Arthur Seyss-Inquart

Chancellor of Austria

22 July 1892 Stannern, Margraviate of Moravia, Austria-Hungary

16 October 1946(1946-10-16) (54) Nuremberg, Bavaria, Allied-occupied Germany

11 March 1938 – 13 March 1938

Austrian Nazi politician, Reichskommissar of the Netherlands, SS-Obergruppenführer Arthur Seyss-Inquart (German: Seyß-Inquart, ( listen ) ; 22 July 1892 – 16 October 1946) was an Austrian Nazi politician who was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. Inquart oversaw deportations, massacres and looting in Poland and the Netherlands and served as Chancellor of Austria in 1938 for two days before the Anschluss. His positions in Hitler's Third Reich included "deputy governor to Hans Frank in the General Government of Occupied Poland, and Reich commissioner for the German-occupied Netherlands" including shared responsibility "for the deportation of Dutch Jews and the shooting of hostages". Seyss-Inquart was hanged on 16 October 1946. During World War I, Seyss-Inquart fought for the Austro-Hungarian Army with distinction. After the war he became a successful lawyer, and went on to join the governments of Chancellors Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg. In 1938, Schuschnigg resigned in the face of a German invasion, and Seyss-Inquart was appointed his successor. The newly installed Nazis proceeded to transfer power to Germany, and Austria subsequently became the German province of Ostmark, with Seyss-Inquart as its governor (Reichsstatthalter). During World War II, Seyss-Inquart served briefly as the Deputy Governor General in occupied Poland and, following the fall of the Low Countries in 1940, he was appointed Reichskommissar of the occupied Netherlands. He was a member of the SS and held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer. He instituted a reign of terror, with Dutch civilians subjected to forced labour and the vast majority of Dutch Jews deported and murdered. At the Nuremberg trials, Seyss-Inquart was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, sentenced to death, and executed.