The position of Gauleiter in Schleswig-Holstein was held by Hinrich Lohse throughout the history of the Gau, with the exception of a short period in 1932 when the office was held by Joachim Meyer-Quade.[3][4] From 1941 onward Lohse was in charge of the Reichskommissariat Ostland where he was responsible for the implementation of Nazi Germanization policies built on the foundations of the Generalplan Ost: the killing of almost all Jews, Romani people and Communists and the oppression of the local population were its necessary corollaries.[5] He was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1948 but released in 1951, an extradition request by the Soviet Union having been refused, and died in 1964.[6]