Walter Bertsch (4 January 1900 in

Oppenweiler Oppenweiler is a town in the Rems-Murr district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History Oppenweiler merged with Reichenberg on 1 April 1938. Geography The municipality ('' Gemeinde'') of Oppenweiler is located in the Rems-Murr district of Bad ...

- 5 January 1952 in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

) was a German SS and

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

member, who served as Minister of Economy and Labour in the

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German oc ...

. Along with Bernhard Adolf he was the most powerful manager of the Protectorate economy. Bertsch favored Germanization of the economy, but not at the expense of production especially in the arms industry. As a result some Czech businessmen had the opportunity to profit, even from

Aryanization Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...

. A longtime German civil servant, Bertsch was brought to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

specifically to serve in the Protectorate government. Bertsch was a member of the

and held the rank of '' SS-Oberführer''. In 1948 he was found guilty by a Czechoslovak court of overseeing the transfer of funds from the National Bank of Czechoslovakia to the German government and sentenced to life imprisonment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertsch, Walter Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 1900 births 1952 deaths People from Rems-Murr-Kreis Nazis convicted of war crimes Nazi Party members SS personnel German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners who died in Czechoslovak detention Nazis who died in prison custody