Ernst Boepple (30.11.1887 Reutlingen – 15.12.1950 Krakow/Poland)

Ernst Boepple, who grew up in Reutlingen, completed his studies in history and modern languages ​​in Strasbourg in 1916 and received his doctorate. After the First World War, in which he served as an infantry officer—ultimately as a first lieutenant—he took over the decidedly antisemitic ‘Deutscher Volksverlag‘ from Munich-based publisher Lehmann in 1919, which issued such publications as many of the early writings by the Nazi Party's chief ideologist Alfred Rosenberg. Boepple became a member of the as yet still small German Workers' Party (DAP) in November that same year and joined the re-established Nazi Party in May 1926. He was a member of the SS from March 1934 onward, holding the rank of Oberführer from 1935 onward. In September 1933, he became an official in the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. Following the death of Hans Schemm, he was made acting Minister of Culture, and from March 1937 he became State Secretary and representative of the Minister.

After a disagreement with Regional Leader (Gauleiter) Adolf Wagner, he left the Ministry at the end of September 1939 and served in the military from January 1940 until September 1941. After that and until June 1944, he succeeded Josef Bühler as second State Secretary in the General Government, led by Hans Frank, for the occupied Polish territories. In this capacity, he was one of those primarily responsible for the mass murder of the Jews there. From August 1944 until March 1945, he served as Hans Frank's liaison officer for the Regional Leaders in Silesia. He returned to Munich in April 1945, heading up the Bavarian State Chancellery until the end of the war.

Boepple was arrested by the American occupation authorities in July 1945 and extradited to Poland in October 1947, where a court in Krakow sentenced him to death on December 14, 1949. He was executed on December 15, 1950.