View source for Arthur Seyss-Inquart

{{Short description|Austrian Nazi politician (1892–1946)}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2018}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix    = 
| name                = Arthur Seyss-Inquart
| image               = Arthur Seyss-Inquart.jpg
| caption             = Seyss-Inquart {{circa}} 1940s
| office              = [[Chancellor of Austria]]
| term                = 11–13 March 1938
| president           = [[Wilhelm Miklas]]
| 1blankname          = {{nowrap|Vice-Chancellor}}
| 1namedata           = [[Edmund Glaise-Horstenau]]
| predecessor         = [[Kurt Schuschnigg]]
| successor           = ''Position abolished''<br/>[[Karl Renner]] (from 1945)
| office1             = ''[[Reichsstatthalter]]'' of [[Austria under National Socialism|Austria]]
| term_start1         = 15 March 1938
| term_end1           = 1 May 1939
| predecessor1        = ''Office established''
| successor1          = ''Office abolished''
| office2             = [[General Government|Deputy Governor-General of the <br>General Government of Occupied Poland]]
| term_start2         = 26 October 1939
| term_end2           = 18 May 1940
| 1blankname2         = {{nowrap|Governor-General}}
| 1namedata2          = [[Hans Frank]]
| predecessor2        = ''Office established''
| successor2          = [[Josef Bühler]]
| office3             = ''[[Reichskommissar]]'' of the [[Reichskommissariat Niederlande|Netherlands]]
| term_start3         = 29 May 1940
| term_end3           = 5 May 1945
| predecessor3        = [[Alexander von Falkenhausen]] (as Military Governor)
| successor3          = ''Office abolished''
| title4              = Additional positions
| suboffice4          = [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)#Ministers of Foreign Affairs (1919–1945)|''Reichsminister'' of Foreign Affairs]]
| subterm4            = April–May 1945
| suboffice5          = ''[[Reichsminister]]'' [[Minister without portfolio|without portfolio]]
| subterm5            = 1939–1945
| suboffice6          = Member of the [[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Greater German Reichstag]]
| subterm6            = 1938–1945
| suboffice7          = [[Federal Ministry of Defence (Austria)|Minister of Defence of Austria]]
| subterm7            = March 1938
| suboffice8          = [[Ministry of the Interior (Austria)|Minister of the Interior of Austria]]
| subterm8            = February–March 1938
| suboffice9          = State Councillor of Austria
| subterm9            = 1937–1938
| signature           = Arthur Seyss-Inquart signature.svg
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1892|7|22|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Stonařov|Stannern]], Austria-Hungary
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1946|10|16|1892|07|22|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Nuremberg]], Germany
| death_cause         = [[Execution by hanging]]
| party               = {{plainlist|
* [[Independent politician|Independent]] (1933–1938)
* [[Nazi Party]] (1938–1945)
 }}
| spouse              = {{marriage|Gertrud Maschka|December 1916}}
| children            = 3
| cabinet             = [[Seyss-Inquart government|Seyss-Inquart]]
| allegiance          = Austria-Hungary
| branch              = [[Austro-Hungarian Army]]
| serviceyears        = 1914–1918
| battles             = [[World War I]]
| module              =  {{Infobox criminal
  |child      = yes
  |conviction = [[Crimes of aggression]]<br>[[War crimes]]<br>[[Crimes against humanity]]
| trial       = Nuremberg trials
| conviction_penalty = [[Capital punishment|Death]]
| conviction_status = [[Executed]]
}}
}}

'''Arthur Seyss-Inquart''' ({{langx|de|Seyß-Inquart}}; {{IPA|de-AT|ˈartuːɐ̯ saɪs ˈɪŋkvart|Arthur Seyss-Inquart.ogg}}; 22 July 1892{{spaced ndash}} 16 October 1946) was an Austrian [[Austrian National Socialism|Nazi]] politician and [[Nuremberg trials|convicted war criminal]] who served as [[Chancellor of Austria]] in 1938 for two days before the ''[[Anschluss]]''. His positions in [[Nazi Germany]] included deputy governor to [[Hans Frank]] in the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|General Government of Occupied Poland]], and ''[[Reichskommissar]]'' for the [[German-occupied Netherlands]]. In the latter role, he shared responsibility for the [[The Holocaust in the Netherlands|deportation of Dutch Jews]] and the shooting of hostages.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Arthur Seyss-Inquart|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/arthur-seyss-inquart|access-date=17 June 2021|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org|language=en}}</ref>

During [[World War I]], Seyss-Inquart fought for the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] with distinction. After the war he became a successful lawyer, and went on to join the governments of [[Chancellor of Austria|Chancellors]] [[Engelbert Dollfuss]] and [[Kurt Schuschnigg]]. In 1938, Schuschnigg resigned in the face of a German invasion, and Seyss-Inquart was appointed his successor. The newly installed Nazis proceeded to transfer power to Germany, and Austria subsequently became the German province of [[Ostmark (Austria)|Ostmark]], with Seyss-Inquart as its governor (''Reichsstatthalter'').

During [[World War II]], Seyss-Inquart served briefly as the Deputy Governor General in [[General Government|occupied Poland]] and, following the fall of the [[Low Countries]] in 1940, he was appointed ''[[Reichskommissar]]'' of the [[Reichskommissariat Niederlande|occupied Netherlands]]. He was a member of the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS) and held the rank of SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]''. He instituted a reign of terror, with Dutch civilians subjected to forced labour and the vast majority of Dutch Jews deported and murdered.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gerard.|first=Aalders|title=Nazi looting : the plunder of Dutch Jewry during the Second World War|date=2004|publisher=Berg|isbn=1-85973-722-6|oclc=53223516}}</ref>

At the [[Nuremberg trials]], Seyss-Inquart was found guilty of [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]], sentenced to death, and [[Nuremberg executions|executed]] by hanging.<ref>{{Cite news|date=11 September 2009|title=Final moments of Nazis executed at Nuremberg|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/11/nazis-nuremberg-executed-hermann-goring|access-date=17 June 2021|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Nuremberg Trial Judgements: Arthur Seyss-Inquart|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nuremberg-trial-judgements-arthur-seyss-inquart|access-date=17 June 2021|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>

== Early life ==
[[File:Arthur Seyss-Inquart (1925).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Seyss-Inquart in 1925]]
Seyss-Inquart was born in 1892 in [[Stonařov|Stannern]] ({{langx|cs|Stonařov}}), a German-speaking village in the neighbourhood of the predominantly German-speaking town of [[Jihlava|Iglau]] ({{langx|cs|Jihlava}}). This area constituted a German linguistic island in the midst of a Czech-speaking region; this may have contributed to the outspoken national consciousness of the family, and the young Arthur in particular. Iglau was an important town in [[Moravia]], one of the [[Czech lands|Czech provinces]] of the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]], in which there was increasing rivalry between [[Germans]] and [[Czechs]]. His parents were the school principal Emil Zajtich (who changed his surname to Seyss-Inquart) and Augusta Hirenbach. His father was Czech and his mother was German.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arthur Seyss-Inquart : Nazi Germany |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/GERseyss.htm |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref>

The family moved to [[Vienna]] in 1907. Seyss-Inquart later studied [[jurisprudence|law]] at the [[University of Vienna]]. At the beginning of [[World War I]] in August 1914 Seyss-Inquart enlisted with the [[Austro-Hungarian Army|Austrian Army]] and was given a commission with the [[German Tyrol|Tyrolean]] ''Kaiserjäger'', subsequently serving in [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Russia]], [[Romania during World War I|Romania]] and [[Italian Front (World War I)|Italy]]. He was decorated for bravery on a number of occasions and he completed his final examinations for his degree while recovering from wounds in 1917. Seyss-Inquart had five older siblings: Hedwig (born 1881), Richard (born 3 April 1883, became a Roman Catholic priest, but left the priesthood, married in a civil ceremony and became ''Oberregierungsrat'' [senior government counsel] and prison superior by 1940 in the [[Ostmark (Austria)|Ostmark]]), Irene (born 1885), Henriette (born 1887) and Robert (born 1891).

In 1911, Seyss-Inquart met Gertrud Maschka. The couple married in December 1916 and had three children: Ingeborg Carolina Augusta Seyss-Inquart (born 18 September 1917), Richard Seyss-Inquart (born 22 August 1921) and Dorothea Seyss-Inquart (born 7 May 1928).

== Political career and the ''Anschluss'' ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-5243, Wien, Arthur Seyß-Inquart, Adolf Hitler.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Seyss-Inquart with Hitler, [[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler]], [[Reinhard Heydrich|Heydrich]], Kaltenbrunner and [[Martin Bormann|Bormann]] in Vienna, 1938]]
Seyss-Inquart went into law after the war and in 1921 set up his own practice. During the early years of the [[Austrian First Republic]], he was close to the [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Fatherland Front]]. A successful lawyer, Seyss-Inquart was invited to join the [[cabinet (politics)|cabinet]] of Chancellor [[Engelbert Dollfuss]] in 1933. Following Dollfuss' murder in 1934, he became a State Councillor from 1937 under [[Kurt Schuschnigg]]. A keen mountaineer, Seyss-Inquart became the head of the German-Austrian Alpine Club. He later became a devotee of [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s concepts of racial purity and sponsored various expeditions to [[Tibet]] and other parts of Asia in hopes of proving [[Aryan race|Aryan racial concepts]] and theories. Seyss-Inquart was not initially a member of the [[Austrian National Socialism|Austrian National Socialist]] party, though he was sympathetic to many of their views and actions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Snyder|first1=Louis L.|author-link1=Louis Leo Snyder|title=Encyclopedia of the Third Reich|date=1976|publisher=McGraw-Hill|page=320}}</ref> By 1938, however, Seyss-Inquart knew which way the political wind was blowing and became a respectable frontman for the Austrian National Socialists.

In February 1938, Seyss-Inquart was appointed Austrian [[Ministry of the Interior (Austria)|Minister of the Interior]] by Schuschnigg, after Hitler had threatened Schuschnigg with military actions against Austria in the event of non-compliance. On 11 March 1938, faced with a German invasion aimed at preventing a [[plebiscite]] on independence, Schuschnigg resigned as Austrian Chancellor.  Under growing pressure from Berlin, President [[Wilhelm Miklas]] reluctantly appointed Seyss-Inquart his successor. On the next day, German troops crossed the border of Austria at the [[telegraph]]ed invitation of Seyss-Inquart.  This telegram had actually been drafted beforehand and was released after the troops had begun to march, so as to justify the action in the eyes of the international community. Before his triumphant entry into [[Vienna]], Hitler had planned to leave Austria as a pro-Nazi puppet state headed by Seyss-Inquart. However, the acclamation for the German army from the majority of the Austrian population led Hitler to change course and opt for a full ''[[Anschluss]]'', in which Austria was incorporated into [[Nazi Germany]] as the province of [[Ostmark (Austria)|Ostmark]]. Only then, on 13 March 1938, did Seyss-Inquart join the Nazi Party.<ref name=Judseyss>{{Cite web |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judseyss.asp |title=Judgement : Seyss-Inquart |publisher=[[Avalon Project|The Avalon Project]]}}</ref>

== Head of Ostmark and Southern Poland ==
Seyss-Inquart drafted the legislative act reducing Austria to a province of Germany and signed it into law on 13 March. With Hitler's approval, he became Governor (''[[Reichsstatthalter]]'') of the newly named Ostmark, thus becoming Hitler's personal representative in Austria. [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]] served as chief minister and [[Josef Burckel]] as Commissioner for the Reunion of Austria (concerned with the "Jewish Question"). On 10 April 1938, Seyss-Inquart was elected as a deputy to the ''[[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Reichstag]]'' from Ostmark and would retain this seat until May 1945.<ref>[https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/selectmaske.html?pnd=118764934&recherche=ja Arthur Seyss-Inquart entry] in the [https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/ ''Reichstag'' Members Database]</ref> He also received an honorary [[SS]] rank of ''[[Gruppenführer]]'' and in May 1939 he was made a ''[[Reichsminister]]'' [[Minister without Portfolio|without Portfolio]] in [[Cabinet Hitler|Hitler's cabinet]].  Almost as soon as he took office, he ordered the confiscation of Jewish property and sent Jews to concentration camps. Late in his regime, he collaborated in the deportation of Jews from Austria.

Following the invasion of [[Poland]] in 1939, Seyss-Inquart was named as the [[Chief of Civil Administration]] for Southern Poland, but did not take up that post before the [[General Government]] was created, in which he became Deputy to the [[Governor General]] [[Hans Frank]], remaining in this position until 18 May 1940.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NT_Nazi_Vol-V.pdf Positions Held by Seyss-Inquart, Document 2910-PS, p. 579] in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol.V, Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, 1946,  Retrieved 3 January 2021.</ref> He fully supported the heavy-handed policies put into effect by Frank, including persecution of Jews. He was also aware of the ''[[Abwehr]]''{{'}}s murder of Polish intellectuals.

== Reichskommissar in the Netherlands ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 121-1976, Arthur Seyß-Inquart.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.7|Seyss-Inquart in [[The Hague]] (1940)]]
Following the capitulation of the [[Netherlands]] on 15 May 1940, Seyss-Inquart was appointed ''[[Reichskommissar]]'' for the Occupied Netherlands. He directed the civil administration, imposed complete economic subordination to Germany, and carried out Nazi policies. In April 1941, he was promoted to SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Biondi | first = Robert | title = SS Officers List: SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer (As of 30 January 1942) | year = 2000 | publisher = [[Schiffer Publishing]] | page= 7 | isbn = 978-0764310614 }}</ref> Among the Dutch people he was mockingly referred to as "''Zes en een kwart''" ("six and a quarter"), a play on his name, and the fact that Seyss-Inquart suffered from a limp. He supported the Dutch [[National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands|NSB]] and allowed them to create the paramilitary ''[[Nederlandse Landwacht]]'', which acted as an auxiliary police force. Other political parties were banned in late 1941 and many former government officials were imprisoned at [[Kamp Sint-Michielsgestel]]. The administration of the country was controlled by Seyss-Inquart and he answered directly to Hitler.<ref name="OSS Biography">{{cite web |work = Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection |title = Biographical Sketch: Seyss-Inquart, Arthur |url = https://hydrastg.library.cornell.edu/fedora/objects/nur:01572/datastreams/pdf/content |publisher = [[Cornell University Law Library]] / [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] Research and Analysis Branch |date = 27 August 1945 |access-date = 27 October 2018|archive-date = 27 October 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181027143001/http://hydrastg.library.cornell.edu/fedora/objects/nur:01572/datastreams/pdf/content |url-status = dead}}</ref> He oversaw the politicisation of cultural groups from the [[Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer]] "right down to the chessplayers' club", and set up a number of other politicised associations.

He introduced measures to combat resistance, and when there was a widespread strike in [[Amsterdam]], [[Arnhem]] and [[Hilversum]] in May 1943, special [[summary court-martial]] procedures were brought in, and a collective fine of 18 million [[guilder]]s was imposed. During the occupation, Seyss-Inquart authorized about 800 executions, although some reports put the total at over 1,500. These included executions under the so-called "Hostage Law", the killing of political prisoners who were close to being liberated{{clarify|date=May 2020}}, the [[Putten raid]], and the reprisal executions of 117 Dutchmen for the attack on SS and Police Leader [[Hanns Albin Rauter]]. Although the majority of Seyss-Inquart's powers were transferred to the military commander in the Netherlands and the [[Gestapo]] in July 1944, he remained a force to be reckoned with. It is thought he met with [[Haj Amin al-Husseini]], an exiled leader of Palestinian Arabs, [[Grand Mufti of Jerusalem]], somewhere in Germany in 1943.<ref>{{cite web |title=Never-before-seen Photos of Palestinian Mufti With Hitler Ties Visiting Nazi Germany |date=15 June 2017 |last=Aderet |first=Ofer |work=[[Haaretz]] |publication-place=Tel Aviv, Israel |publisher=Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd (Haaretz Group) |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/MAGAZINE-revealed-photos-of-palestinian-mufti-visiting-nazi-germany-1.5483980 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209054357/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/MAGAZINE-revealed-photos-of-palestinian-mufti-visiting-nazi-germany-1.5483980 |archive-date=9 February 2018 }}</ref>

There were three [[concentration camp]]s in the Netherlands: the smaller [[Herzogenbusch concentration camp|KZ Herzogenbusch]] near [[Vught]], [[Amersfoort concentration camp|Kamp Amersfoort]] near [[Amersfoort]], and [[Westerbork transit camp]] (a "Jewish assembly camp"); there were a number of other camps variously controlled by the military, the police, the SS, or Seyss-Inquart's administration. These included a "voluntary labour recruitment" camp at [[Ommen]] ([[Kamp Erika|Camp Erika]]). In total around 530,000 Dutch civilians were forced to work for the Germans, of whom 250,000 were sent to factories in Germany. There was an unsuccessful attempt by Seyss-Inquart to send only workers aged 21 to 23 to Germany, and he refused demands in 1944 for a further 250,000 Dutch workers and in that year sent only 12,000 people.

[[File:Voorwerpen die Arthur Seyß-Inquart ridiculiseren.jpg|thumb|Objects [[ridicule|ridiculing]] Seyss-Inquart, including a cigarette extinguisher made of coins adding up to 6{{frac|1|4}} cents. Zes-en-een-kwart (six-and-a-quarter) was a commonly used [[nickname]] for Seyss-Inquart. The quarter also refers to his crippled leg.]]

Seyss-Inquart was an unwavering [[anti-Semite]]; within a few months of his arrival in the Netherlands, he took measures to remove Jews from the government, the press and leading positions in industry. Anti-Jewish measures intensified after 1941: approximately 140,000 Jews were registered, a "ghetto" was created in Amsterdam and a transit camp was set up at [[Westerbork concentration camp|Westerbork]]. In February 1941, 600 Jews were sent to [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]], a concentration camp located within Germany's borders, and to [[Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp|Mauthausen]], located in Upper Austria. Later, the Dutch Jews were sent to [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]], the notorious complex operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. As Allied forces approached in September 1944, the remaining Jews at Westerbork were removed to [[Theresienstadt concentration camp|Theresienstadt]], the SS-established concentration camp/ghetto in the Nazi German-occupied region of Czechoslovakia. Of the 140,000 registered, only 30,000 [[History of the Jews in the Netherlands#The Holocaust|Dutch Jews]] survived the war.

When the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] advanced into the Netherlands in late 1944, the Nazi regime had attempted to enact a [[scorched earth]] policy, and some docks and harbours were destroyed. Seyss-Inquart, however, was in agreement with Armaments Minister [[Albert Speer]] over the futility of such actions, and with the open connivance of many military commanders, they greatly limited the implementation of the scorched-earth orders.<ref name=Judseyss /> 

At the very end of the Dutch "[[Dutch famine of 1944|hunger winter]]" in April 1945, Seyss-Inquart was with difficulty persuaded by the Allies to allow airplanes to [[Operations Manna and Chowhound|drop food for the starving Dutch civilians of the occupied north-west of the country]]. Although he knew the war was lost, Seyss-Inquart did not want to surrender.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/civaff/ch28.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216141746/http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/civaff/ch28.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 December 2008 |work=United States Army in World War II: Civil Affairs: Soldiers Become Governors|title= Chapter XXVIII: Piecemeal Liberation of the Netherlands Amid Serious Civilian Distress |author1=Harry L. Coles |author2=Albert K. Weinberg |publisher=[[U.S. Army Center of Military History]] |year=1964 |access-date=27 October 2018}}. Cf. also [[Dwight Eisenhower]], ''[[Crusade in Europe]]'', London: Heinemann, 1949 (third printing), p. 455</ref>

Before Hitler committed suicide in April 1945, he named a new government headed by Grand Admiral [[Karl Dönitz]] in his [[last will and testament of Adolf Hitler|last will and testament]], in which Seyss-Inquart replaced [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]], who had long since fallen out of favour, as Foreign Minister. It was a token of the high regard Hitler felt for his Austrian comrade, at a time when he was rapidly disowning or being abandoned by so many of his other key lieutenants. Unsurprisingly, at such a late stage in the war, Seyss-Inquart failed to achieve anything in his new office.

He remained in his posts until 5 May 1945, when, after a meeting with Dönitz to confirm his rescission of the scorched earth orders, he was arrested on the [[Elbbrücken (Hamburg)|Elbe Bridge]] in [[Hamburg]] by two soldiers of the [[Royal Welch Fusiliers]], one of whom was Norman Miller (birth name: Norbert Mueller), a German Jew from Nuremberg who had escaped to Britain at the age of 15 on a ''[[Kindertransport]]''.<ref>The Flash (A Fortnightly Edition Published by The Royal Welch Fusiliers), 10 December 1945, Front Page</ref>  The Anglo-Dutch art dealer [[Edward Speelman]] was also involved in Seyss-Inquart's arrest.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Speelman, Edward Joseph (Oral history)|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80012225|access-date=28 January 2022|website=Imperial War Museums|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Tom|title=Max J. Friedländers bevrijdende zomer van 1945|url=https://rkd.nl/nl/over-het-rkd/actueel/nieuws/838-max-j-friedlanders-bevrijdende-zomer-van-1945|access-date=28 January 2022|website=RKD Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis|language=nl|quote=Niet minder opgetogen was hij over de ontvangst van de Engelse uitgave van zijn boek Von Kunst und Kennerschaft uit handen van de Engelse kunsthandelaar Edward Speelman. Het manuscript, dat door Bruno Cassirer stiekem mee naar Engeland was genomen en daar in 1942 als On Art and Connoisseurship was uitgegeven, kreeg Friedländer nu voor het eerst onder ogen. Wat de overhandiging extra bijzonder maakte, was het feit dat Speelman, die tijdens de oorlog in het Britse leger had gediend, een belangrijke rol had gespeeld bij de arrestatie van Arthur Seyss-Inquart, de voormalige Rijkscommissaris van het bezette Nederland.}}</ref>

== Nuremberg trials ==
[[File:Dead arthurseyssinquart.jpg|thumb|right|Seyss-Inquart's body after execution]]
At the [[Nuremberg trials]], Seyss-Inquart was defended by Gustav Steinbauer and faced four charges: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war crimes; and crimes against humanity.

During the trial, [[Gustave Gilbert]], an American army psychologist, was allowed to examine the Nazi leaders who were tried at Nuremberg for war crimes. Among other tests, a German version of the [[Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale|Wechsler-Bellevue]] [[IQ test]] was administered. Arthur Seyss-Inquart scored 141, the second highest among the defendants, behind [[Hjalmar Schacht]].

In his final statement, Seyss-Inquart denied knowledge of various war crimes including the shooting of hostages, and said that while he had moral objections to the deportation of Jews, there must sometimes be justifications for mass evacuations, and pointed to the [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|Allies forcibly resettling millions of Germans after the war]]. He added that his "conscience was untroubled" as he improved the conditions of the Dutch people while [[Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood|Commissioner]]. Seyss-Inquart concluded by saying, "My last word is the principle by which I have always acted and to which I will adhere to my last breath: I believe in Germany."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Final statement Arthur Seyss-Inquart |url=https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/4571/Final-statement-Arthur-Seyss-Inquart.htm |access-date=2 October 2018 |website=[[TracesOfWar.com]] |publisher=[[STIWOT]] |language=nl}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=June 2025}}

Seyss-Inquart was acquitted of conspiracy, but convicted on all other counts and sentenced to death by hanging. The final judgment against him cited his involvement in harsh suppression of Nazi opponents and atrocities against the Jews during all his billets, but particularly stressed his reign of terror in the Netherlands. It was these atrocities that sent him to the gallows.

Upon hearing of his death sentence, Seyss-Inquart was fatalistic: "Death by hanging... well, in view of the whole situation, I never expected anything different. It's all right."<ref>[[G. M. Gilbert]], ''Nuremberg Diary'' (1947), Farrar Straus, page 433.</ref>

Before his execution, Seyss-Inquart returned to the [[Catholic Church]], receiving absolution in the sacrament of [[Sacrament of Penance (Catholic Church)|confession]] from [[prison chaplain]] Father Bruno Spitzl.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last= Doino |first= William Jr. |url=https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-saint-who-captivated-the-secular-world/|title=The saint who captivated the secular world|date=3 August 2017 |magazine=[[Catholic Herald]] }}</ref>

Seyss-Inquart was hanged in Nuremberg Prison on 16 October 1946, at the age of 54, together with nine other Nuremberg defendants. He was the last to mount the scaffold, and his [[last words]] were the following: "I hope that this execution is the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War and that the lesson taken from this world war will be that peace and understanding should exist between peoples. I believe in Germany."

His body, with those of the other nine executed men and that of [[Hermann Göring]] (who had committed suicide the previous day), was cremated at the [[Ostfriedhof (Munich)|Ostfriedhof]] in [[Munich]], and their ashes were scattered into the River [[Isar]].<ref>{{citation
  |title=Ein Glücksfall der Geschichte
  |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-39916258.html
  |author=Thomas Darnstädt
  |work=[[Der Spiegel]]
  |year=2005
  |volume=14
  |issue=14
  |series=13 September
  |pages=128
  |language=de
}}</ref>{{sfn|Manvell|2011|p=393}}{{sfn|Overy|2001|p=205}}
{{-}}

== Cultural references ==
In [[Doris Orgel]]'s children's novel, ''The Devil in Vienna'', the narrator refers to Seyss-Inquart’s rise as she observes the changing political atmosphere in her Vienna.  In [[Otto Preminger]]'s movie ''[[The Cardinal]]'', Seyss-Inquart is played by [[Erik Frey]].

In the manga [[Hellsing]] (and its anime adaptation Hellsing Ultimate) the Major names one of his Zeppelins for Seyss-Inquart.

== See also ==
* [[Register of SS-Leaders in general’s rank#List SS-Obergruppenführer|List of SS-Obergruppenführer]]
*[[Nazi plunder]]
*[[The Holocaust in the Netherlands]]
*[[Kajetan Mühlmann]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{NDB|24|302|303|Seyss-Inquart, Arthur|Dieter A. Binder|118764934}}
* {{ÖBL|12|213|214|Seyss-Inquart Arthur|Dieter A. Binder}}
* Graf, Wolfgang: ''Österreichische SS-Generäle. Himmlers verlässliche Vasallen.'' Hermagoras-Verlag, Klagenfurt/Ljubljana/Wien 2012, {{ISBN|978-3-7086-0578-4}}.
* Koll, Johannes: ''Arthur Seyß-Inquart und die deutsche Besatzungspolitik in den Niederlanden (1940–1945)''. Böhlau, Wien [u.&nbsp;a.] 2015, {{ISBN|978-3-205-79660-2}}.
* Koll, Johannes: ''From the Habsburg Empire to the Third Reich: Arthur Seyß-Inquart and National Socialism.'' In: [[Günter Bischof]], Fritz Plasser, Eva Maltschnig (Hrsg.): ''Austrian Lives'' (=&nbsp;Contemporary Austrian Studies, Bd. 21). University of New Orleans Press/Innsbruck University Press, New Orleans/Innsbruck 2012, S. 123–146, {{ISBN|978-3-902811-61-5}}.
* {{cite book | last=Manvell | first=Roger | title=Goering : the rise and fall of the notorious Nazi leader | publisher=Frontline Books | location=London | year=2011 | isbn=978-1-61608-109-6 | oclc=787859366}}
* {{cite book | last = Overy | first = Richard J. | author-link = Richard Overy | title = Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945 | year = 2001 | publisher = Viking | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-670-03008-8 | url = https://archive.org/details/interrogationsna00rich }}
* Zebhauser, Helmuth: ''Alpinismus im Hitlerstaat. Gedanken, Erinnerungen, Dokumente.'' Dokumente des Alpinismus, Band 1. Rother, München 1998, {{ISBN|3-7633-8102-3}}.

== External links ==
{{commons category|Arthur Seyß-Inquart}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{ReichstagDB|118764934}}
* [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007127 Arthur Seyss-Inquart at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]
* {{IMDb name|0786896}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/016404}}

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{{s-ttl|title=[[Ministry of Defence (Austria)|Minister of Defense of Austria]]|years=11 March 1938–13 March 1938}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Chancellor of Austria]]|years=11 March 1938–13 March 1938}}
{{s-vac|next=[[Karl Renner]]|reason=[[Anschluss|Annexation by Nazi Germany]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title= ''[[Reichsstatthalter]]'' of [[Austria within Nazi Germany|Austria]]|years=15 March 1938–1 May 1939}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Josef Bürckel]]}}
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{{s-ttl|title= Deputy Governor-General of the [[General Government|General Government of Occupied Poland]]|years=12 October 1939–18 May 1940}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Josef Bühler]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Alexander von Falkenhausen]]<br>(as Military Governor)}}
{{s-ttl|title= [[Reichskommissariat Niederlande|''Reichskommissar'' of the Netherlands]]|years=29 May 1940–7 May 1945}}
{{s-aft|after= Office abolished}}
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)#Ministers of Foreign Affairs (1919–1945)|''Reichsminister'' of Foreign Affairs]]|years=30 April 1945–2 May 1945}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk]]}}
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{{Holocaust Poland}}
{{AustrianChancellors}}
{{Main Nuremberg defendants}}
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{{Hitler's Cabinet}}{{Fascism}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyss-Inquart, Arthur}}
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