appointed Reichskommissar for Pricing, an important position for managing the economy under Göring's Four Year Plan. On 9 November 1937, he was promoted to SA-Obergruppenführer. On the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe on 1 September 1939, he was named Reich Defense Commissioner for Wehrkreis (Military District) VIII, which included not only Gau Silesia, but the eastern sections of Reichsgau Sudetenland. It was headquartered in Breslau. In this position, he had responsibility for civil defense and evacuation measures, as well as administration of wartime rationing and suppression of black market activity. After the conquest of Poland on 8 October 1939, Germany annexed large parts of the country, with East Upper Silesia being made part of Wagner's Gau of Silesia. Two days later, Wagner conferred with Adolf Eichmann who outlined the ruthless Nisko Plan to deport an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 Jews to the Lublin District. Wagner agreed to cooperate with the plan and the first deportations began on 20 October from Kattowitz (today, Katowice). Deportations continued until early 1940, aimed at expropriating Jews and Poles, and resettling the area with Germans. On 20 April 1940 Wagner was made an Obergruppenführer in the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK). On 15 November 1940, he assumed the responsibility of Housing Commissioner for his two Gaue. Then on 15 January 1941 he was appointed Staatssekretär (State Secretary) to Göring in the Four Year Plan. Dismissal, trial and death Wagner, now at the peak of his career, had made powerful enemies, including SS Chief Heinrich Himmler and Martin Bormann, head of the Party Chancellery. In addition, his Deputy Gauleiter in Silesia, Fritz Bracht, was plotting against him. Bormann began agitating for Wagner's removal as Gauleiter of Silesia as early as December 1939, using the large increase in territory and population resulting from the annexed Polish lands to justify dividing the large Gau. Adolf Hitler at first was hesitant but was eventually persuaded. On 9 January 1941, Wagner was removed as Gauleiter of Gau Silesia and it was divided into two separate Gaue on 27 January. Bracht succeeded him in Gau Upper Silesia and Karl Hanke in Gau Lower Silesia. Wagner was also replaced as Oberpräsident, with Bracht and Hanke succeeding him in this capacity in the two new provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia. Bormann, one of the most rabidly anti-religious Nazis, opposed Wagner who was known to be a Catholic and who