German Forces

Globocnik in Trieste.

Odilo Globocnik, wearing the insignia of SS-Gruppenfuhrer (final rank Obergruppenfuhrer) as Higher SS and Police Leader of the Operation Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, photographed in Trieste, 1944. Globocnik, a "graduate" of the pre-Anschluss Austrian SS, enjoyed a somewhat patchy SS career, speckled by persistent (and justified) allegations of corruption. He was, however, a favourite of Himmler in view of his ruthlessness and effectiveness (if not efficiency) as a police chief and practitioner of mass murder. In the latter role, as SS and Police Leader of the Lublin District of Poland, he was responsible among other things for the "Aktion Reinhard" death camp system that best estimates suggest accounted for something between 1.5 and 1.7 Jewish murders in a period of about 18 months. He also ran a labour camp system that seems to have contributed at least as much to his own pocket as to the Reich. Globocnik's ongoing conflict with the civil authorities of the Lublin period - and his tenure in Lublin - came to an end following the termination of "Reinhard", when his extremely heavy-handed administration of "Generalplan Ost", a programme to expel Poles from the District and resettle it with Germans, resulted in resistance, violence and economic chaos at Lublin. Himmler (influenced, no doubt, by the deputy senior administrator of Lublin who happened to be his brother-in-law) felt it necessary to remove Globocnik from his post. However, as one favoured by the "top management", Globocnik suffered little from the change; in fact, he was promoted and appointed Higher SS and Police Leader in Northern Italy, in charge of (among other things) "Aktion R", an anti-partisan, anti-Jewish programme in that area, a major stronghold of Italian and Yugoslav Communist partisans. Globocnik proceeded with typical enthusiasm, with the usual shootings and massacres. "Aktion R" even had its own minature concentration/death camp in a disused rice mill at San Sabba, complete with its own gas chamber. Most of the SS staff who were involved in "Reinhard" were posted with Globocnik to Trieste, so expertise in his part was not lacking. At the end of the war, Odilo Globocnik was captured by British forces, but committed suicide in their custody. This 'photo shows one unusual feature. Globocnik was one those members of the Waffen-SS who had been awarded the German Cross in both Gold and Silver. This was not terribly uncommon; however, in such instances, it was stipulated that only the higher version (the "Gold") should be worn. Images of dual recipients breaking this stipulation are rare; this is one of them, showing Globocnik wearing both versions of the German Cross on his right breast. Best regards, JR.