Erich Koch Prominent figure of the NSDAP and the Third Reich Date of Birth: 19.06.1896 Country: Germany

Biography of Erich Koch

Erich Koch was a prominent figure in the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) and the Third Reich. He served as the Gauleiter (district leader) and Oberpräsident (chief president) of East Prussia from October 1, 1928, until May 8, 1945. He also held positions such as the head of the civilian administration in the Białystok District from August 1, 1941, to 1945, and the Reich Commissioner of Ukraine from September 1, 1941, to November 10, 1944. Additionally, he held honorary positions in the SA (Sturmabteilung) and SS (Schutzstaffel).

Born in the Rhine region, Erich Koch grew up in a family of a factory worker named Gustav Adolf Koch and his wife Henriette Matthes. After volunteering for military service in 1915, he participated as a soldier in World War I. From 1919 to 1926, he worked as an assistant in the railway administration in Elberfeld.

Koch joined the NSDAP in 1922 and quickly rose through the ranks. He became one of the leaders of the party organization in the Ruhr region and served as the regional treasurer from 1922 to 1923. In 1923, he actively participated in anti-French actions in the Rhine region, which led to his arrest by the French authorities. After rejoining the NSDAP on March 22, 1926, he was appointed as the regional treasurer of the Ruhr district and became the deputy Gauleiter.

From October 1, 1928, until the defeat of German forces in 1945, Koch served as the Gauleiter of East Prussia. In 1929, he became a member of the East Prussian provincial parliament and the leader of the NSDAP faction in the parliament. He also founded the newspaper "Preußische Zeitung" (Prussian Newspaper) in 1930. Koch was elected as a member of the Reichstag on September 14, 1930. In September 1933, he assumed the position of Oberpräsident of East Prussia.

During World War II, Koch held significant positions in the occupied territories. On August 1, 1941, he became the head of the civilian administration in the Białystok District, which became part of the Reich. On September 1, 1941, he was appointed as the Reich Commissioner of Ukraine after the establishment of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and Ostland within the Imperial Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories led by Alfred Rosenberg. In these roles, Koch was known for his extreme cruelty in implementing Hitler's occupation policies. He worked with Otto Bräutigam to organize the deportation of labor to Germany.

As the Red Army approached East Prussia, Koch supervised the evacuation of the civilian population. After the end of World War II, he fled to Flensburg, where he reportedly approached the new Reich President, Karl Dönitz, seeking a submarine to escape to South America, but his request was denied. For the next four years, Koch successfully hid in the British occupation zone, posing as a former reserve major named Rolf Berger. During this time, he engaged in agriculture and mainly relied on the income from a small garden plot. After the currency reform in 1948, he received unemployment benefits of 18 marks.

Koch was arrested by the British on May 24, 1949, in Hamburg and handed over to the Polish government in early 1950. On October 19, 1958, his trial began, and on March 9, 1959, he was sentenced to death. During the trial, Koch expressed sympathy towards the Soviet Union and claimed to have opposed the plans of his superior, Alfred Rosenberg. However, due to his poor health (only healthy individuals could be executed), his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Koch spent the remaining 27 years of his life in prison, surviving through the presidencies of Poland's Władysław Gomułka. He died in the Barchewo prison in 1986 at the age of 90. Throughout his imprisonment, Koch had a spacious room with a television, library, and access to Western press. The governments of the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union never sought his extradition for the crimes he committed as the Reich Commissioner in Ukraine.