Walther Kadow

Who was Walther Kadow?

Walther Kadow was a German school teacher who was murdered by Rudolf Höss and accomplices in May 1923 in the forest near Parchim. Kadow was member of the rightwing German Völkisch Freedom Party, and was suspected of having betrayed German nationalist Albert Leo Schlageter to the French occupation authorities in the Ruhr. Schlageter was executed by the French and was later regarded as a martyr by the Nazis. Höss received a ten-year sentence for the revenge killing, while his accomplice, Martin Bormann who was former student of Kadow, was sentenced to one year in prison for his part in the murder.

Bormann would later become Head of the Nazi Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler. Höss later became commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp.