Josef Grohé

Josef Grohé
Grohé in Nazi uniform
Gauleiter of Cologne
In office 1931–1945
Leader	Adolf Hitler
Reichskommissar for Belgium and Northern France
In office 19 July 1944 – December 1944
Appointed by	Adolf Hitler
Preceded by	none (position created)
Succeeded by	none
Personal details
Born	November 6, 1902 Gemünden im Hunsrück, German Empire
Died	December 27, 1987 (85) Köln, West Germany
Political party	NSDAP

Josef Grohé (6 November 1902 - 27 December 1987), was a German Nazi Party official.

Biography

Grohé was born in Gemünden im Hunsrück as the son of a shopkeeper. He finished secondary school in 1919 and worked as a clerk in the hardware industry.

Politics and official positions

He joined the Nazi Party in 1922, and was co-founder of the Nazi organization in Cologne and founder of its newspaper, the Westdeutscher Beobachter. In 1931 he was appointed Gauleiter (regional party leader) of Cologne-Aachen, and in 1932 he was elected to both the Reichstag and the Prussian Staatsrat (State Council).

In July 1944, in addition to these posts, he was made the Reichskommissar of the newly created civilian administration in German-occupied Belgium and Northern France. From September 1944, however, the territory's liberation by the Allies begun. He was arrested by the British occupation authorities in Cologne in 1945 and imprisoned until 1950.

After the war, Grohé remained dedicated to the Nazi cause for the rest of his life.

Further reading

• Ernst Klee, Das Personen-lexikon zum Dritten Reich (Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt-am-Main, 2005), 202
• Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders Of The Nazi Party And Their Deputies, 1925-1945 (Herbert Albreacht-H. Wilhelm Huttmann)-Volume 1 by Michael D. Miller and Andreas Schulz R. James Bender Publishing, 2012.