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Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globočnik (21 April 1904 – 31 May 1945) was a Nazi Party official from Austria-Hungary and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. A high-ranking member of the Schutzstaffel, Globočnik was the leader of Operation Reinhard, the organized murder of around one and a half million Jews, mostly of Polish origin, during the Holocaust in the Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibór and Bełżec extermination camps. Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy, Susan Zuccotti. Yale University Press, 2002. , . p. 287Mazower, Mark (2008) Hitler's Empire, pages 382, 384–387, . Historian Michael Allen described him as "the vilest individual in the vilest organization ever known". Globocnik killed himself shortly after his capture and detention by British soldiers.
His father was unable to save enough money required to get an officer's marriage permission and had to leave the service. As was the practice at this time, he was given a job in the Imperial and Royal Mail. Odilo's mother Anna, née Petschinka, was born in Versecz, Kingdom of Hungary (now Vršac, Serbia); she was half-Serbs and half-Croats. In 1914, the family left Trieste for Cseklész, where Franz Globočnik was recalled to active duty after the outbreak of the First World War.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 9–14.
The same year, Globočnik joined the army, via a military school. The war ended his military education prematurely. He moved with his family to Klagenfurt in Carinthia. There as a teenager, he joined the pro-Austrian volunteer militia fighting Slovene volunteers and, later, the Yugoslav Army during the Carinthian War (1918–19).Siegfried J. Pucher: „… in der Bewegung führend tätig“. Odilo Globocnik. Kämpfer für den „Anschluß“. Vollstrecker des Holocaust. Drava, Klagenfurt 1997, p. 18 In 1920, he worked as an underground propagandist for the Austrian cause during the Carinthian Plebiscite.Siegfried J. Pucher: „… in der Bewegung führend tätig“. Odilo Globocnik. Kämpfer für den „Anschluß“. Vollstrecker des Holocaust. Drava, Klagenfurt 1997, p. 19
He later enrolled at the Höhere Staatsgewerbeschule (a higher vocational school for mechanical engineering), where he passed his Matura (the Austrian equivalent of the German Abitur) and graduated with honours.Michael D. Miller & Andreas Schulz: Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945, Volume 1 (Herbert Albrecht - H. Wilhelm Hüttmann), R. James Bender Publishing, 2012, p. 245, . He worked as a porter at the railway station, among other jobs, to help financially support his family.
Globočnik first became politically active in 1922, when he became a prominent member of pre-Nazi Carinthian paramilitary organisations and was seen wearing a swastika. At the time, he was a building tradesman, introduced to his job while engaged to Grete Michner. Her father, Emil Michner, had talked to the director of KÄWAG ( Kärntner Wasserkraftwerke AG), an electricity distribution company of Carinthia, and secured Globočnik a job as a technician and construction supervisor.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 24–25.
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In his 2004 biography of Globočnik, historian Gregor Joseph Kranjc devoted the entire first chapter to the debate concerning Globočnik's ancestry. He says that Globočnik was ridiculed by other Nazis for his surname. p. 47. However, with Globočnik having a powerful and high-ranking ally such as Heinrich Himmler, he was protected from other Nazis, and Himmler defended him by claiming that he was of Aryan race origin and that his surname was a result of "Slavicization," which was consistent with Himmler's Lebensborn programme that kidnapped tens of thousands of Slavic children for forced Germanization under the justification that such children are the result of ancient Aryans. The DNA studies conducted by the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School as part of the John Templeton Foundation Human Atlas project has ironically demonstrated in 2019 that the Slavic population were, in reality, descended from the Yamnaya population, once called Aryans, more directly than the Germanic peoples, as carriers of the Y-haplogroup R1a chromosomal variation, as is found among the Brahmin in India and the upper classes of Persia.
In 2004, historian Joseph Poprzeczny argued in his biography of Globočnik that the story might have been credible, citing Austro-Hungarian census data from 1910 indicating that the Globočniks were ethnic Germans.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, p. 16. However, this claim is dubious as Austro-Hungarian censuses did not record ethnicity from its inhabitants but rather native languages to exaggerate how much German was spoken and subsequently downplay non-German languages and ethnicities within the Empire, which meant that the Globočniks may have just been German-speaking Slavs, especially considering they were living under Habsburg rule and their proximity to Austria. At the time of his birth, the Slovene Lands were ruled directly from Vienna and divided into parts of the duchies of Carniola and Styria and the Austrian Littoral.
His first documented activity for the NSDAP occurred in 1931 when he was documented as distributing propaganda for the party. By then, he had nearly abandoned his work as a building tradesman, and attached himself very closely to the NSDAP. He was assigned to develop a courier and intelligence service for the NSDAP, which channelled funds from the German Reich into Austria. In June 1933, in Vienna, Jewish jeweller was killed when a bomb was thrown at his shop. This was among the earliest murders in Austria attributable to the Nazis, and a number of historians believe that Globočnik was involved in the attack.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 32–34.
Globočnik joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 1 September 1934. His devotion to the Nazi cause paid off, as he was quickly promoted in the party apparatus in Austria. He became a Deputy Gauleiter briefly in Vienna and then in Carinthia between January and May 1933. He was appointed as the head of the party intelligence apparatus in Carinthia, serving from 1934 to 1936. From September 1936 to May 1938, he served as the Chief of Staff of the National Leadership of the Austrian Nazi Party under Hubert Klausner.Michael D. Miller & Andreas Schulz: Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945, Volume 1 (Herbert Albrecht - H. Wilhelm Hüttmann), R. James Bender Publishing, 2012, pp. 246–247, .
Globočnik was a key player in the Anschluss by the Nazis.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 45–59 With the Anschluss, Nazi Germany annexed Austria on 12 March 1938.William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp. 325–329 He was rewarded with an appointment as a State Secretary in the Nazi government, established by Chancellor Arthur Seyss-Inquart on 15 March. At the parliamentary election of 10 April, he was elected as a Nazi deputy to the Reichstag from the newly renamed Ostmark.Michael D. Miller & Andreas Schulz: Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925–1945, Volume 1 (Herbert Albrecht - H. Wilhelm Hüttmann), R. James Bender Publishing, 2012, pp. 248–249, . Next came his appointment as Gauleiter of Reichsgau Vienna on 22 May 1938 by Adolf Hitler.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 45–59.
In his early tenure as Gauleiter, Globočnik espoused Nazi anti-Jewish philosophy: "I will not recoil from radical interventions for the solution of Jewish questions." Later that same year he opened Vienna's first anti-Semitic political exhibition, which was attended by 10,000 visitors on the first day. Prominent at the exhibition and received enthusiastically by the public was the film, "The Eternal Jew".Robin O'Neill, The Belzec Death Camp and the Origin of Jewish Genocide at Galicia (Hebrew and Jewish Department, University College, London: 2002), Chapter IV, cited in Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, p. 64.
Early gestures of accommodation to the new government by Cardinal Innitzer did not assuage the Austrian Nazi radicals, foremost among them being Globočnik.Mark Mazower; Hitler's Empire – Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe; Penguin; 2008; ; pp. 51–52 He launched a crusade against the Church, and the Nazis confiscated property, closed Catholic organisations and sent many priests to Dachau. Anger at the treatment of the Church in Austria grew quickly, and in October 1938 the first act of overt mass resistance to the new regime took place. A rally of thousands left Mass in Vienna chanting "Christ is our Führer", before being dispersed by police.Mark Mazower; Hitler's Empire – Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe; Penguin; 2008; ; p.52 A Nazi mob ransacked Cardinal Innitzer's residence, after he denounced Nazi persecution of the Church.
Globočnik was relieved of his posts and stripped of his party honours on 30 January 1939, when it was discovered that he was involved in illegal foreign currency speculation. As punishment, Himmler transferred Globočnik to the Waffen-SS, in the rank of junior sergeant (Unterscharführer), where he served with SS Standarte "Germania" during the Polish campaign.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 76–80. Himmler liked Globočnik and recognised his value. In late 1939, Globočnik was pardoned, promoted to SS- Brigadeführer, and assigned to Lublin province.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 80, 83.
In the following years, Globočnik was responsible for:
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A colleague's contemporaneous letter reflects Globočnik's state of mind at the time of the 13 October meeting: Globočnik said it was necessary to undertake a "cleansing of the entire General of Jews and Poles" and was "full of good and far-reaching plans" to achieve this objective.Peter Longerich. Holocaust, the Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, pp. 294–95. There are indications that Globočnik may have begun a crude experimental gassing facility in the woods near Belzec shortly before his mid-October meeting with Himmler.Christopher Browning. The Origins of the Final Solution, pp. 364–365. At the 13 October 1941 meeting with Himmler, Globočnik proposed exterminating the Jews in assembly-line fashion in a concentration camp, using gas chambers.Christopher Browning. The Origins of the Final Solution, p. 360. On 14 October 1941 – the day after he had met with Globočnik – Himmler held a five-hour meeting with Reinhard Heydrich to discuss "executions", following which other extermination camp gassing sites were built.Christopher Browning. The Origins of the Final Solution, pp. 365–366. Days later, Himmler forbade all further Jewish emigration from Reich territory "in view of the forthcoming 'Final Solution' to the Jewish question."Christopher Browning. The Origins of the Final Solution, pp. 368–369.
The gassing facilities that Globočnik established at Belzec soon after his 13 October meeting with Himmler were designed by T4 programme personnel assigned to him. They used carbon monoxide, as the T4 programme had done.Peter Longerich, Holocaust, the Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, p. 280Henry Friedlander The Origins of Nazi Genocide, From Euthanasia to the Final Solution, pp. 96, 99 Before it became an extermination camp, Belzec had been part of Himmler's and Globočnik's Burggraben project. The construction of three more death camps, Sobibor and Majdanek in the Lublin district and Treblinka at Małkinia Górna, followed in 1942. Globočnik was complicit in the extermination of more than 1.5 million Jews of Polish, Czech people, Dutch people, French people, Russian people, Slovaks, German, Portugal, Turkey, Spain and origin, as well as a smaller number of non-Jews, in the death camps under his control.
He exploited Jews and non-Jews as slave labourers in his own forced labour camps. He was responsible for seizing the properties and valuables of Incarceration while in charge of Operation Reinhard. Although other arms of the Nazi state were also involved in the overall management of the greater concentration camp system, Globočnik had control over the Aktion Reinhard camps, and any orders that he received came directly from Himmler.Saul Friedländer. , p. 346. From 1942 to 1943, he also oversaw the beginning of the Generalplan Ost, the plan to expel Poles from their lands and resettle those territories with German settlers (see Zamość Uprising). On 9 November 1942, Globočnik was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant der Polizei.
On November 4, 1943, Globočnik reported to Himmler from Trieste that he had concluded Operation Reinhard, as of October 19, 1943, and that all camps had been dissolved. He also sent a final report.Document 4024-PS in: IMT: The Nuremberg Trial against the Major War Criminals..., photomechanical reprint Munich 1989, Vol. 34, ISBN 3-7735-2525-7, pp. 58–92. In his reply, Himmler thanked Globočnik and expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the great and unique services he had rendered to the entire German people in carrying out "Operation Reinhard."
After the completion of Operation Reinhard in Poland, he was sent to Trieste, his hometown.
Having looted assets stolen from Holocaust victims at in occupied Poland, Globočnik went to Italy with a number of his men who had taken part in Aktion Tiergarten 4 including Franz Stangl from Treblinka and Franz Reichleitner from Sobibor. A few days after 8 September 1943 (when the Armistice between Italy and the Allies signed on 3 September had come into force), Christian Wirth arrived in Trieste. Together, they converted an old rice mill on the outskirts of the city into a detention centre complete with a crematorium, known as Risiera di San Sabba (in Slovene language: Rižarna). At San Sabba, thousands of Italian Jews, partisans and other political dissidents were interrogated, tortured and murdered under the direction of these men after the 1943 downfall of Benito Mussolini and the German takeover of the country.
In Slovene Littoral, Slovene Partisans were fought both by Germans and by the Littoral Home Guard, which was also under Globočnik's direct command. It provided Germans with lists of locations of Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation hideouts and suspicious individuals (described as propagandists).
With the advance of Allied troops, Globočnik retreated into Austrian Carinthia and finally went into hiding high in the mountains near Weissensee, still in the company of his closest staff members.
His body was taken to be buried in a local churchyard, but the priest reportedly refused to have "the body of such a man" resting in consecrated ground. A grave was dug outside the churchyard, next to an outer wall, and the body was buried without ceremony.Poprzeczny, Odilo Globocnik, pp. 366–82
Contemporary photographs of Globočnik's corpse and reliable reports, such as the Regimental Diary and Field Reports of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, detailed the circumstances of his capture and suicide. Some speculated that his death came at the hands of either partisans or a Jewish revenge squad, or that he was turned over alive to US intelligence by the British. The latter claim is based on an "official US document signed by US CIC S/A Operations Officer Andrew L. Venters, dated 27 October 1948, more than three years after his supposed death". However, this document was exposed as a forgery in the 1980s by the investigative writer and historian, Gitta Sereny; she gives all details in a long article in The Observer newspaper."Spin Time For Hitler", The Observer, London, 21 April 1996.
In the Harry Turtledove alternate-history novel In the Presence of Mine Enemies, set in 2010, a former Reichskommissar for Ostland Affairs called Odilo Globočnik (likely an analogue rather than the historical figure) is briefly installed as Führer in an SS-backed coup d'état against the reformist Heinz Buckliger; after the coup fails due to popular opposition, Globočnik is lynched.
Death
Globočnik was tracked down and captured by a British armoured cavalry unit on 31 May 1945 in Carinthia, Austria. A unit from the 4th Queen's Own Hussars, found him on the Möslacher Alm, a mountain in the Eastern Alps, with seven other wanted Nazis: Georg Michalsen, Friedrich Rainer, Ernst Lerch, Hermann Höfle, Karl Hellesberger, Hugo Herzog and Friedrich Plöb. Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals, fold3.com; accessed 20 January 2016. Globočnik was taken to Paternion in Villach-Land District to be interrogated. However, before he was questioned, Globočnik committed suicide by biting on a cyanide capsule.
Portrayal in media
Globočnik is a key antagonist in the Robert Harris alternative-history novel Fatherland; in the book set in 1964, a character based on Globočnik is still alive and a top SS official. In the 1994 television film adaptation, Globočnik was played by John Shrapnel.
Notes
Further reading
(2025). 9781932970210, R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 9781932970210
(1989). 9783925037474, Fourier Verlag. ISBN 9783925037474
External links
Categories: 1904 Births, 1945 Deaths, 1945 Suicides, Austrian Assassins, Austrian Mass Murderers, Austrian Nazi Propagandists, Austrian People Of Croatian Descent, Austrian People Of Serbian Descent, Austrian People Of Slovenian Descent, Austrian Waffen-ss Personnel, Austrian War Criminals, Einsatzgruppen Personnel, Ethnic Slovene People, Gauleiters, Holocaust Perpetrators In Poland, Members Of The Reichstag 1938–1945, Military Personnel From Trieste, Nazi Persecution Of The Catholic Church, Nazis Who Died By Suicide In Austria, Nazis Who Died By Suicide In Prison Custody, Operation Reinhard, People From Austrian Littoral, Nazi Assassins, Nazis Convicted Of Crimes, Prisoners And Detainees Of Austria, Prisoners Who Died In British Military Detention, Recipients Of German Pardons, Sonderabteilung Einsatz R Personnel, Ss And Police Leaders, Ss-gruppenführer, Suicides By Cyanide Poisoning, Vienna In World War Ii
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