Krüger (Wilhelm Koppe also held this position from late 1943 to early 1945). Krüger's subordinate, the SS and Police Leader of Kraków was also technically senior to the Commander of Auschwitz and could issue orders concerning wartime needs. By 1942, the territory in which Auschwitz lay had been absorbed into the German state of Upper Silesia and thereafter was under geographical control of the corresponding Gauleiter. For most of the camp's later half of existence, this person was Karl Hanke, who both visited Auschwitz and had full knowledge of the camp's operation. During Hanke's tenure, the SS command of the region stayed the same, with the addition of Auschwitz now falling under the administrative realm of the Allgemeine-SS division SS-Oberabschnitt Südost. The 23rd SS-Standarte also was a General-SS counterpart to the Waffen-SS personnel of the region, many of whom were stationed at Auschwitz. As well as falling under a direct and geographical chain of command, the nature of the work at Auschwitz also had the camp coming under the sphere of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, or RSHA. Both Reinhard Heydrich and later Ernst Kaltenbrunner routinely were briefed on activities at Auschwitz through Adolf Eichmann, assigned head of RSHA Referat IV B4 (RSHA Sub-Department IV-B4), who dealt with supervising the transportation of Jews to Auschwitz. He visited the camp on several occasions. A final group which had interest in Auschwitz were the various German ministries concerned with war production, slave labor, and manpower. During the Nuremberg trials, heavy emphasis was placed on the knowledge which the civil government of Nazi Germany had of Auschwitz, which was a primary source of labor for such major firms as IG Farben. Both Fritz Sauckel and Albert Speer were directly accused of having knowledge of Auschwitz, although both denied knowing the scope of the genocide program in place there. Senior chain of command Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Supreme Commander of the SS) SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl (Commander, SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt) SS-Gruppenführer Richard Glücks (Concentration Camps Inspectorate) Lateral senior commands SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner Camp leadership and personnel The camp commander of Auschwitz, as well as the senior camp officers and non-commissioned officers, were all members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, or SS-TV. Due to a 1941 personnel directive from the SS Personalhauptamt, members of the SS-TV were also considered full members of the Waffen-SS. Such personnel were further authorized to display the Death's Head Collar Patch, indicating full