Richard Wendler (22 January 1898 – 24 August 1972) was a high-ranking Nazi official during World War II. During the occupation of Poland, he was the Governor of new District Lublin in the General Government, in charge of Lublin concentration camp and the creation of the Częstochowa Ghetto, among others. Before his deployment to Poland, he was the mayor of the city Hof between 1933 and 1941 and became an SS-Gruppenführer in 1942 during the murderous Operation Reinhard. Wendler's sister was married to a brother of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler Biography Wendler was born the son of a border official, in southeast Bavaria, near the border with Austria. He attended elementary school in Bad Reichenhall and the humanist Ludwigsgymnasium in Munich. Wendler was a soldier during the First World War, reaching the rank of Unteroffizier. From the spring of 1919, he was a member of the Freikorps and participated in the fight against the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 and the suppression of the Ruhr Uprising in 1920. He studied jurisprudence and political science from 1918 to 1922 at the University of Munich, where he received his doctorate of jurisprudence. From 1924, he worked as general counsel in Stuttgart, and completed his studies with his second Staatsexamen in 1925. Until 1927, he was the Counsel for Industry (Justitiar in der Industrie) and was a practicing lawyer in Deggendorf. His sister Mathilde (called Hilde) married Gebhard Ludwig Himmler, the older brother of the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in 1926. Wendler, who founded the local NSDAP group in Deggendorf in 1927, joined the Nazi Party (membership number 93,116) and the SA on July 1, 1928. In early April 1933, as a Sturmbannführer with the SA, he joined the SS (membership number 36,050). He was appointed to the Bavarian Political Police by Himmler. In April 1934, he rose to SS-Obersturmbannführer, to SS-Standartenführer in April 1935, and SS-Gruppenführer in 1941. In early August 1941, he was promoted to Generalmajor der Polizei und SS-Brigadeführer. On 21 July 1943, he was appointed SS-Gruppenführer und Generalleutnant der Polizei. On October 6, 1933, he was elected Lord Mayor of Hof. He was involved in the demolition of the Jewish Synagogue in Hof, during Kristallnacht in November 1938. Wendler resigned from the office of mayor in 1941. After the beginning of World War II, Wendler was the city commissioner in Kielce. In September 1939, he served as Stadtkommisasar in Kielce until