One of his first acts as state secretary was to agree a deal with SS-Brigadeführer Bruno Streckenbach whereby prisoners deemed as "antisocial" were to be removed from jails and given over to the SS to be worked to death in the Nazi concentration camps.
The area was governed by Karl Lasch from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, and by SS Brigadeführer Dr. Otto Wächter from 6 January 1942 to September 1943.
He was tried along with six other major war criminals: Generaloberst Alexander Löhr (commander-in-chief of Army Group E), Generalleutnant Josef Kübler, Hans Fortner and Fritz Neidholdt, Generalmajor Adalbert Lontschar and the SS-Brigadeführer August Schmidthuber.
Joachim Ziegler (1904-1945), SS-Brigadeführer and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves