Niels Linse (21 June 1900 – 24 August 1948) was a member of the Nazi Party from Austria.
Biography[]
Niels Linse was born on 21 June 1900 in Wels, northern Austria in Austria-Hungary. Linse became a pamphleteer during World War I, writing anti-Russian pieces; after the war's end, he moved on to anti-Semitism and German nationalism. Linse joined the banned Austrian Nazi Party and was one of the men who supported the 1934 assassination of dictator Engelbert Dollfuss. In 1938, Linse raised the flag of the Nazi Party in the capital of Vienna as the Anschluss took place and Nazi Germany annexed Austria, becoming a member of the German National Socialist Workers' Party (NSDAP) in Wels, becoming its mayor. During World War II, Linse purged the city of Austrian Jews, Romani, the handicapped, and all other "undesirables" targeted in the Holocaust. After the war's end, he was arrested by the United States and hanged for war crimes.