13. The Dark Baron
Baron Otto Gustav von Wachter (1901 – 1949) was an Austrian aristocrat and fervent Nazi. A member of the SS as well as a practicing lawyer, he represented Austrian Nazis until 1934. Then he took part in a failed coup that included the assassination of Austria’s Chancellor and was forced to flee to Germany. Von Wachter returned to Austria in 1938 after it was annexed by Germany, and ran a commission that oversaw the firing or compulsory retirement of all Austrian officials who did not conform to the Nazi regime.
In 1940, von Wachter was made governor of Krakow in the recently conquered Poland. Things immediately took a dark turn for the locals. In his capacity as governor, von Wachter ordered the killing of numerous Poles in retaliation for partisan activities. He also directed the expulsion of tens of thousands of Jews from their homes, and their forcible relocation to the Krakow Ghetto.