Werner Blankenburg
Encyclopedia
Werner Blankenburg was head of the Section IIa in the Kanzlei des Führers
Hitler's Chancellery (Kanzlei des Führers)
Die Kanzlei des Führers , also known as Privatkanzlei des Führers, was the Chancellery responsible for the Nazi Party and associated organizations and their dealings directly with Hitler...

 in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, and thus one of the main responsible persons for the National Socialist
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 "Euthanasia"-program Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...

, the annihilation of the Polish Jews in the "Aktion Reinhard", and the experiments with castration by X-Rays in KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Life

Blankenburg was born in Caputh
Caputh
Caputh is a village in the municipality of Schwielowsee, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Brandenburg, Germany.Caputh got a railway station in 1904...

, Kreis Belzig (today Landkreis Potsdam-Mittelmark
Potsdam-Mittelmark
Potsdam-Mittelmark is a Kreis in the western part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring are the district Havelland, the district free cities Brandenburg and Potsdam, the Bundesland Berlin, the district Teltow-Fläming, and the districts Wittenberg, Anhalt-Bitterfeld and Jerichower Land in...

) in the Province of Brandenburg
Province of Brandenburg
The Province of Brandenburg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:The first people who are known to have inhabited Brandenburg were the Suevi. They were succeeded by the Slavonians, whom Henry II conquered and converted to Christianity in...

.

On April 1, 1929, Blankenburg entered the NSDAP (Member Nr. 124744) and the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...

. In 1938, he became Oberreichsleiter (in the rank of SA-Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...

) of section IIa in Hitler's Chancellery (Kanzlei des Führers)
Hitler's Chancellery (Kanzlei des Führers)
Die Kanzlei des Führers , also known as Privatkanzlei des Führers, was the Chancellery responsible for the Nazi Party and associated organizations and their dealings directly with Hitler...

. By that he was deputy for Oberdienstleiter and later SS-Oberführer
Oberführer
Oberführer was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party dating back to 1921. Translated as “Senior Leader”, an Oberführer was typically a Nazi Party member in charge of a group of paramilitary units in a particular geographical region...

, Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack
Viktor Brack , was a Nazi war criminal, the organiser of the Euthanasia Programme, Action T4, where the Nazi state systematically murdered disabled German people...

 the chief of section II which was responsible for affairs of the Party, State, and the Armed Forces. Later, Blankenburg became a SA-Oberführer and was eventually made Brack's successor.

From July 1939, planning started for the mass destruction of adults with intellectual or physical disabilities, later called "Aktion T4". In October 1939, although dated retroactively to September 1, 1939, it was Blankenburg who dictated to a secretary Hitler's authorisation to start the National Socialist "Euthanasia" program. In this declaration, Reichsleiter
Reichsleiter
Reichsleiter , was the second highest political rank of the NSDAP next only to the office of Führer. Reichsleiter also served as a paramilitary rank, for the Nazi Party and was the highest position attainable in any Nazi-Organisation.The Reichsleiter reported directly to Adolf Hitler, in whose...

 Philipp Bouhler
Philipp Bouhler
Philipp Bouhler was a senior Nazi Party official who was both a Reichsleiter and Chief of the Chancellery of the Führer of the NSDAP...

 and Hitler's physician Karl Brandt
Karl Brandt
Karl Brandt was a German Nazi war criminal. He rose to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer in the Allgemeine-SS and SS-Brigadeführer in the Waffen-SS. Among other positions, Brandt headed the administration of the Nazi euthanasia program from 1939 onwards and was selected as Adolf Hitler's personal...

 were named directors of the program. Although, Bouhler left the administration of Aktion T4 largely in the hands of Viktor Brack and Blankenburg.

Since neither the Führer Chancellery nor the Reich Interior Ministry were supposed to show up as responsible for the program, dummy companies were founded which acted as fronts for the government. The Hauptamt II der Kanzlei des Führers, responsible among other duties for recruiting and appointing of personnel, equipment and controlling of the killing centers, is referred to in documents as "Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft Heil- und Pflegeanstalten" (Reich work group for sanatoriums and care institutions). The members of the Chancellery also used fake names; Blankenburg's alias as deputy of the head of non-medical staff was "Brenner". At recruiting of non-medical staff for the Aktion T4 and the various killing centers it was, among others, Blankenburg who introduced selected candidates to the killing program and informed them that the actions were ordered by the Führer and therefore legal; though nevertheless the program had to be kept secret.

After the end of phase one of the "euthanasia"-program on August 24, 1941, the work of the Chancellery and the central headquarter of Aktion T4 was continued in the second phase, borne by "local initiative" rather than central organisation. Personnel freed from T4 duties was mostly transferred to the "Aktion Reinhard", which continued to be subodinate to the Zentralorganisation-T4, while technical orders were given by the SS and Police Leader
SS and Police Leader
SS and Police Leader was a title for senior Nazi officials that commanded large units of the SS, of Gestapo and of the regular German police during and prior to World War II.Three levels of subordination were established for bearers of this title:...

 of the Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...

 district, Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...

.

In April 1945, Blankenburg and Viktor Brack—together with others of Hitler's Chancellery—were evacuated from Berlin to Bavaria. After the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Blankenburg hid under the name "Werner Bieleke" (his wife's maiden name) in the Wangen district of Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

. He worked as a bank clerk in Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...

, and later on as representative for a textile company in Freudenstadt
Freudenstadt
Freudenstadt is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is capital of the district Freudenstadt. The closest population centres are Offenburg to the west and Tübingen to the east ....

. On February 19, 1949, Blankenburg got engaged to a nurse. In spite of being wanted by the police from 1945 to his death, Blankenburg managed to live quietly, even keeping in contact with his parents in an old people's home in Ulm
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...

. He further kept in contact with former colleagues at the Aktion T4.

Blankenburg died in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

-Wangen and is buried there under the name of Werner Bieleke. At the funeral service numerous former members of the Aktion T4 were present, among others August Dietrich Allers and Erwin Lambert
Erwin Lambert
Erwin Hermann Lambert was a perpetrator of the Holocaust. In profession, he was a master mason, building trades foreman, Nazi Party member and member of the Schutzstaffel with the rank of SS-Unterscharführer...

. Blankenburg had been officially declared dead on December 31, 1945, upon request of his wife in 1956.
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