Günther Pancke (May 1, 1899 – August 17, 1973) was Higher SS and Police Leader of Denmark. He served during the First World War as frontline officer with the rank of Leutenant. Between 1920 and 1927 he stayed in South America. He joined the NSDAP in 1930 and the SS in 1931. He was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer in 1938 and SS-Obergruppenführer and General of Police on April 20, 1944 and General of the Waffen-SS on March 21, 1945. After 8 years of imprisonement in Denmark, Günther Pancke returned to Germany. He died on August 17, 1973.

Quotes

• At present, there are hundreds of thousands of prisoners in Germany of all nationalities and degrees, partly in camps, but for the most part, however, as workers...The dangers of inter-mixing and bastardizing of our people are extraordinarily grave. They lie to a great extent in the almost unlimited lack of knowledge throughout our nation of the problems of blood.
  • (3 July 1940). Quoted in "Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals" - Page 117 - 1953

About Pancke

• He was a powerless tool in the hands of Himmler, of whom he was afraid, and by whom he was treated poorly. Himmler insulted Pancke like a schoolboy. Pancke was about forty-eight to fifty years old, came from northern Germany.
  • Rudolf Mildner, to Leon Goldensohn (12 February 1946)

• Pancke gave me orders to blow up a museum in Copenhagen, where students gathered, and some other places. I declined and said I needed a written order by Himmler. Pancke was angry, but it was not done. Another example: The State Police were billeted. These billets included the offices of Best, my own, Pancke, and staff, and commissioner of the Ordinary Police and his staff. Near it was a big tourist hotel. Pancke ordered that property blown up as an act of countersabotage. I asked why. The reason was that once in that hotel Pancke's secretary couldn't get a meal served after 7 p.m.
  • Rudolf Mildner, to Leon Goldensohn (12 February 1946)

• In Copenhagen, there was an associate of Best, Paul Barandon. Pancke asked that I put an explosive in Barandon's desk or house. Barandon was a German. Pancke and Barandon had served in the same regiment in the last war; they had had an old quarrel years before, and that was enough for Pancke. It wasn't done.
  • Rudolf Mildner, to Leon Goldensohn (12 February 1946)

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