Otto-Heinrich Drechsler (1 April 1895 – 5 May 1945) was the
General Commissioner of Latvia for the Nazi Germany's occupation regime
(Reichskommissariat Ostland) during World War II. In this capacity, he played a
role in setting up the Riga ghetto and was implicated in the extermination of
the Latvian Jews. Throughout the time that Drechsler was in Latvia, large
numbers of massacres, particularly of Jews, were carried out by the Germans,
together with substantial assistance from Latvian collaborators. In addition,
the Jews of Latvia were confined to ghettos, which facilitated their
enslavement and murder. As early as July 1941, Drechsler was informed, by his
subordinate Gebietskommissar Alnor, of the massacres of the Jews in
Ventspils.[5] By October 1941, Heinrich Himmler developed a plan (later
abandoned) for establishing, near Riga, an extermination camp similar to those
later developed for Operation Reinhard, the secretive Nazi plan to mass-murder
most Polish Jews and Gypsies in the occupied Poland. Jews from Germany, Austria
and Czechoslovakia (the so-called "Reich
Jews") were to
be deported to this camp and then murdered. In late October, Himmler informed
Lohse and Drechsler of this plan.[4] Also in October 1941, Drechsler received
another report from Alnor, this one concerning the ongoing massacres of the
Jews in Liepāja.[5] In autumn 1941 Drechsler was closely involved in setting up
the Riga ghetto as a confinement zone for Jews.[5] Historian Ezergailis states
that Drechsler may have been present at the largest massacre, at Rumbula, on 30
November 1941.[5] The great majority of the victims at Rumbula were from the
Riga ghetto. He committed suicide on 5 May 1945, after being captured by the
British forces.
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