Werner Best | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Best in 1942 | |
| Reich's Plenipotentiary in Denmark | |
| In office November 1942 – 8 May 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Cécil von Renthe-Fink |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Karl Rudolf Werner Best (1903-07-10)10 July 1903 |
| Died | 23 June 1989(1989-06-23) (aged 85) |
| Alma mater | University of Heidelberg |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service | Schutzstaffel |
| Years of service | 1931–1945 |
| Rank | SS-Obergruppenführer |
| Commands | Amt I, RSHA |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Karl Rudolf Werner Best (10 July 1903 – 23 June 1989) was a Germanjurist, police chief, SS-Obergruppenführer,Nazi Party leader, and theoretician fromDarmstadt. He was the first chief of Department 1 of theGestapo, 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 paramilitarydeath squads that carried out mass-murder inNazi-occupied territories.
Best served in the German military occupation administration ofFrance (1940–1942) and then became the civilian administrator of occupiedDenmark (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 1989, aged 85.
Werner Best was born on 10 July 1903 inDarmstadt,Hesse, but his parents moved toDortmund when he was nine before settling inMainz, where he completed his education. His father was a postmaster who was killed in France at the outset ofWorld War I. In his younger years, Best founded the German National Youth League and joined theNational People's Party of Mainz.[1] Between 1921 and 1925, he studied law atFrankfurt,Freiburg,Giessen, and theUniversity of Heidelberg, where in 1927, he obtained his doctorate.[1]
Owing to his political resistance activities against theFrench occupation of the Ruhr, Best was arrested and briefly imprisoned.[2] In 1930, he joined theNazi Party (NSDAP) and by 1931—before the Nazis assumed power—he was already a member of theSchutzstaffel (SS).[2][a] Sometime in 1931, he was forced out of judicial service in the German federal state of Hesse following the discovery of theBoxheim Documents,[b] which were blueprints for a Naziputsch he had written.[2]
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As a trained lawyer,Heydrich andHimmler counted on Best throughout the 1930s for his skills in conceptualizing and justifying Nazi law, which helped provide the SS-police apparatus with its nearly unrestricted power over German society.[5] Best became a member of theAcademy for German Law (German:Akademie für deutsches Recht (ADR)) and the chairman of its Committee on Police Law,[6] where he worked alongside the future SS-OberführerReinhard Höhn.[c]
Best appeared dedicated to the national-racial cause of the Nazis and typified the ideal administrator for its terror apparatus.[8] Historian Frank Trentmann wrote that "Best personified the technocratic Nazi, cold and functional".[9] Correspondingly, Best quickly rose to the rank of SS-Brigadeführer and became chief of Department 1 of theGestapo, which was in charge of organization, administration, and legal affairs.[10] He was a deputy toReinhard Heydrich. Both men saw the Gestapo as actually working on "behalf of the German people" through both "ethnic and political purification".[11] By 1934,Ernst Röhm's increasing political influence over the powerful Nazi paramilitary organisation, theSturmabteilung (SA), was seen as a threat by Hitler, who ordered its elimination as an independent political force. On 30 June 1934, the SS and Gestapo implemented Hitler's plan and carried out mass arrests that continued for two days.[12] While Heydrich coordinated the operation from Berlin, Best was sent to Munich to "oversee a wave of arrests" in the southern part of Germany. The purge became known as theNight of the Long Knives. Up to 200 people, including Röhm, were killed in the action.[13]
Even though Canadian historianRobert Gellately wrote that most Gestapo men were not Nazis, at the same time, they were not opposed to the Nazi regime and willingly served in whatever task they were called upon to perform.[14] Over time, membership in the Gestapo included ideological indoctrination, particularly once Best assumed a leading role for training in April 1936. Employing biological metaphors, Best emphasized a doctrine that encouraged members of the Gestapo to view themselves as 'doctors' to the national body in the struggle against "pathogens" and "diseases"; among the implied sicknesses were "communists, Freemasons, and the churches—and above and behind all these stood the Jews."[15] Heydrich thought along similar lines and advocated both defensive and offensive measures on the part of the Gestapo, so as to prevent any subversion or destruction of the Nazi body.[16]
On 27 September 1939, the SD and SiPo (made up of the Gestapo and theKripo) were folded into the newReich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt; RSHA), which was placed under Heydrich's control.[17] Best was made head of Amt I (Department I) of the RSHA: Administration and Legal. That department dealt with the legal and personnel issues/matters of the SS and security police.[18] Heydrich andHeinrich Himmler relied on Best to develop and legally justify the activities against enemies of the state, especially those aimed at Jews. In 1939 Best became one of the directors of Heydrich's foundation, theStiftung Nordhav, and was placed in command of choosing leaders for theEinsatzgruppen task forces and their subgroups (theEinsatzkommandos) from among educated people with military experience; many of them former members of theFreikorps.[19]
Werner Best lost a power struggle within the RSHA, and had to leave Berlin in 1940.[20] With the military grade of War Administration Chief (Kriegsverwaltungschef), Best was appointed chief of the Section "Administration" (Abteilung Verwaltung) of the Administration Staff (Verwaltungsstab, Dr Schmid) under then (Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich or MBF) "Military Commander in France", GeneralOtto von Stülpnagel inoccupied France.[20] Best held this position until 1942.[d]
In his efforts as the RSHA emissary in France, Best's unit drew up radical plans for a total reorganization of Western Europe based on racial principles; he sought to uniteNetherlands,Flanders and French territory north of the riverLoire into the Reich, turnWallonia andBrittany into German protectorates, mergeNorthern Ireland with theIrish Free State, create a decentralized British federation and breakSpain into independent entities ofGalicia,Basque Country andCatalonia.[21]
After the November 1942Telegram Crisis, Best was appointed theThird Reich's Plenipotentiary (Reichsbevollmächtigter) inoccupied Denmark, which gave him supervisory control of civilian affairs there.[22] Meanwhile, KingChristian X, unlike most heads of state underNazi German occupation, remained in office, along with the Danish Parliament, cabinet (a coalition of national unity) and courts. When the Nazis attempted to deport Denmark's Jews, the cabinet and Christian X objected.[23][e]
Best kept his position in Denmark until the end of the war in May 1945,[25] even after the German military commander,Hermann von Hanneken—who had been encouraged by Hitler to rule Denmark with an iron hand—had assumed direct control over its administration on 29 August 1943.[26]
In compliance with the Danish cabinet's decision on 9 April 1940 to accept cooperation with German authorities, the Danish police did cooperate with German occupation forces.[27] This arrangement remained in effect even after the Danish government resigned on 29 August 1943. On 12 May 1944, Best demanded that the Danish police should assume responsibility for protection of 57 enterprises the Germans deemed at risk of sabotage by theDanish resistance movement, which was growing in strength. Should the Danish civil administration not do so, total Danish police strength would be reduced to 3,000 men. Nils Svenningsen, who functioned asde facto head of the Danish civil administration in the absence of a Danish government, was inclined to accept this demand, but the organizations of the Danish police opposed it.[28]
Following rejection of the German request, a state of emergency was declared in Denmark on 29 August 1943. Then on 19 September 1944, the German army began arresting members of the Danish police forces; 1,984 policemen out of 10,000 werearrested and deported to German concentration and prisoner-of-war camps, most of them toBuchenwald.[29]
To avoid deportation of Danes to German concentration camps, the permanent secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs, Nils Svenningsen, in January 1944 proposed establishment of an internment camp within Denmark. Best accepted this proposal, but on condition that the camp be built close to the German border.[30]Frøslev Prison Camp was opened in August 1944.[31]
Best also possibly sabotaged the rounding up of the Jewish population in Denmark in order to avoid agitating the general Danish population. In theRescue of the Danish Jews, the primary escape route was to crossØresund to Sweden by boat. At the most critical time, all German patrol boats of the area were ordered into harbor for three weeks for new paint jobs.[32] Best may have tipped off his Jewish tailor about this development—but Danish authorities credit Best's right-hand man,Georg Duckwitz—which contributed to the escape of a number of Jews.[32] During his trial before Danish courts, Best insisted that the Jews were able to escape because he provided the dates to Duckwitz.[33]
In deliberations on 3 May 1945 about preparation for the impending German defeat, Best fought to avoid implementation of ascorched earth policy in Denmark.[34]
After the war, Best testified as a witness at theNuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals, during which he attempted to present the Gestapo as a harmless state organization that was subordinated to state leaders and was nearly undifferentiated from Germany's criminal police.[35] Historian Frank McDonough characterized Best's testimony as a "revisionist interpretation of the Gestapo".[36] For instance, Best claimed that the Gestapo primarily instituted investigations in response to reports from the general public and that only serious cases of treason warranted "enhanced interrogations" under strict guidelines, during which no confessions were ever extorted from the accused.[37]
In 1948, Best was sentenced to death by a Danish court, but his sentence was reduced to 12 years on appeal. Best was released in 1951 as part of a Danish amnesty program for Nazi war criminals.[38] Returning to Germany, he was employed by the law firm ofErnst Achenbach inEssen, advocating for an amnesty for German war criminals and other former Nazis.[6] He also maintained contacts with members of the so-calledNaumann Circle, such asWerner Naumann,Hans Fritzsche andFranz Six. In 1952, he co-authored with them a strong nationalist program intended to be used in their attempt to infiltrate theFree Democratic Party. It advocated a commitment to a unified German Reich by refusing to renounce the right ofexpelled Germans to return to their home territories, and also expressed opposition to punishments imposed on former German soldiers by the Allies.[39]
In 1958 Best was fined 70,000 marks by a Berlin court for his actions as an SS officer during the war. In March 1969, Best was held in detention and in February 1972 he was charged again, when further war crimes allegations arose, but he was released in August 1972 on grounds that he was medically unfit to stand trial.[40] After that, Best was part of a network that helped former Nazis and spent his time "campaigning for a general amnesty", and against the abolition of the statute of limitations for Nazi crimes.[41] He died inMülheim,North Rhine-Westphalia, on 23 June 1989.[42]
