Werner best biography book

Overview

Description

Diary of Werner Best, from July 1, 1943-December 31, 1944. Werner Best was a German Nazi and served as civilian administrator of France and Denmark while Nazi Germany occupied those countries during World War II.

Date

inclusive:  1943-1944

Collection Creator

Werner Best

Biography

Karl Rudolf Werner Best (10 July 1903-23 June 1989) was a German Nazi, jurist, police chief, SS-Obergruppenführer and Nazi Party leader from Darmstadt, Hesse. He studied law and in 1927 obtained his doctorate degree at Heidelberg. Best served as civilian administrator of France and Denmark while Nazi Germany occupied those countries during World War II. After the war, Best testified as a witness at the Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals and was later extradited to Denmark. In 1948, Best was sentenced to death by a Danish court, but his sentence was reduced to five years in prison (of which he had already served

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Werner Best

Werner Best (Bundesarchiv)

Werner Best was born on 10 July 1903, in Darmstadt. His parents moved to Dortmund in 1912, and then to Mainz, where Werner Best completed his education. After the First World War - his father a senior postmaster had fallen in France at the beginning of the conflict in 1914 - Best founded the first local group of the German National Youth League and became active in the Mainz group of the German National People's Party, all before he was twenty years of age.

From 1921, to 1925, he studied law at Frankfurt am Main, Freiburg, Giessen and Heidelberg, where he received his doctorate in 1927. During these years he was strongly influenced by the German youth movement with its return to naturlig eller utan tillsats , its Germanic myths and volkisch world-view. He was twice imprisoned between the end of 1923, and the spring of 1924, by the French authorities during the nationalist struggle in the Ruhr region. During 1929, he was appointed as a judge in the Hessian

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Werner Best

German jurist and SS-Obergruppenführer (1903–1989

Karl Rudolf Werner Best (10 July 1903 – 23 June 1989) was a German jurist, police chief, SS-Obergruppenführer, Nazi Party leader, and theoretician from Darmstadt. He was the first chief of Department 1 of the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret police, and initiated a registry of all Jews in Germany. As a deputy of SS-ObergruppenführerReinhard Heydrich, he organized the SS-Einsatzgruppen paramilitary death squads that carried out mass-murder in Nazi-occupied territories.

Best served in the German military occupation administration of France (1940–1942) and then became the civilian administrator of occupied Denmark (1942–1945). Convicted of war crimes in Denmark, he was released from prison in 1951. Following his release, Best campaigned for amnesty for Nazi war criminals and against the abolition of the statute of limitations. He escaped further prosecution in West Germany in 1972 due to ill health and died in 19