Karl Otto Kurt Kaufmann (1900 - 1969)

Born 10 Oct 1900 in Crefeld, Rheinprovinz, Preußen, Deutsches Reich

Died 4 Dec 1969 at age 69 in Hamburg, Freie und Hansestadt, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

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Biography

Karl Kaufmann served for in World War II
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Karl Kaufmann is Notable.

Karl Kaufmann was born October 10, 1900 in Krefeld, Germany.

He was a Nazi Gauleiter in Hamburg—head of the Nazi Party, and government of Hamburg from 1933 until 1945.

Kaufmann died on December 4, 1969, in Hamburg, Germany.

Early life

The son of a textile manufacturer. He attended realschule (type of secondary school in Germany) in Elberfeld until age 16. He then trained as an agricultural worker.

During the First World War he entered military service and trained as pilot however, due to vision loss, was transferred to Brunswick Infantry Regiment 92. He was hospitalized for pneumonia and was discharged at the end of the war without having seen front line action. ^[1]

From February 1919 to May 1920 Kaufmann was a Freikorps member of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt. In 1920 he joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, the largest most active, and most influential anti-Semitic federation in Germany and in 1921 he took over the leadership of their youth group in Elberfeld. In 1921 as a member of the Freikorps "von Killinger," he participated in actions against Polish insurgents in Upper Silesia. In 1921-22 he took part in illegal sabotage operations against the French occupation of the Ruhr. Wanted by the police, he fled to Bavaria. ^[2]

Nazi Party

In 1921 he joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP). He co-founded the Nazi Party in the Ruhr area, establishing Ortsgruppe (Local Groups) in Elberfeld, Essen, Bochum and other cities. During this time he was working as a woodworker and construction worker and joined the Sturmabteilung (SA).  July 1925, at the age of only 25, Kaufmann became Acting Gauleiter of Gau Rheinland-North in a power sharing agreement with Joseph Goebbels and Viktor Lutze. This lasted until 26 September when Kaufmann was granted sole control. In September 1925, he became a member of the National Socialist Working Association, a short-lived group of northern and western German Gauleiter, organized and led by Gregor Strasser, which supported the "socialist" wing of the Party and unsuccessfully sought to amend the Party program. It was dissolved in 1926 following the Bamberg Conference. ^[3]

Post war

Kaufmann was sent to an internment camp. In April 1946 he gave testimony at a British war crimes tribunal investigating the sinking of the SS Cap Arcona which resulted in the deaths of some 7500 concentration camp inmates. He was eventually sentenced to 14 months imprisonment for war crimes by a British military court but was released on 22 April 1949 for health reasons relating to his head injury.^[4]

Documentaries

AUSCHWITZ: Inside The Nazi State

Karl Kaufmann was the Nazi leader of Hamburg, Germany, who asked Hitler to be allowed to evacuate the Jews of Hamburg to the East.

The bombing in September 1941 left hundreds homeless, but Karl Kaufmann, the Gauleiter or Regional Leader of Hamburg, saw this as an opportunity to show his initiative. So he dictated a letter to Adolf Hitler.

"I therefore request authorization to have the Jews of Gau Hamburg evacuated to the East. That would make it possible for at least some of the citizens affected by the bombing to be allocated new homes."

Requests like this one from Kaufmann coincided with Hitler's own prejudices and desires. He had wanted to remove the Jews for years. Like many on the Nationalist Right he believed in the delusion that the Jews had lost Germany the 1st World War and that there was an international conspiracy of Jews against them. From the moment the Nazis came to power Hitler had ensured that the Jews of Germany were persecuted. They quickly became the scapegoats for all of Germany's ills.

In the autumn of 1941 Hitler agreed to the requests of Kaufmann and other senior Nazis to deport the German Jews. At the end of October the Jews of Hamburg heard the news that they had been dreading. ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Höffkes, Karl (1986). Hitlers Politische Generale. Die Gauleiter des Dritten Reiches: ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk. Tübingen: Grabert-Verlag. ISBN 3-87847-163-7. (Höffkes 1986, p. 170)
2. ↑ Source Information to be added
3. ↑ Source Information to be added later
4. ↑ Miller, Michael D.; Schulz, Andreas (2017). Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945. Vol. II (Georg Joel - Dr. Bernhard Rust). R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-1-932970-32-6. (Miller & Schulz 2017, pp. 71, 74)
5. ↑ Rees, L. (n.d.). Auschwitz: Inside the nazi state . about . transcripts. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/about/transcripts_2.html

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