Erich Koch (19 June 1896 – 12 November 1986) was a Gauleiter of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in East Prussia from 1 October 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was Chief of Civil Administration (Chef der Zivilverwaltung) of Bezirk Bialystok. During this period, he was also the Reichskommissar in Reichskommissariat Ukraine from September 1941 until August 1944 and in Reichskommissariat Ostland from September 1944. After the Second World War, Koch stood trial in Poland and was convicted in 1959 of war crimes and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison and Koch died of natural causes in his cell at the Barczewo prison on 12 November 1986. Early life and First World War Koch was born in Elberfeld, today part of Wuppertal, as the son of foreman Gustav Adolf Koch (1862 – 1932) and his wife Henriette, née Matthes (1863 – 1939). In World War I he served as a soldier from 1915 to the end of the war in 1918. He later fought as a member of Freikorps Rossbach in Upper Silesia. A skilled trader, Koch joined the railway service as an aspirant for the middle level of the civil service. He was dismissed from this position in 1926 for anti-Weimar republic activities. Rise in the Nazi Party Koch joined the NSDAP in 1922 (member #90). From 1922 he worked in various party positions in the NSDAP Gau Ruhr, including as Business Manager. During the Occupation of the Ruhr, he was a member of Albert Leo Schlageter's group and was imprisoned several times by the French authorities. He belonged to the left wing of the party and was a supporter of the faction led by Gregor Strasser. He became a member of the National Socialist Working Association, a short-lived group of north and northwest German Gaue, organized and led by Strasser, which unsuccessfully sought to amend the Party program. It was dissolved in 1926 following the Bamberg Conference. On 22 March 1926, Koch became a Bezirksleiter of the NSDAP in Essen and, in October of that year, succeeded Joseph Goebbels as Business Manager of Großgau Ruhr. In 1927, he succeeded Viktor Lutze as the Deputy Gauleiter there. Gauleiter of East Prussia In October 1928 Koch became Gauleiter of the Province of East Prussia and the leader of the NSDAP faction in the provincial diet. From September 1930 he was a member of