Richard Wendler

Richard Wendler (22 January 1898 – 24 August 1972) was a high-ranking Nazi official during World War II. During the occupation of Poland, he was the Governor of new District Lublin in the General Government, in charge of Lublin concentration camp and the creation of the Częstochowa Ghetto, among others. Before his deployment to Poland, he was the mayor of the city Hof between 1933 and 1941 and became an SS-Gruppenführer in 1942 during the murderous Operation Reinhard. Wendler's sister was married to a brother of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler

Biography Wendler was born the son of a border official, in southeast Bavaria, near the border with Austria. He attended elementary school in Bad Reichenhall and the humanist Ludwigsgymnasium in Munich. Wendler was a soldier during the First World War, reaching the rank of Unteroffizier. From the spring of 1919, he was a member of the Freikorps and participated in the fight against the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 and the suppression of the Ruhr Uprising in 1920. He studied jurisprudence and political science from 1918 to 1922 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he received his doctorate of jurisprudence. From 1924, he worked as general counsel in Stuttgart, and completed his studies with his second Staatsexamen in 1925. Until 1927, he was the Counsel for Industry (Justitiar in der Industrie) and was a practicing lawyer in Deggendorf. He was appointed to the Bavarian Political Police by Himmler. In April 1934, he rose to SS-Obersturmbannführer, to SS-Standartenführer in April 1935, and SS-Gruppenführer in 1941. In early August 1941, he was promoted to Generalmajor der Polizei und SS-Brigadeführer. On 21 July 1943, he was appointed SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei. Unlike other ghettos, the Częstochowa Ghetto was not enclosed by fence, and it was possible to access non-Jewish areas of the city from it. Additionally, unlike other ghettos, the Aryan population was allowed to pass through the ghetto, and certain shops were allowed to remain open, allowing for a limited amount of goods to be kept in circulation. However, if Poles or other non-Jews were spotted purchasing goods from the Jewish vendors, policemen were ordered to remove them, and sometimes would even steal the merchandise for themselves. The ghetto would eventually be liquidated on September 22 through October 8, 1942, while Wendler was adjusting to his role in the Kraków District.

Duties and Operations (Aktionen) in Kraków District (1942–43) Prior to Operation Barbarossa, the General Government was divided into four districts, one of which was named after the Polish urban center of Kraków. From its inception until January the 31st, 1942, the Kraków District was overseen by Otto Wächter, who reported to Governor-General Hans Frank. After Operation Barbarossa had begun, however, a fifth district was created, Galicia, to which Wächter was transferred. Consequently, Wendler, at that time an SS Major General, was made Governor. Wendler, a longtime Nazi party member who had also been active in the SD, had an established rapport with ranking Nazi officials, most notably his brother-in-law Heinrich Himmler. This, in addition to his formal education in jurisprudence and political science and his experience as a lawyer and mayor made him an unsurprising choice for Governor of the district.

Like his predecessor, Wendler reported to Hans Frank and aided in fulfilling the Governor-General's intentions, which primarily focused on the implementation of Aryanization policies. A major effect of these policies in the Kraków District was the creation of ghettos; this was primarily due to the urban environment of the city of Kraków, the capital of the General Government. As the result of policies designed to keep Jews in the ghetto and non-Jews out (in 1942), basic necessities became hard to come by, causing a black market to occur between the isolated Jews and nearby villagers. The first of his underlings to make a Kreis "judenfrei", however, was one of Wendler's close friends, Walter Gentz, the Kreishauptman of Kreis Jasło. Gentz was notorious for his infamously harsh anti-Jewish policy and visible drive to make his Kreis free of Jews ahead of any of his contemporaries.

As time progressed, Aktions by the SSPF and the Security Police veered from immediate, on-sight, senseless murder to deportation. The primary surge of these deportation-based Aktions in the Kraków District occurred between June 1 and mid-September 1942, all of which had the final destination of the Belzec extermination center. The first of these major deportation Aktions from the Kraków ghetto took place from June 1 until June 8, 1942, followed by deportations in the town of Slomniki and the Tarnow ghetto.

According to the Korherr Report, as a result of the Aktions carried out by Wendler's underlings, as of December the 31st, 1942, only about 37,000 of the previously conservative estimate of 200,000 Jews remained in the Kraków District.