the
Massacres in Piaśnica, and other atrocities. In a letter to Himmler, Alvensleben complained about scrupulous
Wehrmacht officers too weak to take drastic measures. In 1939 he confiscated the Jewish-owned manors of
Rucewo and
Rucewko in
Reichsgau Wartheland. in
Bydgoszcz, 1939 In December 1939, Alvensleben was appointed member-of-staff at the command of
Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger, the
SS and Police Leader in
Kraków,
General Government. On 23 May 1940, he was promoted to the rank of
Hauptsturmführer in the Waffen-SS. From February 1941 he was in service of the
Reich Security Main Office, assumed the SS and Police Leader command in
Chernigov on 22 October 1941 and of
Simferopol in
Crimea on 19 November. In 1942, Alvensleben was SS inspector of the
Durchgangsstrasse IV, a large forced labor project to build a road from Lemberg to Stalino (now
Donetsk). From 6 October 1943, he held this position in
Nikolaev in the rank of Major General, officially assigned to
Army Group A; his tenure was accompanied by irregularities and further mass executions. On 19 February 1944, he succeeded
Udo von Woyrsch as Higher SS and Police Leader in
Dresden. He took the occasion to take action against his creditors, such as
Carl Wentzel who was denounced after the
20 July plot, arrested and executed, whereafter Alvensleben was able to release his heavily indebted
manor in Schochwitz. In the late days of the war, he left Dresden and fled to the West. == Post-war escape ==