Kurt Daluege (15 September 1897 – 24 October 1946) was the chief of the Ordnungspolizei of Nazi Germany from 26 June 1936 to 31 August 1943, preceding Alfred Wunnenberg, and the Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia from 5 June 1942 to 24 August 1943, succeeding Reinhard Heydrich and preceding Wilhelm Frick.
Biography[]
Kurt Daluege was born in Kreuzberg, Silesia, German Empire (now Kluczbork, Poland) on 15 September 1897. He served on both the eastern and western fronts of World War I as an Imperial German Army soldier, and he joined the Freikorps during fighting against Polish nationalist rebels. He joined the Nazi Party in 1923, and he later became the leader of Berlin's Sturmabteilung (SA) and Joseph Goebbels' deputy gauleiter. In 1930, he left the SA for the SS, and he was sent to spy on the SA and political opponents of the party. From 1932 to 1945, he served in the Reichstag after leaving the Prussian state parliament, and he took over the nonpolitical police of Prussia in time for the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. In 1936, he was made chief of the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo), the green-shirted police force of Nazi Germany. During World War II, he had Polish guerrillas hanged from light posts, ordered the deportation of Jews to concentration camps, carried out reprisal attacks such as the Lidice massacre (which occurred while he was serving as deputy and acting head of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), and suppressed political opposition in Germany. In May 1945, he was arrested by the British Army at Lubeck, and he was extradited to Czechoslovakia in 1946. On 24 October 1946, he was hanged in the Pankrac prison of Prague.