Seyss-Inquart, Arthur

(1892–1946)

   A lawyer by training, Seyss-Inquart was appointed by Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg as a mediator between himself and the Austrian Nazis. In February 1938, Adolf Hitler pressured Schuschnigg to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Austria’s minister of the interior with total control of the police and public safety. Following Schuschnigg’s resignation in March 1938, Seyss-Inquart became the new chancellor and immediately invited the Germans to enter Austria, allegedly to maintain law and order. Following the Anschluss on 13 March 1938, SeyssInquart was appointed Reich commissioner of Ostmark (Austria). In the aftermath of Germany’s occupation of Poland, Seyss-Inquart in October 1939 was appointed deputy governor-general in the General-Gouvernement under Hans Frank. Following the German occupation of Holland, he was appointed Reich commissioner of the occupied Netherlands. It was in this position that Seyss-Inquart initiated anti-Jewish legislation as well as sanctioning the pillage of Jewish property. He was also instrumental in the deportation of the Dutch Jews to the death camps. In regard to this responsibility, Seyss-Inquart engaged in a successful political struggle with Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler over the jurisdictional responsibility for dealing with the Final Solution in the Netherlands. During his tenure as Reich commissioner, Seyss-Inquart was answerable for the deportation and extermination of more than 110,000 Dutch Jews, or 75 percent of the Dutch Jewish population. Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials that commenced on 18 October 1945.