Willy Schmelcher

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Willy Schmelcher (25 October 1894 – 15 February 1974) was a German Nazi Party politician and a high-ranking police and SS official. He was born in Eppingen and trained as a civil engineer. He fought in World War I as a combat engineer, was captured by the British in 1918, and earned the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. After the war he studied at the Technical University of Stuttgart and worked as a construction engineer.

Schmelcher joined the Nazi Party and the SA in 1928, leading the Nazi group in Baden until 1930. He joined the SS in 1930 and later held important SS and SD posts in various cities. He served as Polizeipräsident (chief of police) in Saarbrücken from 1935 to 1942 and later headed police in Metz.

During World War II he held the position of SS and Police Leader in occupied Ukrainian territories, including Chernihiv and Zhytomyr, from 1941 to 1943. From 1943 to 1945 he was in charge of the Technische Nothilfe, a civil defense unit within the Ordnungspolizei. He was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer in 1943 and later became the Higher SS and Police Leader Warthe in late 1944.

Schmelcher was a member of the Reichstag from 1933 to 1945. After the war he was interned, underwent denazification, and worked in the Saarland civil defense department from 1954 to 1962. He died in Saarbrücken in 1974.