Name Wilhelm Gocke | ||
Wilhelm Gocke (12 February 1898, Schwelm, German Empire – 20 October 1944, Fontana Liri, Italy) was an SS-Standartenfuhrer, SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer der Reserve der Waffen-SS and a commandant of Warsaw concentration camp and the Kovno Ghetto.
Life
After the outbreak of the First World War, Gocke left his school education and volunteered for the military as a 16-year-old. Although he was considered a promising student, the outbreak of the war effectively marked the end of his education. He obtained the rank of Leutnant and after the war ended, he was part of the nationalist Lutzow Freikorps in 1919.
Gocke joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party member number 335,455). In 1931, Gocke joined the SS (member number 21,529). As of April 1933, he was part of the SS-Standarten.
From June 1942, Wilhelm Gocke was leader of the Narvik Arbeitslager (work camp) in Norway, and from July 1942, a warehouse manager in Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. As of July 1943, he served as commandant of Warsaw concentration camp, and from September 1943, as commandant of the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania. Gocke served in this capacity until June 1944. As a camp commandant he received a base salary of 740 Marks.
Gocke then served under Higher SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik in the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, where the SS were conducting anti-partisan activity. Gocke was killed in October 1944. According to witnesses, Gocke was involved in the shooting of Jews.