Daluege, Kurt, 1897-1946

Kurt Max Franz Daluege (15 September 1897 – 24 October 1946) was a German SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer and Generaloberst of the police, the highest ranking police officer, who served as chief of Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) of Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1943, as well as the Deputy/Acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia from 1942 to 1943. Daluege served in the Royal Prussian Army during the First World War on both fronts. He was severely wounded and received the Iron Cross, second class for his bravery. After the war, he became a member of Gerhard Roßbach's Freikorps. In 1922, Daluege joined the Nazi Party and soon entered the Sturmabteilung (SA), eventually becoming the SA leader in Berlin. He transferred to the SS in 1930 and was later elected as a Reichstag deputy. In 1933, Hermann Göring appointed Daluege to the Prussian Interior Ministry and placed him in charge of the Prussian police forces. In that position, he played an important role in carrying out the Night of the Long Knives, in which Ernst Röhm and other leading member of the SA were murdered. By late 1934, his authority was extended to include all of Germany, and two years later Heinrich Himmler named him chief of the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) following the reorganisation of the German police force. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Daluege's Orpo had as many as 120,000 active-duty personnel. The organisation took part in policing, deportations and mass murder throughout German-occupied areas and had an integral role in carrying out the Holocaust. Following Reinhard Heydrich's assassination in 1942, Daluege was named Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia and directed the German reprisal actions, including the Lidice massacre. At the end of the war, Daluege was arrested and extradited to Czechoslovakia, where he was tried and convicted for crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in October 1946.