Bursagasse 18/4: A Holocaust Perpetrator – Theodor Dannecker

Theodor Dannecker (1913-1945) was one of the most important organizers of the methodic murder of European Jews. As Adolf Eichmann's "Judenreferent" (expert on Jewish affairs), he was deeply involved in the deportations of French, Bulgarian, Italian, and Hungarian Jews.

Theodor Dannecker was born in 1913 in Bursagasse 18/4, where his parents owned a men's clothing store. In the summer of 1932, he became a member of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Worker's Party, NSDAP) and its paramilitary elite organization, the Schutzstaffel ("Security Squadron", SS). The trained merchant had already participated in actions aimed at Jewish-owned shops. Since March 1936, he worked full-time as the SS's "Judenreferent" (expert on Jewish affairs) in Stuttgart. Part of his job description was the monitoring of Jewish organizations and the recording of all Jews in Württemberg in a card index. In 1937, the head of the "Judenreferat" (Department of Jewish Affairs) in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office, RSHA), Adolf Eichmann, sent for Dannecker to come to Berlin. Dannecker quickly became one of Eichmann's most important staff members. He was primarily responsible for the deportation of about 476,000 Jews from several European countries to the extermination camps in German-occupied eastern Europe. He committed suicide while in American captivity in 1945.

Numerous other Nazi perpetrators had biographical ties to Tübingen. For the most part, they had been radicalized in the local academic and völkisch social environment during their studies at Tübingen University. Rightwing organizations, nationalist student fraternities, and the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (National Socialist German Student League, NSDStB) molded them politically. These networks served as stepping stones for careers in the SS or the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police, Gestapo).

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