Erich Koch
Born in 1896, Erich Koch’s life was, before 1922, relatively ordinary. His service in World War I was unremarkable; he joined the Nazi party quite early, in 1922 and became a very active member. He was dismissed from his job due to his party membership in 1926. Koch spent his time in the Nazi party before World War II in East Prussia, or modern-day Poland. He was both a harsh and effective administrator for the party
During World War II, Koch served in the Ukraine from 1941 to 1944. He was, during his time there, responsible for huge numbers of deaths and massive suffering. He had villages burned to the ground, closed Ukrainian schools, and deported many men, women and children to death camps and extermination centers. It was said that Koch’s name alone was enough to inspire the Soviets to fight the Nazis.
Erich Koch’s escape was fundamentally less effective than many of the others discussed here. Koch left the Ukraine when the Germans lost control of the territory, and at the end of the war, essentially disappeared into Germany. He remained free until 1949. At that time, British authorities found and arrested him. He was extradited to Poland; the Soviets, who bore much greater rights to his extradition, did not request it. This was likely the result of political conditions in the Soviet Union; Ukrainian interests were of little importance to the Russians.
The British delivered Koch to Polish authorities in 1950, but his trial did not begin until 1958. His crimes in the Ukraine were not dealt with at the trial, but he was charged with the deaths of 400,000 Polish citizens. Koch was originally sentenced to death, but was in relatively poor health; Polish law does not allow for people in poor health to be put to death so the sentence was commuted to life in prison. Koch died in prison in 1986.