Karl Hanke. A Nazi fanatic, protegé of Joseph Goebbels whom he served as personal secretary. He served on the
3. Panzer-Division during the Poland Campaign and in 1940 he served under Erwin Rommel command with the
7. Panzer-Division in France. He received the Iron Cross Second and First class and was discharged from the Heer with the rank of
Oberleutnant after criticizing Rommel's command style but was almost inmediately appointed as
Gauleiter of Lower Silesia. In 1945 he led the early stages of the defense of "
Festung Breslau".
He was named by Hitler to be Breslau Battle Commander "
Kampfkommandant". He oversaw the battle with his charateristic fanatism, Joseph Goebbels praised Hanke's fanatism and unconditional support for Hitler in his personal diary. He was appointed
Reichsführer-SS on Hitler's last will, replacing Heinrich Himmler on 29th April 1945 and was also awarded with the "
German Order" (The highest decoration a Nazi Party member could achieve). General Hermann Niehoff surrendered the city of Breslau to the Soviets on 6 May 1945, Hanke flown out of the city a day before and flew to Prague, attaching himself to the
18th SS-Freiwilligen-Panzer-Grenadier-Division "Horst Wessel", wearing the SS uniform of a private attempting to cover his identity. After a fierce battle with Czech partisans, he was captured and identified as Karl Hanke by his captors and placed in a PoW camp. He attempted to escape in early June 1945 with other PoWs, the Czech captors opened fire and it is said that Hanke was the first one to die.