Wilhelm Gideon

Wilhelm Gideon (15 November 1898 – 23 February 1977) was a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and Nazi concentration camp commandant.

A native of Oldenburg, Gideon began work as a trainee engineer but had his studies ended by the outbreak of World War I, when he volunteered for service in the German Imperial Army.

Gideon enlisted in the SS in 1933 (member number 88,657) and the Nazi Party in 1937 (member 4,432,258). He had various posts in the SS, initially being stationed with the 9th SS-Reiterstandarte (cavalry) from 1934 to 1939. Following this, he was moved to the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf until 1942, after which he was briefly attached to the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt. He also served for a short period at Neuengamme concentration camp and as the administrator of the 88th SS-Standarte in Hamburg. He was appointed commandant of Gross-Rosen concentration camp on 16 September 1942, in succession to Arthur Rödl, and held the post until 10 October 1943, when Johannes Hassebroek succeeded him. His final post was on the staff of Günther Pancke, the Higher SS and Police Leader in occupied Denmark, until Germany's surrender in 1945. Legal proceedings against Gideon were dismissed in 1962.

Literature Orth, Karin: Die Konzentrationslager-SS. dtv, München 2004. Tom Segev: Die Soldaten des Bösen. Zur Geschichte der KZ-Kommandanten. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1995. Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005. . Wilhelm Gideon (in Polish)