World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseErnst Friedrich Christoph "Fritz" Sauckel was born in Haßfurt in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany to a postman and a seamstress. He joined the Norwegian-Swedish merchant marine at the age of 15 and remained a sailor until the German ship he worked on was captured while en route to Australia. He was imprisoned in France between Aug 1914 and Nov 1919. He returned to Germany after WW1 and worked at a factory in Schweinfurt, Bavaria. Between 1922 and 1923, he studied engineering at Ilmenau Technical University in Thüringia, Germany. He joined the Nazi Party in 1923 as member number 1,395. He married Elisabeth Wetzel in 1924, with whom he would father ten children. In 1927, he was appointed the Gauleiter of Thüringia, a position he would hold until the German surrender at the end of the European War in 1945. In 1932, he took on the role of the Minister President of Thüringia, and then in 1933, the Reichsstatthalter of Thüringia. In 1934, he was given the honorary rank of Obergruppenführer ("Senior Group Leader") in the SA and the SS. When the European War began in 1939, Sauckel was the defense commissioner for the Kassel district. On 21 Mar 1942, he was named the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment on the recommendation of Albert Speer. As the official responsible for directing German labor during war time, he met the high demands for workers by rounding up forced labors from occupied territories, mostly from Eastern Europe. After the end of the war, he was tried for various crimes at Nuremberg, including crimes against humanity. He denied the charges of slavery and denied that he had intentionally worked people to death. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death, which was carried out by hanging in 1946. His last recorded words were "Ich sterbe unschuldig, mein Urteil ist ungerecht. Gott beschütze Deutschland!" ("I die innocent, my sentence is unjust. God protect Germany!").

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