Five Brothers and a War

Arthur Seyß-Inquart

Arthur Seyß-Inquart

On May 18, Hitler appointed Arthur Seyß Inquart as the Reichskommissar. Seyß-Inquart received his Doctor of Laws degree from University of Vienna in 1917. Thereafter he was known as Dr. Seyß-Inquart, in keeping with German custom. He was a lawyer from 1921 until 1938. In later IQ testing performed ahead of the Nürnberg Trials, he was rated as having an IQ of 141—the second highest among those tested.

Seyß-Inquart wasted no time in setting up a government. He wanted to use Dutch resources to whatever extent he could, but still rule the country in a very German way, with Germans leading in all areas. He therefore established four major Generalkommissare (“Departments”) to run the government, with Germans heading each: • Hans Fischböck, Generalkommissar für Finanz und Wirtschaft (finance and economics). • Hanns Albin Rauter, Generalkommissar für das Sicherheitswesen (security) who also maintained the position of Higher SS and Police Leader. While he nominally reported to the Reichskommissar , he really answered to Heinrich Himmler. • Fritz Schmidt, Generalkommissar zur Besonderen Verwendung (special tasks). This was the person who was responsible for “recruitment of labor”--meaning slave/forced labor. He was succeeded by Willi Ritterbusch after the former’s suicide/murder on 26 June 1943. • Friedrich Wimmer, Generalkommissar für Verwaltung und Justiz (administration and justice).

nazi germany

Fritz Schmidt, the Generalkommissar zur Besonderen Verwendung , meeting with Seyß-Inquart. Schmidt was the person ultimately responsible for Jan's being summoned for his slavery/forced labor.

Five Brothers and a War

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