'' Wilhelm Koppe salutes SS and German police troops The
Second World War began with the
German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and, on 26 October, Koppe was named the
Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) and the commander of the SS-
Oberabschnitt "Warthe" in
Reichsgau Wartheland, an area of Poland that was annexed to Germany. Also called the Warthegau, it was headed by
Gauleiter Arthur Greiser. Nominally subordinate to Greiser, Koppe possessed a high degree of independence as the commander of all SS and police forces in the Warthegau. As the HSSPF, he reported to
Heinrich Himmler and had a good working relationship with the
Reichsführer-SS. Koppe was also Himmler's
plenipotentiary in the Warthegau in his capacity as
Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood. As such, Koppe was an active participant in the implementation of Nazi racial policies. He stated on 12 November 1939 that the formerly Polish lands were to be turned into territory for settlement by ethnic Germans (
Volksdeutsche). He declared Jews and Polish intellectuals to be criminal elements that would have to be removed from the territory to ensure security and to provide jobs for the new settlers. To that end, they would have to be transported out of the Warthegau. He declared that he would make Posen (today,
Poznań) "free from Jews" (
Judenfrei). He immediately put into place a plan for the deportation of
Poles and
Polish Jews from the Warthegau to
ghettos in the
General Government to make room for ethnic German settlers. By the spring of 1940, the total number of Jews and Poles deported had reached over 128,000. Koppe was involved in the
Aktion T4 euthanasia program as the overall commander of
Special Detachment (Sonderkommando) Lange, an SS squad which used
gas vans to murder 1,558 mentally disabled asylum patients at the
Soldau concentration camp in nearby
Gau East Prussia during May and June 1940. On 30 January 1942, Koppe was promoted to SS-
Obergruppenführer and, in October 1943, Himmler selected him to replace SS-
Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger as HSSPF "Ost" and
state secretary for security issues (
Staatssekretär für das Sicherheitswesen) in the
General Government, with headquarters in
Kraków. In these posts, he was involved in the operations of the
Chelmno extermination camp and the
Warsaw concentration camp, as well as conducting ruthless operations against the
Polish resistance. In response to Polish underground resistance activities, Koppe proposed shooting 50 Poles in retaliation each day and without trial. He also staged numerous public executions, such as ordering the hanging of 15 Poles in the village of
Tuchorza on 9 June 1942, in retaliation for the killing of a German police officer. Later in the year, with the
Red Army approaching Poland, Koppe ordered all prisoners to be executed to prevent their being freed by the Soviets. After the Russians swept into Kraków in January 1945, Koppe was transferred to a staff position with
Army Group Vistula, which was under Himmler's direct command. On 4 April, Koppe took up the post of HSSPF "Süd" in
Munich where he remained until Germany's surrender on 8 May. During the war, Koppe was awarded the
Clasp to the Iron Cross, second class and the
War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with swords. == Post-war life and prosecution ==