Theodor Eicke
From Metapedia
Theodor Eicke (October 17, 1892 - February 26, 1943) was a NSDAP official, SS-Obergruppenführer, commander of the SS-Division Totenkopf of the Waffen-SS and one of the key figures in the establishment of labour camps in Germany. His Party number was 114901 and his SS number was 2921. He is most remembered for personally executing SA Chief Ernst Röhm following the Night of the Long Knives.
[edit] Early Life and World War I
Eicke, the son of a station master, was born in Hampont, near Château-Salins (then in the German province of Lorraine) on October 17, 1892. The youngest of 11 children, he dropped out of school at the age of 17. He joined the 23rd Bavarian Infantry Regiment as a volunteer; later on, in World War I, he took the office of paymaster for the 3rd - and, from 1916 on, the 22nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment.
Despite having won an Iron Cross during World War I, Eicke nevertheless did not have any prospect of finding work after the end of the war and he began studying in his wife's hometown Ilmenau. He dropped out of school again in 1920 intending to pursue a police career, initially as an informer and later on as a regular policeman.
After failing, not only due to his lack of a school degree, but also for his fervent hatred of the Weimar Republic and his repeated participation in violent political demonstrations which was not allowed to police officials, he finally managed to find work in 1923 at IG Farben in Ludwigshafen, soon rising to the rank of leader of the company's internal intelligence service.
Staying politically active, Eicke joined the NSDAP and Ernst Röhm's SA on December 1, 1928. He left the SA in August 1930 in favour of the SS, where he quickly rose in rank after recruiting new members and building up the SS organization in the Bavarian palatinate.He had been promoted to SS-Standartenführer (roughly equivalent to Colonel) by Heinrich Himmler by the end of 1931.
His political activities caught the attention of his employer and in early 1932 he was laid off by IG Farben. At the same time, he was caught preparing bomb attacks on political enemies in Bavaria for which he received a two year prison sentence in July 1932. However, due to protection received from Franz Gürtner, who would later become minister of justice under Adolf Hitler, he was able to escape the sentence and instead fled to Italy on an order from Heinrich Himmler, where he took over responsibility for a camp for exiled SS members.
[edit] Totenkopf Division
The success of the Totenkopf's sister formations the SS-Infanterie-Regiment Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and the three Standarten of the SS-Verfügungstruppe led to Hitler approving Himmler's recommendation for the creation of three Waffen SS divisions in October 1939.
Eicke's Totenkopf units were to form SS-Division Totenkopf and Eicke was given command. Totenkopf was to become one of the most effective German fighting formations on the Eastern Front, often serving as "Hitler's firemen", rushed to the scene of Soviet breakthroughs.
Eicke's career now deviated from labour Camps and he was not involved with the camp service after 1940. His replacement as Inspector of Camps was Richard Glücks who answered to Oswald Pohl in the SS Office of Economics and Administration.
During the course of the war, Eicke and his division distinguished themselves by an unmatched brutality and several war crimes, including the murder of British POWs in Le Paradis in 1940, the murder of Soviet officers and the plundering and pillaging of several Soviet villages.
The Totenkopf continued to show an unmatched fanaticism and ferocity, during the advance in 1941 as well as the summer offensive in 1942, the conquest of Kharkov, the so-called Demyansk Pocket, and the defending of Warsaw and Budapest in early 1945. Eicke was a popular figure among his troops, gaining him the nickname "Papa Eicke".
Theodor Eicke himself was killed on February 26, 1943, shortly after being promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer (equivalent to full general). While performing a battlefield reconnaissance during the opening stages of the Third Battle of Kharkov, his Fieseler Fi 156 Storch was shot down by Soviet troops near Oryol. His division launched a ferocious attack to secure the crash site and recover their commander's body. Eicke was portrayed in the Axis press as a hero, and soon after his death one of the Totenkopf's Infantry regiments received the honorific cuff-title Theodor Eicke.
