Udo von Woyrsch Udo Gustav Wilhelm Egon von Woyrsch ( 24 July 1895 – 14 January 1983 ) was a high - ranking Nazi , who rose to the rank of SS " Obergruppenführer " and was responsible for numerous murders during The Holocaust . Early life . Udo von Woyrsch was born in Schwanowitz or Zwanowice , Brzeg County , in Silesia in 1895 . His family owned an estate there . His family had originally come from Southern Bohemia , and had established themselves around 1500 in Troppau / Opava ( Moravian Silesia ) . The family were recognised minor nobility : one ancestor had even served as a Prussian royal chamberlain and his uncle was the Prussian General Field Marshal Remus von Woyrsch ( 1847 – 1920 ) . From early 1914 to 9 February 1919 Udo von Woyrsch served with the Germany Army as an " Oberleutnant " ( first lieutenant ) in the Great War . From 10 February 1919 to 23 August 1920 he was associated with an organization called the " Grenzschutz " ( " Border Defense " ) . He was awarded a variety of medals during the war , including the Iron Cross ( First Class ) and later the " Cross of Honour 1914 - 1918 Combatants " . Woyrsch married his first wife Marie - Eva von Eichborn ( * 5 March 1902 ; † ? ) on 25 June 1924 at Gut Pisch Kowitz in Lower Silesia . She was the daughter of the landowner Wolfgang von Eichborn Kowitz . Together they had a daughter , Tatjana Marie Eva Cäcilie . This marriage was dissolved on 19 May 1933 in Brzeg ( Lower Silesia ) . His second marriage was to Inez Freiin Tschammer und Quaritz ( * December 21 , 1908 in Lower Tschirnau , Guhrau District , Lower Silesia ; † ? ) on 21 September 1934 in Bad Salzbrunn ( Lower Silesia ) . She was the daughter of the landowner Siegfried Freiherr von Tschammer und Quaritz ( of the House Stephanshain ) . The second marriage resulted in four children , three boys and one girl . Nazi career . According to Richard Grunberger Woyrsch had been involved in the Freikorps during the 1920s . Early on Woyrsch joined the NSDAP ( Membership number 162 , 349 ) and the SS ( Member Number 3 , 689 ) . Himmler charged him with organising the SS in the Nazi Gau Silesia ; as such von Woyrsch became the first commander of the " SS - Oberabschnitt Südost " . In 1933 von Woyrsch was elected to the Reichstag . He was the SS and Police Leader in Elbe , and in 1934 Von Woyrsch participated in the Night of the Long Knives , ordering the execution of his SS rival Emil Sembach . On 30 June 1934 " he took command in Silesia , and on the orders of Göring arrested a number of SA leaders , disarmed all SA headquarters ' guards and occupied the Breslau police headquarters . Von Woyrsch ' s men murdered some of the SA officers as a result of an on - going private feud . " Udo von Woyrsch had a close friendship with Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich , and was on Himmler ' s personal staff . On 1 January 1935 he was promoted to SS " Obergruppenführer " ( then the second - highest rank in the SS ) . In September 1939 Woyrsch commanded the Einsatzgruppen ( " Special Purpose Operational Group " ) specifically charged with , and adept at , terrorizing and murdering the Jewish population of Poland . The brutality of this Einsatzgruppen in Kattowitz was such that outraged Wehrmacht officers interceded with the Gestapo to have it withdrawn . Between 20 April 1940 and February 1944 Woyrsch was the Higher SS and Police Leader in military district IV and district leader in Dresden . According to Richard Grunberger Woyrsch was part of Himmler ' s entourage trailing about northern Germany in 1945 . After 1945 . Woyrsch was a POW of the British from 1945 to 1948 when he was sentenced to 20 years but released in 1952 . He was tried again in 1957 for the " Röhm Putsch " but released in 1960 .