doctor who holds the work capacity among inmates at its highest possible level ... Toward this end it is necessary that the camp doctors take a personal interest and appear on location at work sites." Before the death marches of early 1945 started, Glücks reiterated a directive from July 1944, which emphasized to camp commanders that during "emergency situations," they were to follow the instructions of the regional HSSPF (Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer) commanders. Between 250,000 and 400,000 additional people died as a result of these death marches. According to historian Leni Yahil, Glücks was "the RSHA man responsible for the entire network of concentration camps", and his authority extended to the largest and most infamous of them all, Auschwitz. From what historian Martin Broszat relates, nearly all the important matters concerning the concentration camps were "decided directly between the Inspector of Concentration Camps and the Reichsführer-SS." In January 1945, Glücks was decorated for his contributions to the Reich in managing the fifteen largest camps and the five-hundred satellite camps which employed upwards of 40,000 members of the SS. Glücks' role in the Holocaust "cannot be over-emphasized" as he, together with Pohl, oversaw the entire Nazi camp system and the persecution network it represented. Death When the WVHA offices in Berlin were destroyed by Allied bombing on 16 April 1945, the WVHA was moved to Born on Darß in Pomerania on the Baltic sea. Owing to the advances of the Red Army forces, Glücks and his wife fled to Flensburg. After the capitulation of Germany, he is believed to have committed suicide on 10 May 1945 by swallowing a capsule of potassium cyanide at the Mürwik naval base in Flensburg-Mürwik, although the lack of official records or photos gave rise to speculation about his ultimate fate. Fictional references Glücks appears as a character in the 1972 Frederick Forsyth novel The Odessa File along with its 1974 film adaptation. In the novel, which is set in 1963, he is depicted as still being alive and the head of ODESSA, which is determined to destroy the State of Israel nearly two decades after the end of World War II. See also List SS-Gruppenführer List of SS personnel Pohl Trial Notes References Further reading Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team (2009). "Richard Glucks as described by Rudolf Höss" at Holocaust Research Project.org. 1889 births 1945 suicides People from Mönchengladbach Nazi Party politicians SS-Gruppenführer