Gottlob Berger Gottlob Berger ( 16 July 1896 – 5 January 1975 ) was a German Nazi official and war criminal . In 1939 , he was Reichsführer - SS Heinrich Himmler ' s main recruiting officer . From 1940 , he was Chief of Staff for the Waffen - SS and head of SS main office ( SS - Hauptamt ) . His highest rank during World War II was Obergruppenführer . After the war he was convicted of war crimes . Earlier career . He was born at Gerstetten , Württemberg . Berger volunteered for military service at the beginning of World War I and rose to the rank of first lieutenant in the infantry by the time of his discharge in 1919 . He received several wounds and decorations of the Iron Cross first and second class . After joining the Nazi Party in 1922 , he became a member of the SA and entered SS service in 1936 . He achieved the rank of major in the reserve by 1938 , but his initial rank upon entering the SS was colonel , based upon his SA service through 1933 . According to some historians , Berger was one of the principal masterminds behind the eventual creation of the Waffen SS . Nazi organizational efforts . He was a co - author of Heinrich Himmler ' s pamphlet " Der Untermensch " , and also promoted the pamphlet " Mit Schwert und Wiege " ( " With Sword and Cradle " ) for the recruitment of non - Germans . He was the father - in - law of " SS - Sturmbannführer " Karl Leib , the head of the Norwegian recruitment office at Drammensveien , Oslo . In SS ranks , he was known as one of Himmler ' s " Twelve Apostles " and was nicknamed " " der Allmaechtige Gottlob " " — " the Almighty Gottlob " ( a play on " The almighty God " , as " Gott " is the German word for " God " ) . His organizational abilities contributed to the amazing expansion of the " Waffen - SS " in World War II , but he also became ensnared in typical in - fighting among the SS hierarchy . He ran the main SS office in Berlin from 1940 and was involved in liaising with the so - called ' Eastern Territories ' . In August 1944 , he was sent to deal with an uprising in Slovakia and immediately after this was put in control of all prisoner of war camps . Upon the establishment of the Volkssturm in 1944 Berger was appointed one of two Chiefs of Staff along with Helmuth Friedrichs . Trials for crimes against humanity . After the war , he was arrested and put on trial in the Ministries Trial in 1947 . In 1949 , there was an attempt to assign blame for the POW death marches against Berger and the indictment read : that between September 1944 and May 1945 , hundreds of thousands of American and Allied prisoners of war were compelled to undertake forced marches in severe weather without adequate rest , shelter , food , clothing and medical supplies ; and that such forced marches , conducted under the authority of the defendant Berger , chief of Prisoner - of - War Affairs , resulted in great privation and deaths to many thousands of prisoners . Berger claimed that it was in fact the Germans ' duty under the 1929 Geneva Convention to remove POWs from a potential combat zone , as long as it did not put their lives in even greater danger . He also claimed that the rapid advance of the Red Army had surprised the Germans , who had planned to transport the POWs by train . He claimed that he had protested about the decision , made by Hitler , according to him , but he was " without power or authority to countermand or avoid the order " . The case failed due to these claims and the lack of eyewitness evidence — most ex - POWs were completely unaware of the trial taking place . He was however convicted in 1949 for his role in the genocide of European Jews and sentenced to 25 years in prison . The sentence was reduced to 10 years in 1951 because of his refusal to kill The " Prominente " in Oflag IV - C at Colditz Castle , despite direct orders from Adolf Hitler . He had helped these prisoners escape by moving them to Bavaria and then onto Austria , where he met up with them twice before they were returned to American forces . He claimed that he had saved the Prominente as Ernst Kaltenbrunner ( head of the RSHA ) had sent a group of extremists to try to kill them . After the war , he claimed that Hitler had wanted more shootings of prisoners and more punishments , but that he had resisted this . In 1948 , Berger gave details to an American judge in Nuremberg of Hitler ' s plans to hold 35 , 000 Allied prisoners hostage in a " last redoubt " in the Bavarian mountains . If a peace deal was not forthcoming , Hitler had ordered that the hostages were to be executed . Berger claimed that on 22 April 1945 , Hitler had signed orders to this effect and these were passed to him by Eva Braun but he decided to stall and not carry out the order . After World War II , Berger also claimed that there was a plan , proposed by the " Luftwaffe " and approved by Hitler , to set up special POW camps for captured British and American airmen in the center of large German cities to act as human shield s against Allied bombing raids . Berger realized that this would contravene the 1929 Geneva Convention and argued that there was not enough barbed wire — as a result , this plan was not implemented . Activities after release from prison . After his release from prison in 1951 , he worked on the staff of the right - wing journal " Nation Europa " based in Coburg , and died on 5 January 1975 in his city of birth .