GLUECKS, RICHARD°

GLUECKS, RICHARD° (1889–1945), SS-Brigadefuehrer (major general), charged with participation in the mass murder of Jews in the "Final Solution" (see holocaust , General Survey). A native of Dusseldorf, he served as an artillery officer during World War I, and then became a merchant. After Hitler came to power, Gluecks became a member of the Nazi Party and the SS. In 1936 he was appointed chief of staff under Theodor Eike, inspector of concentration camps, and succeeded him in 1940. In 1941, when the Inspection Authority was absorbed into the "Economic and Administrative Main Office" (WVHA) of the SS, Gluecks became head of Amtsgruppe D, which supervised the concentration camps (see Concentration camps ). Gluecks was responsible for the establishment of Auschwitz and the construction of gas chambers. Under his jurisdiction, exploitation of prisoner's labor was introduced in the camps. He died in Flensburg, seemingly by suicide. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz (1961), index; R. Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews (1961), 605, 706, and index; IMT, Trial of the Major War Criminals, 24 (1949) index. (Yehuda Reshef)