Daluege, Kurt

Daluege, Kurt (1897–1946) Nazi official who perpetrated the Lidice massacre Daluege, among the earliest members of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), established the first Sturmabteilung (SA) unit in Berlin in 1926, then two years later transferred to the Schutzstaffel (SS) and became a senior officer. He served as a member of the Nazi delegation in the Prussian legislature in 1932 and the following year became a member of the Reichstag. Appointed chief of the Order Police (Orpo) in 1936, he succeeded Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 as Reich protector (military governor) of Bohemia and Moravia. He authorized the Lidice massacre in reprisal for the assassination of Heydrich. Daluege was born in Kreuzburg on September 15, 1897, and fought with distinction in World War I. Active in the Freikorps after the war, he joined the Nazi Party virtually at its inception in 1922. After forming the first SA unit in Berlin in 1926, he transferred to the SS in 1928 and began a close working relationship with SS chief Heinrich Himmler. In 1936, three years after his election to the Reichstag, Daluege was tapped by Hermann Göring as head of the Prussian police. When Göring took control of all German police forces, he named Daluege chief of the Orpo, the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei). In this position, Daluege created the Kameradschaftsbund Deutscher Polizebeamten, ostensibly a fraternal organization of police officials, but, in fact, a body intended to facilitate the suppression of internal revolt. After the beginning of World War II, Daluege became deputy to Reinhard Heydrich in the SS. In May 1942, Heydrich was fatally wounded by Czech assassins, whereupon Adolf Hitler and Himmler dispatched Daluege to Prague to replace the fallen Heydrich as Reich protector of Czechoslovakia. Daluege's first actions were to visit upon the Czechs brutal reprisals for the assassination. The most notorious of these was the annihilation of the village of Lidice, which was razed. All 173 of its male inhabitants were summarily executed, and its 198 women were sent to a Ravensbrueck concentration camp. On Daluege's orders, 256 other Czechs suffered death for Heydrich's assassination. Daluege was arrested after World War II and charged with war crimes. He was convicted by a Czech court and hanged in Prague on October 24, 1946.